Spring has Sprung

....Well, I hope so, anyway.  I really don't like the Winter!

It was my turn to set the challenge for The Daring Cardmakers this week and I've gone with a Spring theme - though with the twist of adding a bit of spring, bounce, swing, pop up or other movement to the cards!

* * * * * Celebrating Spring! * * * * *
I'd like you to  have some fun and celebrate all things Spring with cards featuring something that springs or bounces - 'virtual gold stars' if you can get a real moving element in there too.
There ere are some fantastic ideas over on the blog to get you thinking, and we've added a note to each one to tell you more

It's been ages since I made a "card in a box", and I thought this would be a good excuse to make another one - I love the way they fold flat enough to fit in an envelope and then pop out into a box shape with the surprise of the contents spilling out.  I wanted to use wire curled into springs for whatever I put inside the 'box', so  there was just deciding what that would be.
Although initially it was going to be flowers, I'd been using a lovely butterfly stencil during the week (see precious post), and I wasn't ready to put that away ..... plus, I have new butterfly dies to play with, so I made this:

Folded up it looks like this, with a belly band to keep it closed

Info

First step was to tape the 12x12 stencil to an A4 sheet of white card and add the colours - I wanted to keep the shades nice and Spring-like this time, but still add depth with different tones. 

My last project with this stencil used a cream  base and more grungy colours [HERE]

Stencil; Prima: Finnabair; 12x12 Butterflies
Inks, applied with bunched-up pieces of dry baby wipe
various VersaCraft, VersaMagic and Colourbox chalk inks

The card was cut down to size and inked on the reverse side with a couple of shades of blue Distress Inks  

Next I made the 'box', folding and creasing to create the shape and cutting along the lines for the flaps.  For this box card, I left one crease uncut so that 2 of the 'faces' remained connected and the card then displayed on a more diagonal aspect. I added three spacer pieces of card to the inside  for adding the wired butterflies - but two would have been enough, really!

The clouds were hand-cut and adhered in place - but only at one end of each cloud so they could also be made to stand away from the base card

The Butterflies are all die cut from scraps of Bazzill card.  I attached the wires, curling one end concealing it with a matching punched circle of card to make it as 'safe' as possible - I hate the thought of people hurting themselves on sharp wire ends

The other end of each wire was also curled in and then secured by wrapping in a paper strip before forming the spirals and gluing in place onto the spacer bars inside the box

Extra butterflies were added to the two flaps, and a layered version to the belly band.

Butterfly dies: Memory Box, Spellbinders, 

Apple Blossom (from CraftStashUK), Ultimate Crafts 

and the tiny one from DieNamics

(Yes, I have quite a collection!)

Border Punch for belly band from EK Success

The fiddly bit is attaching the wires to the butterflies and then to the spacer bars.  They have a naughty tendency to twist themselves together in that way threads and wires get into knots without any help from humans.  Otherwise there's nothing complicated about this sort of card.  Using wires means you can rearrange the butterflies (or whatever) in a way that you can't when acrylic strips are used to fix in place, so you can amuse yourself for ages rearranging everything!

Anyway, that's it for today, I hope you like my card and will feel inspired to join in with The Daring Cardmakers and make a card with a bit of a spring or bounce, twirl or wobble about it to share with us this week!