Butterfly Templates (Free PDF Printables)

Discover the allure of nature’s artistry with these 40 butterfly templates, all free for you to download and print! The potential for these templates is bound only by your creativity, making them perfect for crafting, coloring, sewing, baking, classroom decorating, and so much more!

This collection presents a captivating assortment of butterfly templates in a variety of styles, shapes, and intended uses. It includes simplistic butterfly outlines, intricate colored butterflies, butterflies of different shapes and sizes, butterflies with floral designs, monarch butterflies, and countless others!

To use any of these free templates, you can click on any of the images or links below to open the high-resolution PDF on a new page. From there, you can freely download or print to your heart’s content!

All these PDF templates are in standard US letter size, but they also fit perfectly on A4 paper! Enjoy!

10 Craft Ideas To Do With Butterfly Templates

Butterfly templates can be used to make all sorts of wonderful crafts.

Try these top ten ideas if you’re wondering what to do.

1. Butterfly Rainbow

For this terrific classroom craft, use large, simple butterfly templates and trace the pattern onto construction paper, giving each youngster a different color.

When finished, the butterflies can be cut out and glued together to form a rainbow.

The children can sign their names or initials on their butterflies, and this beautiful decoration can brighten the classroom.

2. Make a Delightful Catcher

Use realistic, colored butterfly templates to make a lovely suncatcher-style hanging ornament.

Use templates in all the different sizes, cut them out, and attach them to a ribbon or piece of yarn, placing the largest at the top and working down through the sizes.

This unique and attractive ornament will look almost like a suncatcher when hung in the light. Embellish it with glitter to make it extra sparkly.

3. Design a Monarch Butterfly Tree

Begin this unique craft by cutting a square from ordinary styrofoam and piercing it with six to seven black or brown pipe cleaners. Bend them to make them look like tree branches.

Next, print and cut out several pages of small, elegant butterflies, stapling one to the end of each pipe cleaner.

Wrap the base of the styrofoam in green tissue paper for a one-of-a-kind butterfly tree to display anywhere.

4. Make a Butterfly Snowflake

For this fancy craft, use plain, realistic butterfly templates. Eight small or four medium butterflies are perfect for making this creative snowflake.

When they are cut out, arrange them in a circle around a square of white cardstock.

Fill the center with white and silver glitter, and use tiny white pom-poms to decorate the outer circumference of the butterfly wings.

The end result will look like a snowflake made from butterflies. Attach a piece of string or a craft stick to display this unique design anywhere.

5. A Funny Cartoon Butterfly

This easy, fun craft begins with a large, plain cartoon butterfly template. Cut it out and glue it to a background of any desired color.

Color and decorate the butterfly, then create a 3D body by rolling strips of construction paper into the shape of bottle corks.

Glue them in a vertical line up the butterfly’s body. Add two wiggle eyes and a pipe cleaner antenna to the top roll, and you have an adorable cartoon butterfly to hang on the wall.

6. Make One-of-a- Kind Pencils

Using colored, side-view, detailed butterfly templates, you can make stunning pencils.

Start by winding black pipe cleaners around the top half of the pencil. Then, glue a thick piece of yarn or cotton ribbon to the butterfly’s body.

Finally, glue the body of the butterfly template to the pipe cleaner that’s wound around the pencil. It will look as if the butterfly is clinging to it. 

These beautiful pencils can be used as gifts. Don’t forget to do this craft with colored pencils as well!

7. Butterfly Life Cycle

Start this engaging craft with a piece of poster board on which a large circle is drawn. 

Around the circle, draw images to depict the various stages of a butterfly’s life cycle, beginning with a caterpillar. Cutouts can be used for these phases if you are not a great artist.

At the circle’s end, add an elegant or realistic colored butterfly template, attaching it to a cotton ball first to make it higher than the other objects.

This will make it look as if it’s about to take flight. Hang this decorative, educational poster anywhere.

8. Unique Window Decor

For this fun craft, use simple butterfly templates in any size you like.

Decorate them by tearing off small pieces of tissue paper in various colors. Construction paper squares can also be used if you prefer.

When they are finished, use non-damaging wall putty or window-safe adhesive to place them on various window panes like sun catchers.

From a distance, they will look surprisingly real.

9. Butterfly Dreamcatcher

Making a dreamcatcher is simple: create a pattern with packing twine or embroidery thread, then attach it to a craft ring or an old embroidery hoop.

Strings of beads, paper streamers, or other craft items can be hung from the bottom of the Dreamcatcher.

At the top, attach a large, realistic, colored butterfly template using invisible glue. It will definitely steal the show wherever it’s displayed.

10. Make a Dazzling Mobile

Start this fantastic craft by tracing and cutting out two clouds from white cardstock. Make a slit in one, then slide it down over the other to form a four-sided cloud.

Using a plain, basic butterfly template, trace approximately a dozen butterflies from different colored cardstock.

Attach them beneath the cloud with an invisible thread to create an amazing mobile that depicts the clouds raining butterflies!