Blossoms and Butterflies Pop Up Bouquet

I recently made this butterfly and floral themed birthday card and matching gift card holder to send to a very special friend.

To decorate the front of my card, I started with a top fold card and added a panel which had been cut using Poppy Stamps "Cortina Pinpoint" cover plate die. Spellbinders' "Birthday Unboxing Glimmer" hot foil and die set was used for the sentiment. Cheery Lynn retired "Small Exotic Butterflies #1", Spellbinders' "Club Blooms", and MFT's "Grassy Edges" dies were used to cut the butterflies, grass and flowers.

Teddy bear was paper pieced using "Take Time To Smell The Flowers" svg cutting file from Marjorie Ann Designs.

As the card is opened, a large, colorful bouquet of flowers and butterflies pops forward to unfold from the center of the card. 

 

Inspired by Karen Burniston Design Team Members Sandy Diller and Nicky Foden, I used the "Little Twist Panel Pop Up" die set to create this fun pop up. Instructions and helpful tips from both ladies on how to create this interactive card can be found here and here.                                                             The svg cutfile for the large shadowed "Celebrate!" sentiment was created in Make the Cut Design program using "Hello Valentica" font and cut from gold foil board.

This is actually the third card of this type that I've put together this year. I've been practicing and experimenting with different types and sizes of flowers, the arrangement of the flowers, and this time I added butterflies by attaching them onto strips of clear acetate. I'm learning that a bit a patience is required because I had to carefully open and close the card several times after adding each flower, leaf, or butterfly to ensure each addition would not create a catch point. I found I needed to trim a few petals and leaves as well as rub a few petal edges with some candle wax to get everything to open and close smoothly.

In the end, I was pleased with how the card looked and worked. Really enjoy making this style of card so you can be certain I'll continue making many different versions of this pop up card.

This time I kept the matching gift card holder simple since I wanted everything to fit nicely into a small padded envelope for mailing.