Spring Inspirations: Butterfly Block Card

Like the contrary little minx she is, Spring teased us earlier this week with bright sunshine and warmish temperatures. Then, of course, Winter reared its dreaded head once more, blanketing the ground with snow (making me quite grumpy when I woke up and observed said snow falling once again). Yes, I know that early spring weather is never predictable and that snow at this time of year is to be expected, I still wish that once the highly anticipated first day of spring rolled around, the weather would magically warm up and stay that way until the winter solstice came round again.

To keep my spirits up while the weather fluctuates, I decided to make the brightest, most springiest card I could think of. And so, here is the butterfly block card. Here’s hoping it brightens up your day as much as it did mine.

Supplies:

• Sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” blue cardstock
• Sheet of 8 1/2” x 11” pink cardstock

Equipment:

• Paper trimmer
• Bone folder
• Pencil
• Metal-edged ruler
• Craft knife
• Small butterfly paper punch
• Glue stick
• Wax paper
• Heavy book

Directions:

1. Use the paper trimmer to cut a 5” x 10” piece of blue card stock. Hold on to the scraps to make the butterflies in step 4.

2. Fold the 5” x 10” piece of blue card stock into a 5” x 5” card with the bone folder.

3. Cut a 5” x 5” square of pink card stock with the paper trimmer.

4. Use the paper punch to make 13 blue butterflies from the scraps in step one.

5. Open the blue card and mark guidelines for making horizontal cuts 1” apart along the length of the inside left panel.

6. Use the craft knife and metal-edged ruler to cut along the guidelines from the edge of the card to the fold, creating five 1” wide horizontal strips.

7. Create guidelines for cutting the pink square of card stock into five strips. Make each strip slightly smaller than 1” wide (you’ll have a narrow strip of card stock left after you cut the strips) since you won’t be able to fit all the strips in if you leave them the full 1” width, no matter how tight you are able to make the weave. Use the guidelines to cut the pink square into five strips.

8. Close the card. Take the first strip of pink card stock and weave it into the left side of the front panel (right up against the fold) to create a checkerboard pattern with a pink square starting the pattern. Glue the strip into place.

9. Continue weaving and gluing until all the strips are in place.

10. Trim the edges of the card with the paper trimmer as needed.

11. Glue the blue butterflies on to the middle of each pink square.

12. Place the piece of wax paper on top of the closed card. Put the book on top and press until the glue is dry.

That’s all for today, folks! Have a great weekend (here’s hoping that it will be sunny and beautiful!) and I’ll see you next week.