The Butterfly Conservatory

On my trip to London last year I made certain to time my visit with the butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum. I made it just in time, squeezing in on the afternoon of the very last day. It was magic. Then again, how could walking among butterflies not be?!

This project, is a sort of homage to that memory. A pretty space filled with flowers and fluttery things.

This project may take time, but it uses  only a handful of supplies. The structure is a Small Conservatory. That's it. I haven't added any fancy embellishments (but don't let that stop you from adding some dramatic flair!)

Inside I've added miniature wooden pots packed with faux flowers and leaves. They aren't properly scaled and they don't even look like any particular sort of 'real' plants, but they give a nice floral feel and provide lots of texture.

Those paper butterflies inside are all from my English Fairy Garden collage sheet. I printed it out at 50% to scale the butterflies down to a more appropriate size.

I haven't glued any of the pots in place so that I can move those potted pretties around, and even change up the Small Conservatory completely if I want to!

Besides paint and glue, the last supply I used was a plain sheet of cardboard. I've used strips to create the 'wood' floor and baseboards inside the conservatory.

Outside, again, I used layered strips of plain card to create a subtle architectural element to the bottom of the structure. I also used the card on the roof of the building to hide the slot and tabs that hold the piece together.

And that's it! Just those few little bits to make something quite pretty. If you'd like to see how I put this project together, follow along with this walkthrough video.

And here is your supply list:
Small Conservatory

Miniature plant pots
Faux flowers
English Fairy Garden collage sheet
Sheet of cardstock
White acrylic paint
Glue (white and hot glue)

Happy making!