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Paper Pros Challenge - Spring!

Hello, long lost friends! 

It's time for another Paper Pros Challenge and the theme this month was set by Karen Aicken, who challenged us to make a card celebrating Spring, using  blooms and/or butterflies.

I decided to get a jump on Mother's Day with a Butterfly Double Pivot Card for my Mom.

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This technique is simple, and you can watch three different videos on how to do it on this post: Double Pivot Cards. The videos will show how to create the accordion card first, then die cut each half. For my card, I was using a thick cardstock so I decided to die cut each card separately and then join them together. I'll explain how I did it.

First, I cut an 8.5" x 11" piece of pink cardstock in half, making two 5.5" x 8.5" strips. On each strip I scored at 4" and then at 7.5", creating a card with a 4" panel, a 3.5" panel, and a leftover 1" strip (the tab). I arranged the strips so one had a right-facing tab and one had a left-facing tab and then added 3" x 4.5" pieces of patterned paper (SEI Vanilla Sunshine) to each panel, using a temporary removable tape. I die cut the Butterfly Pivot Card into each card, making sure I measured the distance from the die to the top of the card so I could duplicate it for the other side. After die cutting I removed the patterned paper rectangles and snipped out the butterflies from the patterned paper. This left me with two pieces from each rectangle - one to fit above the butterfly and one to fit below the butterfly. I glued the patterned paper pieces onto the cards, creating the patterned background.

Step1

To join the two Pivot Cards I first trimmed off the side panel from one of the cards (either one - doesn't matter) and then used the other card's tab to join the two, trimming the tab as necessary to avoid the butterfly area. To join the pivoting butterflies themselves, each one had a small tip of the wing that had crossed the fold, so it was just a matter of choosing one to be the tab and trimming the other one away. Here's a view of the back of the card, showing the connections.

Step2

The Butterfly Pivot Card comes with decorator butterfly dies, so I used those with the leftover patterned paper and a piece of glitter paper from my stash to decorate the card. I incorporated a few smaller butterflies from the Butterfly Accessory die set, which perfectly coordinates.

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A Double Pivot Card is impressive, but easy. (My favorite combination!) For the front of the card I kept it very simple with just a couple of strips of patterned paper and a ribbon.

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Remember that Pop it Ups dies are only available in 2017 or until they're gone, whichever comes first, and while I am not ruling out the option of a re-release on certain styles, I can pretty well say for certain that the Butterfly Pivot Card will not be one of those re-released styles. So I guess I'm saying . . .  get it if you want it! I'll include some Amazon links below, or you can always find great deals on my dies at It's Cheaper than Therapy.

Want to check out the other great cards by the Paper Pros? Remember this is a no-stress, no-committment challenge, so not everyone participates. The links to the other Paper Pros blogs are in the sidebar at the left. 

Happy Crafting!

image from karenburniston.typepad.com