DIY Tea Stained Prairie Butterflies

Prairie Butterflies are a layered butterfly SVG design that can be styled in so many ways—from soft, tea-stained neutrals to vibrant color combinations for wall decor, party styling, and hanging installations. Whether you prefer a natural vintage look or something more playful, these butterflies are designed to adapt to your project.

Looking for the download? Get the Prairie Butterflies SVG on Etsy or in my Blog Shop.

This design includes three butterfly variations, shown below:

Here are a few ways to style these butterflies before we move into the step-by-step tutorial below:

Now let’s make them. Follow the step-by-step guide below to create your own Prairie Butterflies.

Prairie Butterflies Tutorial (Assembly + Optional Tea-Staining)

Prefer to watch the tea-staining step? You can see it in the video below.

Want to skip tea-staining? Jump ahead to Step 3 for assembly.

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Materials:

Prairie Butterfly Stickers SVG
Cutting Machine
White Cardstock Paper
Double Sided Tape with Lining
X-Acto Knife or any sharp point
Scissors
Small Paint Brush
Tea bag (Orange Pekoe, any brand)
Boiling Water
Sticky Putty or Restickable Tabs (for adhering to walls)

I recommend getting all your butterflies cut before you tea stain them. This way you won’t end up having to make the tea more than once.

Step 1: Cut your butterflies

Cut out all the butterflies. There should be 3 butterflies, each with two parts. The top row in the image below are the parts you will be tea-staining.

Step 2: Brush tea onto top butterflies

Once you have all your butterflies cut, boil some water to make your tea. I used a Red Rose Orange Pekoe tea bag. I added only about a quarter cup of water to get a concentrated color. You only need to steep the tea bag for a few seconds. Press all the water out with a spoon to get more tea color out of it, or you can also leave the tea bag in there while you stain your butterflies, as I did.

Then with your paint brush, brush the tea lightly onto the butterflies. If you miss any spots, don’t worry because you can catch it when you do your second round of staining. Below is what the butterflies look like after one staining.

Allow the butterflies to dry for about 20 minutes, then apply the second staining. You can apply the tea in splotches, or you can apply it more uniformly. I like a messy, uneven look so I did it in random splotches. I do two layers of staining but you can experiment with how dark you want your staining to be.

And this is how they look when dry:

You’ll notice that as your butterflies dry, the wings will curl up at the ends. Just uncurl them with your fingers if you want them to lay more flat.

Step 3: Apply tape to butterflies

After your butterflies have dried, cut out a small piece of double-sided tape and stick it onto the spines of the unstained butterfly pieces EXCEPT for Butterfly 3, as you can see in the images below.

With Butterfly 3, the stained piece is larger than the back unstained piece, and you’ll see when you go to stick them together that it’s easier to put the tape on the larger stained piece. If you’re making these in colored paper you can also follow along with these same steps. For Butterfly 3, turn the stained piece over and stick the tape onto the butterfly spine.

Step 4: Assemble butterflies

Butterflies 1 and 2 are assembled the same way, with the tea-stained pieces on top like  below. Position your stained piece on top of the bottom piece so that it’s centered. When you have them aligned, hold down one side with your hand and pry open the top piece to reveal the tape underneath (right side of images below). Then with an x-acto knife or any sharp object, reach in and remove the tape lining. Press the top piece down firmly to stick.

For Butterfly 3, center the unstained piece onto the stained piece like on the left side of the image below. As with the other butterflies, while holding it down in place on one side, pry open the unstained piece to reveal the tape below and remove the lining.

Step 5: Fold Wings

Fold each butterfly wing by placing your thumbnail in the fold line and then folding up with your other hand.

That’s it! To stick these butterflies to your walls, you can use sticky putty or any mounting tape. I like to use 3M removable mounting tabs.

When finished your butterflies will look like this:

Also want to try a different version? These butterflies can be transformed into a tea-stained hanging design—and it’s included in your download. See the full tutorial here.

I hope you enjoyed this project! You can find more ideas and daily inspiration on Instagram and Pinterest @chaivdesign.