This Sunflower Stands Alone...

Sunflower card

Inspiration comes from so many places.  As I was reading to a group of children about flowers, this idea started to form. We had talked a bit about sunflowers and I couldn't wait to get home to try making my version of one.  I wanted to highlight just one flower instead of a bunch of flowers.  I cut individual petals from scrap pieces of yellow cardstock, walnut inked around the edges and then layered them in a circle. The center of the flower is simply a punched circle that I inked and added brown marker dots.  At first the stem seemed lost because the head was so "heavy", so I built up the layers behind it with cardstock and in the end decided to leave a bit of the black cardstock at the edge. To make the mat, I  reached into my stash of scraps. I chose the neutral color because it  didn't compete with the colors in the sunflower. (I had created this background paper for a previous project by creating a word document with inspirational words. I printed with brown ink on the kraft or natural colored cardstock.) I had just enough for this card.  I cut it to size, rounded the corners with a corner punch and used walnut ink to distress the edges.  Choosing the color for the card base was more of a challenge.  I tried various colors but ended up with the black because it made the sunflower "pop".  I adhered the flower head with dimensional adhesive and used a liquid glue to attach the stem.  To soften the inside of the card  and provide a writing surface, I added a piece of the same neutral brown cardstock  that I had used on the mat but it didn't have any words printed on it.  again rounded the corners and inked the edges. I was happy that I was able to highlight a sunflower and that it was able to "stand alone".  I am also glad that I was able to take inspiration from a non-crafty moment, like reading to children and turn it into a creative moment.