Origami Butterfly Printable Templates

In today’s post: Learn how to make a gorgeous origami butterfly with these printable templates. Just choose your template, print it out, color it in, and follow the video to fold it into a butterfly. Great craft for kids!

Origami Butterfly Tutorial

I love origami. Ok, that’s not totally true. I love easy origami that I can do without having to think too hard. I just find it really calming to do something with my hands that doesn’t require very much brain power, like origami or coloring. So I combined both of those things into today’s easy project: print and color origami butterfly templates.

Find 20 more easy origami projects here

Templates

I think these templates are pretty fun! Just print one out and color in the four wing triangles. Then you can trim around the square, and follow the video below to fold it into a butterfly. There are two different templates:

Click here for the first Butterfly template (the blue/purple butterfly you see in this post)

Click here for the Monarch Butterfly template (orange butterfly in this post)

These templates were made using clipart from Litke Designs Co, with permission. The templates are sized to print on 8.5×11 paper and look like this:

Origami Butterfly Video

Watch this video to learn how to fold an origami butterfly:

Tips for Success

You’ll find detailed instructions below, but here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Be sure to print these templates on plain printer paper, NOT heavy weight paper like cardstock.
• Help kids to cut out the square template carefully. The finished butterflies will look better if both the cuts and folds are done evenly.
• If you’d like your origami butterfly to “sit” on flowers in a vase, how glue a toothpick, wood skewer, or floral wire onto the back of the butterfly after it’s folded.

How to Make an Origami Butterfly

Fold in Half Both Ways

Begin by cutting out the square template on the outer lines, and then color in the wings as desired. Place the square on the table in front of you with the black triangle pointing toward you, and fold it in half from right to left and crease. Open it back up and fold it from bottom to top, again creasing the fold line. Then flip the square over and you’ll see the fold lines in a cross.

Create a Triangle

Now you’ll fold the paper diagonally. First bring the bottom right corner up to the top left corner and crease well. Open it back up and repeat the other way. Now if you pick the paper up and hold it with the wings facing up, you’ll find that you can push the right and left sides in to meet in the middle. Flatten down that fold and you’ll have a triangle that has a black tip, and again you’ll see the black triangle pointing toward you. 

Fold Up the Wings

Now grab the bottom right corner, the top layer only. Fold that corner up to the top center corner, but not quite all the way – offset it by about half an inch, as shown in the first photo below. You will be seeing the colored wing at this point. Crease. Repeat with the left side. Then flip the paper over so you are seeing the white side again, with the top corner pointing down toward you now.

Fold the Head Over

Lift that corner – the top layer only – and bring it up. You’ll see a black triangle at the top of that corner, which is the butterfly’s head. Match the bottom edge of that triangle to the top straight edge of the butterfly. Crease the fold you are making but only across the middle – you’ll see you cannot crease it all the way to each side because it causes the paper to fold up a little bit there (second photo below). Now pick up the paper and fold the black triangle over the top folded edge and crease.

Fold in Half to Finish

You’re almost done! Now flip the butterfly over so you can see the colored side again and bring the wings to meet each other, making one last crease down the center of the butterfly. Open it back up and your origami butterfly is complete.