Sunday, June 7, 2026

Butterfly Rotating Pop Up

This is the card and gift box I put together to send to our granddaughter for her ninth birthday. As she enters her "tween-age" years, it's getting harder for us, especially as long distance grandparents to keep up with the latest trends that interest her. Since I recall her telling us about her love of nature, I decided to go with a butterfly theme for her card this year.

The cute chibi girl I used for my card was paper pieced using a cutting file created from a set of printable sticker images by "Dreamy Clipart Cloud" on Etsy. She is attached to the pop up mechanism inside the card. I cut a circular window on the front of the card so she could be seen before the card is opened. The "celebrate" sentiment was done as a print and cut and passed through a Minc machine with toner reactive foil. Butterflies were cut from pearlescent, glitter and foil cardstock using Lawn Fawn "Butterfly Border" and Spellbinders "Delicate Butterflies" die sets.

Inside the card, I installed a rotating pop up mechanism for some fun pop up and movement.



As the card is opened, butterflies and the Happy Birthday sentiment rotate to the left, and butterflies behind the sentiment rotate to the right. This is the third card I've made using this mechanism, which has been a little tricky for me to learn. Guess the old adage, "Third time's a charm" held true for me; I think I've finally learned how to make this mechanism work smoothly without too much trouble. Yay!

When creating the cut file for this chibi girl, I made a small change to the original image by having her make the Korean finger heart sign, with the hope that it would catch our granddaughter's attention. Apparently it did, as she told her mom, "That's me!"


Since it has become increasingly difficult for us to keep up with the latest trends she's interested in, we decided to send a cash gift to our granddaughter to spend as she pleases. But of course, I had to make it fun! So I made a butterfly shaped box. Before gluing the box closed, I placed a roll of bills which were taped together end to end into the box with end of the first bill threaded through a slit that was cut on the back panel. Then I used double stick tape to adhere a piece of cardstock a little longer than the slit to the first bill so it wouldn't fall back into the box. 
A little sad that we aren't able to celebrate birthdays with our granddaughter in person, but still having fun thinking up creative ways to keep her entertained.              
 

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