Etui (Exploding Box) Gift for Mom's Birthday

In January at a Saturday art group, a friend taught us how to make the templates for Etui or Exploding Boxes (the inspiration came from seeing a box made by Janet Ghio). I took my template and decided to use it to create something for my mom. Last week was her birthday. Every night for about a week, I worked on this box. Because she wanted to spend the day at the Sophia M. Sacks butterfly house in St. Louis, especially since March is Blue Morpho month, I wanted a butterfly theme for the box. I went looking for inspiration on the internet and came across this really fun box with bees. I loved how her bees were flying and I wanted to figure out how to do this in my box with the butterflies. I'm so glad I got it to work, although my plastic supports are more visible. I wrote something I love about my mom on each flap. Here are some photos of the final box:

I was surprised the gesso and paint on each layer made it so rubbery, and so I had to add another layer of cardstock to make it thicker. I also would not attach the plastic in two places, rather I'd just have one piece of plastic for each butterfly. It was hard to glue down all the other pieces when they were in the way.

All photos copyright Katrina Kouba Boles

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