Doily Butterfly Gift Bags

Pretty pleated butterflies - made with Tonic Studios Doily Dies.

Two lattice square doilies to make the butterfly. Fine pleats (top) or wide pleats (above).

Lacy butterflies here - made from square and circle dies.

These butterfly gift bags are fun, easy, and quick to make. The butterflies are crafted with the new Tonic Studios dies. 

The top style, with the lattice butterfly, is made using the Doily Square Die 226E. I used origami paper for easy folding and sharp creases. You need two pieces of paper for each butterfly. I chose a plain colour for the top wings, and a gradient paper for the bottom wings (to create a lovely hombre effect). 

My die-cutting device was a Cuttlebug. My plate stack, from bottom up:
A plate, C plate, die (ridges/cut side up), origami paper (right side up), shim, B plate. My shim was a folded piece of 160gsm cardstock. You can cut up to three pieces of origami paper at a time. I like to have a die-cutting session to make a stash of doilies.

Here is how to pleat and prepare the butterfly wings:

Hold each doily on the diagonal. Trim the sides of the gradient doily as shown. Crease each doily in half vertically, open out. Now, fold each doily in half horizontally, in half again, and in half again, and in half once more. Crease the folds. Open out the doily. You have divided it into sixteen horizontal folds. Accordion-pleat the folds of each doily, creasing as you go. 

Pleat, stack, and wrap the wings.

Now, take a strip of 2mm (1/16in) quilling paper and cut it in half. Fold one piece in half for the antennae. The remaining piece is the centre wrap. Stack the wings on top of each other, as shown. Wrap the quilling paper around the centre wing fold, catching in the antennae strip at the top. Glue the end of the wrap with tacky glue applied with a cocktail stick.

 With a quilling tool, twirl a loose coil at each strip end.

Time to spread those butterfly wings! The butterfly is now complete.
Here are some butterfly variations:

Above, lattice butterfly with wide pleats: divide into eighths instead of sixteenths.

This butterfly was made using Tonic Studios Daisy Square Die (225E) for the top wings and Tonic Studios Daisy Circle Die (221E) for the bottom wings. When using the daisy dies, fold them into eighths, never sixteenths. Above, the top daisy square is held on the diagonal - this creates pointy wings.

Above, the top daisy square is held horizontally, creating chunkier,
arcing wings.

Here is the pattern template for the gift bag and tags:

The bag design is a modified pillow box - pillow base, handle top.
I used American Crafts Cardstock for the bags. Cut out the bag and score the fold lines with an embossing tool. A tip: cut out an eye-shaped template out of scrap card like so:

Use this as a guide to mark the curve at the base of the bag. Crease all the bag folds - a bone folder is handy. Seal the bag side flap with either tacky glue or double-sided tape. Pop a sticky dot onto the underside of the bag front base fold - I used a 3D Dodz from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L. Shape the curve of the base flaps with your thumb, and seal the flap shut. You can seal the handle flap with another Dodz, once the contents are in the bag. The butterfly is also fixed onto the bag front with strategically-placed Dodz.

The butterfly bags are ideal for parties - fill them with sweets and/or favours. The tags can serve as place cards. The bags are also ideal gift packaging for jewellery and small objects.