Sizzix Happy Birthday Owl Card & Action Wobble Spring Tutorial

 I absolutely loved this Sizzix Thinlits Owl die set when I first saw it, and it sat on my secret Pinterest Wish List for a couple of weeks before I succumbed! I also loved the Little B 'Block Out' die set, which I used for the 'Happy Birthday' on this card. I'd never heard of the Little B company before, but the storage and dies are both great! This set comes with 18 different word dies, which you can position anywhere!

I made this simple card, with papers from We R Memory Keepers Chalkboard 6x6 pad, and the owl is attached with a homemade Action Wobble Spring.

I made some of the owl elements stick out even more with adhesive foam pads.

I've seen on a few cards now, a way of attaching bigger embellishments, or card centre pieces with something called an Action Wobble Spring. It's pretty self explanatory - the whole part attached with one of these bobs around a bit, and looks cute! I had a look on the internet for some, and they are quite pricey (here in the UK at least), so I tried making my own.

Here's the stuff I used...

I used 26 gauge wire (because that's just what I happened to have), and I wrapped it round a Sharpie pen about 3 times, and cut it off with scissors.

 

 I used a circle punch to cut out two quite stiff card stock circles, and sellotaped the bottom half a curl of wire onto one of them.

Then I put the other circle on top of the wire, and put another bit of sellotape over the other end of the wire (again, about half a curl). I kind of slid the sellotape in, whilst keeping the two circles approximately lined up like this.

Here's my finished springy thing! It just needs glueing to your card, plus embellishment.

It works pretty well! My owl jiggles around very nicely when the card is moved slightly, and the wire seems to be holding its shape well. Also, because the wire is so lightwieght, the sellotape seems more than sufficient to keep it in place.

Here's a very similar card, just made with different papers (from American Crafts Dear Lizzy 4th & Frolic 6x6 pad.)

...and look at that cool shadow!!

Some of the products used: