Restoring Sunflowers

This time of year I love to decorate around the house with fresh sunflowers.  The only problem is that the yellow petals dry up and fall off way to soon and I am left with just the dried brown centers.

So I had the idea of restoring the yellow petals using yellow crepe paper streamers.

I began by accordion folding the streams a little wider than I wanted my finished petals.

Next I cut out the shape of the petal leaving the top a little wider at the point.

I ended up needing 20 petals for this sunflower.  I twisted the top of each petal into a point.

Then I folded the bottom edge with a pleat in the center.

Using hot glue I glued each petal in place overlapping slightly.

first petal glued in place

Here is the sunflower half finished.

And here it is with all the petals glued in place.  I really looks like a fresh sunflower again.  I have a whole bouquet of these with stems still attached drying.  Once dry I can add new petals and arrange in a vase for Fall.

I placed this one in a Fall birdcage arraignment with a pumpkin and a faux book page feather I made last year.

It is really hard to tell this isn't a fresh sunflower, perfect for Fall decorating.

Here is an entire bouquet with it's new yellow petals.

Happy Crafting!

Late Summer Sunflowers

I thought it would be fun to do a series of related paintings for late Summer and Fall.

The first group of 3 paintings are
 of sunflowers.  All the canvases are 8" x8".

I began by making 3 different sketches of sunflowers up close.

I next started filling in the backgrounds.

I used a mix of two blues for the background.

Two yellows for the petals.

And green for the leaves, brown for the stems and seeds.

One final touch was to outline parts of the petals with liquid gold for a little sheen.

Happy Painting!