On their own, Kelley Simons’s butterfly explosion boxes might be enough to brighten someone’s day, but she decided to stock them with gifts as well.

Customers can customise, or choose from a selection of items. As for the person getting the present, the unexpected thrill comes from the handful of “butterflies” that pop out once the box is opened.

Ms Simons, who works with the Department of Planning, was looking to start a business of her own when she stumbled on the idea for her company, Genzai.

“I always wanted to do something, I just didn't know which way I wanted to go,” she said. “For a while I wanted to do a clothing store for children. If you go to town and you’re looking for little boys’ clothes, it's very hard to find any. So at first I thought of opening my own boutique but then a couple of others popped up.

“I thought of making candles but then I saw there were a good handful of them and it probably was not the right way to go.”

She found a company called Send A Cake on TikTok .

“They send little miniature Bundt cakes inside of the butterfly boxes and I thought that would be a nice concept, because nobody was actually doing that [here].”

Genzai opened for business in February, in time for Valentine’s Day.

“I actually sold out quickly,” she said. “You can pick whatever gifts you want because it's fully customisable. My customers can put inside whatever they want – if they just want to put candy, if they want to put a piece of jewellery, they can do that; you can include photographs of your loved one.

“And so once you open the box, once you take the top off, the sides fall down and the butterflies fly out.”

The boxes are specially designed so that the sides fall down once the lid is taken off. At the same time, the wind up, rubber band-powered “butterflies” fly out.

There is a range in prices based on the contents selected. With Valentine’s Day in mind, Ms Simons offered items that she “would want to receive” for Genzai’s launch four months ago.

“I didn't want anything that any other person has done. No one gives out customised wine glasses, glasses customised for whatever your loved one wants. I offered a bottle of moscato but if the person doesn't drink, I will offset and put in a non-alcoholic beverage.

“I also offer different tiers,” Ms Simons said. “I just did a birthday box. [The customer] wanted a little clutch purse, a cup, a massive eternal flower with a necklace in it and he also got a little bottle of Moscato. I put it all together in a basket but he wanted the eternal flower with the necklace inside the box and then the inside of the box was filled with candy and artificial roses so when you take the lid off the butterflies kind of stream out.”

For items selected from those she has on hand, the turnaround time between ordering and receiving a box is about two days.

“But if I custom order something for you from away, I ask if people give me a week to ten days because it all depends on how long it takes to get here.”

The response so far has “been great” and has led Ms Simons to branch out into areas she hadn’t previously considered.

“I've actually even been asked to do some party bags, which I don't really do because [my focus is] my butterfly box, but people have said they really liked the service; that the quality was top notch for my Valentine’s Day boxes.”

The butterflies need to be set a certain way or they will not “pop out of the box”. At the moment, she is only offering monarch butterflies although the choice can vary depending on the occasion.

“For Valentine’s Day I had butterflies that said ‘I love you’ and ‘Will you be my Valentine?’ and then there are also some if you wanted to do a gender reveal. They come in blue and pink.”

For more information: genzaibda.com; genzaibda@gmail.com; @genzaibda on Instagram