DIY Birdcage Wedding Card Holder

recently i was asked to make or procure a card holder of some sort for my cousin ben's wedding. when she asked me to do this favor my aunt said that she trusted me to do whatever i would like, and that i could in fact cover a shoe box with pretty paper and cut a hole in the top. and as a matter of fact, being a preschool teacher by trade, i am very good at covering shoe boxes with paper and making them pretty (think valentine's day boxes x 20). but that idea was not appealing to me for this wedding. i wanted to do something divine. and from the very beginning i had birdcages on the brain. i surfed the web tirelessly, looking for ideas and inspiration, and couldn't find a good diy project. i did however find the "monster box", and when i threatened to use that my cousin said "go for it!". but no. it had to be pretty. i got pretty frustrated because i couldn't figure out how to make this gorgeous card holder that was in my head. so i went shopping and looked at regular ol' white card boxes that they sell in the wedding aisles of craft stores. they were $50!!! that's crazy! they were plain white boxes with a hole in the top! it was while i was at one of these stores that i found this:

i was in love. this was the birdcage. i mean, look at that little door...could it get any cuter?

so i took it home and gave it to my husband and said "i need to put cards in this" and off came the top. he meant to salvage it so it could be put back on, but it was too fragile, and it fell into disrepair on the workbench.

so the next step was to paint the cage gold. i do not recommend painting by hand with acrylic paints.

i do however recommend using spray paint!

and then i added a few butterflies (thus making it a butterfly cage instead of a birdcage?). and voila, the card holder for the wedding is complete!