Air Conditioning - HELP! I think I broke the furnace

Okay so here's the way it is here. My AC unit is outside just inside the wall is my furnace and the AC goes through it, coming in from the wall there is a vent, filter and then the furnace. I noticed this morning walking past the digital thermostat that my filter notification was on and I went down to change it. Not quite yet awake and so I started to take out the old filter and the cardboard caught and ripped off a section that it about 6 inches long. Just then my AC kicked on...oops. By the time I reached around to flip the switch off the paper was gone. In it's place is a lovely noise kind of like a card in a bike spoke. I turned it off entirely for about 20 minutes and the paper is just gone but when I turned it on again the noise continued and I can hear it in the vent that is directly over the furnace. My question would be is this something I could fix myself or do I need a pro and would kicking the heat on cause it to kick back the other direction?

It's probably just wrapped around one of the fins on your blower wheel. Turn off the breaker to your furnace and take a flashlight and peek around in there. Otherwise the blower might need to be removed. Some are easy, some are more complicated. Turning the heat on will not help.

As tinmantu said - MAKE SURE THE CORRECT BREAKER IS OFF! You could pull a stump back where you had a hand if the blower comes on!