Pill Bottle Butterflies, A.k.a. "Bottleflies"

"Bottleflies" are a simple way to reuse empty pill bottles--by turning them into butterflies! With easily swappable faces, and a no-glue construction, Bottleflies even come with a convenient loop for hanging display! Make a whole kaleidescope of pill bottle butterflies with ease and tie them to your living room fan! Or don't, for safety concerns. Maybe just hang them in the corner of your room, or as a baby mobile. Something safer, perhaps. But imagine walking into your living room and it's just a massive swarm of butterflies circling at rapid speeds...

Required:

1. One pill bottle (of any size)
2. 12+ inches of craft wire (or any wire that you can easily bend)
3. One cereal box (minimum)
4. Scissors
5. A Pencil and/or Pen
6. Coloring utensils (up to you! I suggest crayons for the shiny, waxy effect)

Optional:

1. Ruler, to follow the guide exactly
2. Fishing line for hanging display
3. Beads for extra antenna decoration

Additional Resources:

1. All about Butterflies (Wikepedia)
2. North American Butterfly Association (NABA)
3. Ranger Rick's "Zoom in on Butterflies" May 2023 Issue
4. butterlyportraits.com (For References)
5. Howard County Bird Club Butterfly Photo Gallery (For References)

>>You'll need: a pill bottle, a cereal box, and a pencil.

You've selected your pill bottle of choice, so now flatten your cereal box of choice and determine how big you want the wings to be. This can be as simple as drawing a couple big ovals around your bottle in pencil. This is just make sure you have the scaling right before you start adding any details in Step 2.

Butterflies have tiny bodies compared to their wings. Therfore, the proportions we are looking for here aren't necessarily realistic proportions, but rather preferential proportions. For example, I quite enjoy when things have a massive body but tiny wings (like an elephant with butterfly wings) and vice versa (like a worm with a bush plane strapped to its back). So this step is fully up to what you think will look good, and making sure it is decided before you spend the majority of your time decorating the wings.

>>You'll need: the cereal box from Step 1, a pencil, and coloring utensils.

Determine which wing design you are going to draw. Lucky for us, there are a lot, and I mean a LOT of professional-grade photographs of butterflies available online for reference (they're really pretty). I've linked a couple in the "Additional Resources" in the Supplies list above. For this example, I will be referencing the "Spicebush Swallowtail" Photographed by Bonnie Ott in 2009. Of course, you can also just wing it and make your own design!

Either draw the full wings outline, or half of the wings in pencil on the cereal box. At this point, you could fold the first half over and cut out both at the same time, resulting in symmetrical wings. Or, you could cut the first half out and trace it twice onto a new box, allowing for easier coloring. Or you could finish drawing the full wings, not caring about perfect symmetry. Or you could give up--but don't! You've got this!

It's really up to you whether you want to decorate your wings before or after cutting them out, but I would recommend before. Then, you don't have to place anything under the edges to catch your markers or crayons, and you can more freely color up to the edge of your lines (just make sure you can still see the outlilne for Step 3: Cut Out Your Wings)

Once you've settled on an outline for your wings, decorate them! There are any number of ways to do so, but I like to use crayons for their somewhat shiny effect. I tend to follow my reference closely, but feel free to let loose with your decorations! Gradiate! Colorify! Bedazzle!

>>You'll need: the cereal box wings from Step 2, and scissors.

Again, this could be done before fully decorating your wings to make for more symmetrical results, but makes for an easier coloring time if done after.

Cut out your wings, using your scissors. Both wings should be connected to make Step 4: Attach Your Bottle easier.

>>You'll need: the cereal box wings from Step 3, a pill bottle, a pencil, and craft wire.

To keep assembly glueless, we use what I like to call, "the bread tie method":

First position your pill bottle where you want it to sit on your cereal box wings. Mark two dots onto the wings on either side, just below the rim, at least a half inch apart. Stab the dots with your pencil (or a pen, as I do) to form small holes.

Second, thread your craft wire in the back of both holes, with even amounts coming through either hole.

Third, position your bottle again between the wire, and twist the wire like you would a bread tie. By doing so, you will fasten the bottle in place.

>>You'll need: what you have from Step 4, and maybe beads.

As you can see, following the attachment of your bottle to your wings, there should be some excess wire. Well, that wire is actually not excess: it's your antennae!

Twist the wire in a fun curli-que if you like, adding beads to the ends or just leaving it plain. You can make surprisingly complex expressions with just some antennae. But you won't need to rely on only the antennae for expressions, thanks to Step 6: Add Your Expressions.

>>You'll need: what you have from Step 5, a cereal box, scissors, and coloring utensils.

Cut a small rectangle from a cereal box with scissors. Then, roll it up (brown side facing out) and place it in the pill bottle. Do you see the vision? Make sure the rectangle fits properly. For the orange pill bottle I'm using, it comes out to around 2.5" x 4.5". You can cut as many of these as you want, because you can easily swap them out whenever you want to change the bottlefly's expression.

Decorate each face! Add happy, sad, angry, scared, and any number of expressions. What about a bombastic side eye? a sly grin? a worried glance? It's as easy as sliding out the old face to put in the new! You can store a good number of faces inside the bottle, and take out the roll to re-order them whenever you see fit.

>>You'll need: fishing line and scissors (probably... unless you want to use your teeth)

One unexpected perk of the bread tie method is the little loop you have in the back, perfect for tying some fishing line to! Tie some on and then hang it from a tree for pictures, or a fixture for indoor decoration! Perfect for patios and sunrooms, and sure to spin in a breeze (or on a ceiling fan...).

Above is the base version of the Bottlefly. I hope you enjoy using the bread tie method--it really brought the whole project together. I love how it has a double-use for the antennae, too!

Of course, the base version has a lot of room for expansion. After all, there are some really complex butterflies out there! And with four wings, not just two! (Most have the four... two just makes this craft simpler).

Here are some ideas for making your Bottleflies even more complex:

1. Add layers to your detailing, gluing on precise veins and spots. (This can be really helpful for those polka dot designs: just hole punch a bunch of copy paper and glue them on!)
2. Experiment with gradients, other patterns, and different colors. Oh, and glitter! Lots of glitter...
3. Print out some of your friends and family members' faces to use as the expressions. See how long it takes for them to notice!
4. Try adding four wings, instead of just two.
5. Why stop at four? Add eight! Turn it into an even more fantastical creature!
6. Bored of butterflies, try another winged creature! Make it a dragon, a bird, a biplane... the limit is your imagination (and your resources, let's be honest).

Can't wait to see what you create!

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This Instructable was written by Joshua Steely as part of The Crate of Curious Things Summer 2026 "Project Orange" Programming.

Learn more about the Crate at crateofcuriousthings.org