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Monday, June 21, 2010

From Daisies to Sunflowers....


....In three easy steps..... That is, if you have this particular plant in your yard.

Tessie and I went out to pick dried up flowers from this daisy like bush this morning. I can't remember the name. If any of you know what it is, I would love to have that info. Every April and May they are covered in the little yellow daisies. In June they turn into mini sunflowers. Magic....Kind of....





OK. So I had a little help from some paint and paper. It's still magic. The other dried stems in the plastic box to the right of Tessie are some weeds that also grow here in AZ. When the dried up flower stalks are painted, they make wonderful delphiniums or stocks, depending on what color you paint them and what kind of leaves are added. Just look around when you take a walk. You never know what you will find.
This is one of the simplest ways to make flowers that I know. No punching out petals or gluing them together, as far at the flowers themselves.

I painted the petals inside and out, yellow. Then I painted the stems green. To add the leaves, I punched out several sizes of hearts from green drawing paper. I embossed the leaves with a stylus. Then I twisted fine covered wire around the stem of the sunflower. I glued the leaves to the stems and instant(almost) sunflowers.

I have a couple of other unrelated photos to add. Seth brought over his new camera yesterday. It is a fancy one and takes unbelievable photos. April caught Mookie sticking out his tongue at the camera. As you can see, he is feeling much better and made me leave him some shelf space in the workroom.

This last one is of the passion vine in the backyard. These flowers are spectacular this time of year.

I am going to leave you now. I need to finish the sunflowers.

See you tomorrow.

13 comments:

Kathi said...

Lovely little sunflowers! Just wondering if they stay together? I have lots of weeds in my yard that might make mini flowers... I'll have to go see?

Debbie said...

They look wonderful Casey. I love real Sunflowers, they always have cheery faces. xxx

The Old Maid said...

LOve the sunflowers! Thank you for sharing this with us:)

Caseymini said...

Kathi, I have some of these that have been around for at least 10 years. They are just like anything else. It all depends on how you take care of them. The dried up heads are very hard and sturdy.

Matxalen said...

Casey, very beautiful sunflowers, I also do it with
some blue daisies. Your daisies
call "Euryops pectinatus"

Eliza said...

Very cool. THe few dried plants I've used from our yard were so brittle they didn't last long at all. Do you have any tricks for drying/preserving plants, or does it just depend on the plant?

Caseymini said...

Mataxlen,thanks for the name. I knew that it began with an E.

Eliza, it depends on the plant. I try to get the sturdy ones. The paint helps preserve and protect them and Sometimes I spray the more fragile ones with matte fixative. That seems to help. I don't do that with the sunflowers because they are pretty tough to beging with.

Sans! said...

Wanted to ask how you preserve the flowers and see that you have already replied, Casey. I used dried flowers too but not long enough to know how long they will last :). I also spray this thing call "Preserve It" after I paint the flowers with "Design Master" paints for plants.

miniacollection said...

I love your sunflowers and the photos of Tessie.
Thank you for your comment on my blog.
Geneviève

Sara said...

Hey Casey, I was just wondering what has been going on in Tessie's house.

I love the sunflowers by the way. :)

Caseymini said...

Marie, not a lot is happening at Tessie's. We have been cleaning out the workroom. We will get back to it soon. I need to get a couple of light fixtures before I can do much more.

Katie said...

Love Love that picture of Mookie....so sassy!!

And that flower there at the end! Incredible...looks like neon lights surrounding it! Beautiful!

Katie

Daisy said...

I have those same flowers and never thought to use any part of them for minis! Thanks for sharing!

Here in Florida, those daisy-like-bushes are called....
Bush Daisies! :)