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Vintage butterfly stickers bring the quiet charm of an old natural history plate to your pages, with swallowtails, blue wings, orange wings, moths and all the small garden friends that go with them. This set runs across 17 sheets, moving from classic swallowtails and specimen box pieces through caterpillars, tropical wings, lace and ribbons, right down to dragonflies and the pale butterflies of early spring.
Print the sheets on printable sticker paper for a true peel and stick finish, or use plain paper with a glue stick if that is what you have on hand. Print at actual size rather than letting the printer scale the page, then cut around each piece leaving a thin white edge so the ink line stays protected.
Using these images: free for personal projects such as printing, coloring, cards, journals and gifts. Handmade items that include them may be sold up to 30 pieces per design. More than that is commercial use and is not permitted, and neither is selling or sharing the images themselves or passing them off as your own. Please ask before any other use.
Classic Swallowtails
Six swallowtails sit wing to wing on this sheet: a tiger swallowtail, a black swallowtail, a scarce swallowtail, a zebra swallowtail, a giant swallowtail and a spicebush swallowtail, each one its own cut-out sticker.
These tall, pointed wings suit the long edge of a planner week or the spine of a journal page, where their shape fills a narrow space nicely. If you want a quick set for a card border, this sheet alone gives you six different wings without repeating a single pattern.
A morpho, a common blue, a holly blue, a Karner blue, an azure and a silver studded blue cover this sheet in every shade of blue a garden could hold, printed as six separate stickers ready to cut.
Pair this sheet with the swallowtails above for a two-sheet spread that reads like a proper specimen case, warm oranges and tigers on one side, cool blues on the other. On sticker paper these small wings peel away cleanly, which matters for a shape this delicate.
Warm Garden Wings
A monarch, a viceroy, a gulf fritillary, a comma, a small tortoiseshell and an orange tip bring six warm, patterned wings to this sheet, each cut out as its own sticker ready for a journal or card.
Night wings get their turn here, with a luna moth, a rosy maple moth, an atlas moth, a hawk moth, a tiger moth and a cecropia moth laid out as six separate stickers.
If you have browsed moth drawing ideas before, this sheet works as the printable companion, giving you ready-made moths for a page where you would rather cut than draw. The atlas moth and cecropia moth, both large and patterned, look good given a whole corner of a spread rather than crowded next to smaller pieces.
Garden And Meadow
Each butterfly here rests on a different bloom: a rose, lavender, a daisy, a thistle, a zinnia and clover, six small scenes printed as separate stickers for a floral spring page.
These pair naturally with anything from a boho junk journal spread, since the soft palette and garden flowers sit well against dried-flower tones. Leave a thin white border when you cut so the stem lines stay crisp and do not fray at the edge.
Soft, pale wings make up this sheet: a cabbage white, a brimstone, a clouded yellow, a wood white, a marbled white and an apollo, six quiet stickers suited to a light spring palette.
Specimen Box And Study
Six pieces from an imagined naturalist’s desk sit on this sheet: a pinned butterfly, a glass dome, a specimen frame, a magnifying glass, a butterfly net and a field notebook, each its own cut-out sticker.
These are the pieces that set the whole set’s mood, so use them to label or frame your other butterfly stickers once they are stuck down. On sticker paper the fine lines of the net and the frame hold up well; on plain paper with glue, a craft knife helps with the net’s thin handle.
Dressier wings fill this sheet, each decorated rather than plain: a butterfly on a bow, a lace butterfly, a ribbon butterfly, a butterfly brooch, a butterfly with pearls and a butterfly hair clip.
These suit a handmade card for someone who likes a touch of vintage finery, or the corner of a page in a vintage junk journal. The brooch and hair clip pieces work well as small gift tag decorations too, cut close but not trimmed too tight around the pearl details.
Life Cycle
The earlier stages get their own sheet here: a striped caterpillar, a green caterpillar on a leaf, a chrysalis, a cocoon, a caterpillar on a twig and a newly hatched butterfly, six stickers in sequence.
Lay these out in order across a journal page to tell the whole life cycle in miniature, caterpillar to cocoon to open wing. A five-minute version just needs the chrysalis and the newly hatched butterfly stuck side by side on a card, which says plenty with only two pieces.
