Explosion Box Pt 2

Today I've made real progress on the explosion box which I am making for my friend's 80th birthday. This picture shows how far I've got:

This is the outer box as it will be when "exploded," i.e. when you take the lid off. The sides fall flat, exposing different designs on each flap. Each of these flaps has a piece of card stock glued round 3 sides, with the top being open - I am going to make a tiny card to go in each one, probably with pop-ups or other moveable features, and probably a little greeting on each. I am in the process of decorating each of these flaps. The outside will have panels adhered - I have ordered a Spellbinders Nestabilities set of rectangles which I hope will come in time, so that each panel will have an embossed frame.

This next picture shows the central feature, which is a pop-up 3-D sunflower, like a jack-in-a-box. I've had a lot of trouble with this. Originally I intended using a metal spring to make it pop up, but couldn't find anything suitable. Eventually a google search on how to make a jack-in-a-box produced the folded paper mechanism. The trouble is, to make it pop up high enough, it is far too bendy, and the sunflower flops over. To counteract this, I've enclosed the bottom of it in a square tube made of card stock and decorated with drawn and applied leaves. It still flops a bit and I'm not sure what do do about that, if anything. It may be better when the whole thing is assembled.

The final two shots show the sunflower temporarily in place.

Attached inside the outer box will be another box, set at 45 degrees to the outer one, so that when its sides fall outwards, they will occupy the spaces between the outer box's flaps. They will of course be smaller. They will also have little compartments for tiny greetings cards. Surrounding the central sunflower will be several acetate strips cut from an Easter egg pack, on the end of which small paper flowers will be attached. These will be springy, and will dance about as the box explodes open.

I am planning to decorate the top of the lid with some embossing, and some paper flowers. I found a lovely pack of flattish pink and mauve paper flowers with a few leaves, slightly embossed and very pretty, in the card-making shop the other day, and I'm also planning to make one bigger flower, and these will decorate one corner, and incorporate a small tag with my friend's name on it. I am hoping the weight of the flowers will keep the lid on, against the pressure of the pop-up sunflower underneath - if not I shall embed some flat metal washers in the design somewhere hidden out of sight to give it some weight. I may also put some in the base to give the whole card enough weight so that the lid can be lifted without having to hold the box, thus allowing it to explode freely. Not having made one before, I'm not yet sure how it's going to perform.

I'll try and put on some more photos as I make further progress.