Six large, patterned wings from warmer places sit on this sheet: a birdwing, a glasswing, an owl butterfly, a postman butterfly, a malachite and a julia butterfly, each its own sticker.
Flight And Pattern
Instead of single wings, this sheet groups them: two butterflies in flight, a pair resting on a leaf, a trio of blues, a butterfly circle, a butterfly heart and a butterfly wreath, six arrangements ready to cut out.
The heart and wreath shapes work well on envelope flaps or the front of a handmade card, where a single butterfly would look a little lonely. Cut close around the circle and wreath shapes with small scissors first, then use a craft knife for any tight inner curve between the wings.
Six small vintage objects each carry a butterfly: a skeleton key, a pocket watch, a teacup, a book, a jar and a hat, printed as separate stickers for a page full of old-fashioned charm.
These pair neatly with pages built around old letters, so take a look at vintage junk journal ideas if you want more of that faded, well-loved feel to build around them. The pocket watch and teacup pieces also work nicely as small gift tag decorations on their own.
Garden Companions
Not every winged creature in the garden is a butterfly, so this sheet brings in a dragonfly, a damselfly, a ladybird, a honeybee, a bumblebee and a beetle, six separate stickers to scatter among the others.
Six patterned wings make up this sheet: a painted lady, a red admiral, a peacock butterfly, a white admiral, a purple emperor and a buckeye, each printed as its own cut-out sticker.
The peacock and purple emperor both carry strong eyespots, so give them a little breathing room on the page rather than tucking them behind another sticker. On sticker paper these bold markings stay crisp even at a small size.
Glass And Light
Six butterflies are shown kept somewhere pretty on this sheet: a mason jar, a birdcage, a lantern, under a cloche, in a locket and on a perfume bottle, each its own separate sticker.
These make a lovely small gift idea on their own, stuck onto a plain card or the cover of a little notebook for someone who collects pretty containers. If you are short on time, the jar and the cloche pieces alone make a fast, charming two-sticker gift tag.
This sheet zooms right into the wing itself: a single wing, a wing pattern circle, an eyespot wing, a scalloped wing, a lacy wing and a stained glass wing, six close-up pieces rather than whole butterflies.
These are useful fillers for the small awkward gaps left after your other stickers are placed, since a single wing or pattern circle slots into a corner that a whole butterfly never would. They also read beautifully enlarged slightly on plain paper and glued down as a focal piece on a card front.
The set closes on a quiet, familiar note with six garden regulars: a meadow brown, a ringlet, a gatekeeper, a small copper, a skipper and a speckled wood, each its own sticker.
These softer, less showy wings sit well scattered loosely across the edge of a planner page rather than lined up, the way they would drift through real long grass. For more loose, relaxed butterfly shapes to draw alongside them, watercolor butterfly designs make a good next stop.
What to Do Next
Pick two or three sheets that suit the page you are working on, print them at actual size, and start cutting: the rest of the set will be waiting whenever the next spring page needs filling.
Frequently Asked Questions
What paper works best for these vintage butterfly stickers?
Printable sticker paper, matte finish, gives a true peel and stick result that holds up on journal pages. Plain white paper with a glue stick works just as well if you prefer a flatter finish or do not have sticker paper on hand.
What printer settings should I use?
Print at actual size or 100 percent scale, never fit to page, so the wings and specimen pieces stay the size they were drawn. Choose the best or highest quality photo setting available to keep the fine grey outlines sharp.
How do I cut out the small wing details cleanly?
Leave a thin white border around each sticker rather than cutting flush to the ink line, which protects the edge from fraying. A craft knife handles tight inner curves, like between a wing and an antenna, better than scissors.
Can I use these stickers on gifts as well as journals?
Yes, these sheets work equally well on gift wrap, envelope flaps and the front of handmade cards, not just inside journals. The specimen box and lace and ribbon sheets in particular suit a dressed-up gift tag or parcel.
Which sheets pair well together on one page?
Group sheets by mood rather than mixing all 17 at once, such as the swallowtails with the blue butterflies, or the specimen box pieces with the caterpillars and cocoons. This keeps a spread feeling like one cohesive plate rather than a scattered mix.
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