Many people love gifts made by hand. A sunflower can become an unusual decoration for a bag, a hairpin or a brooch. The flower can be made from any type of material.
What is needed to create a sunflower
The advantage of such decorations is that they can be made from any material. The most important thing when choosing a material is to match the natural color of the sunflower. In addition, the materials for the flower are inexpensive and can be found in any store or even at home.
The following list of materials from which these flowers are most often made can be given:
- corrugated paper;
- felt;
- natural materials;
- salt dough;
- plasticine;
- cereals;
- foamiran;
- satin ribbons
Making a Sunflower from Paper
You can make a sunflower out of paper with your children.
To make a paper flower with your own hands, you need to prepare:
- cardboard, colored paper;
- scissors;
- glue;
- pencil;
- ruler;
- sunflower stencil.
For ease of work, you can prepare sunflower stencils in advance. The paper should be of 3 colors: green (for the stem), yellow and dark brown (for the flower).
The cardboard is used as a base on which the flower will be glued, so its color is not so important.
- Trace the sunflower stencil with a pencil and cut it out.
- Glue the stem and leaves onto the cardboard.
- Cut out the yellow part of the flower and place it on the green part.
- Cut out a circle from white or yellow, cut out a yellow square and draw lines on it, 1 cm wide.
- Cut the strips. To make it easier to weave, you need to leave 1 cm short of the top.
- Cut out 9 strips of black paper, also 1 cm wide.
- Weave black stripes into the yellow stripes one by one. A checkerboard pattern must be observed.
- Glue the circle and the woven square together. Trim the edges of the square, leaving a 1 cm margin.
- Fold this excess and glue it to the circle from the inside.
- Glue the braid onto the flower.
From corrugated paper
A sunflower can also be made with your own hands from corrugated paper.
To make a flower from such paper, you should prepare:
- 3 colors of corrugated paper: yellow, brown and green;
- scissors and a ruler;
- wire;
- glue gun;
- ribbon for florists.
The sunflower is made according to the following instructions:
- For the middle of the flower, cut 2 strips 3 and 4 cm wide and stretch them lengthwise.
- Fold a 3 cm wide strip lengthwise. Make frequent cuts along the fold, trying not to extend them to the opposite edge.
- Wind this strip onto the floral wire, coating it with hot glue at the beginning of the work.
- Take a strip 4 cm wide, fold it in half lengthwise, and glue it to the circle in the center of the sunflower.
- For the petals, cut a 1x7 cm strip. Stretch the rectangle in width.
- Fold lengthwise and cut out a petal.
- Stretch, twist the end with scissors. Do this as many times as needed for the sunflower.
- Forming 1 row, glue the petals onto the brown core.
- Add rows of petals until you get a voluminous sunflower.
To make a stem, you should:
- Cut a strip of toilet paper, apply hot glue to the end, and begin winding the wire to form the stem of the sunflower.
- Cut a sheet of paper and glue a thin wire to its end.
- Wrap the cutting with florist's tape. Do the same with the stem.
- Secure the end of the ribbon with hot glue.
Made of felt
DIY sunflower is a flower that is easy to make from felt.
To do this you will need 3 colors of felt, a glue gun, scissors and a ruler.
- Cut a felt strip 22 cm long and 2 cm wide. Make frequent cuts on it, without cutting it completely.
- Cut 2 more of these strips. If you make more, the sunflower can be bigger and fluffier.
- Twist these strips into a spiral.
- Cut out 3 x 3 and 4.5 x 3.5 cm squares. Make petals out of them by folding them in half and giving them the shape of petals.
- Unfold the petals and bend them along the edges. Glue with a drop of glue on both sides.
- Glue the small petals to the bottom of the middle.
- Start gluing the large petals.
From natural materials
You can also create a sunflower from natural materials.
For this you will need:
- real sunflower seeds;
- walnut shell;
- cardboard;
- gouache or acrylic paints to paint the shell;
- glue gun;
- plasticine
- plastic green flower base.
A DIY sunflower is made in accordance with the following steps:
- Cut a circle out of cardboard.
- Paint the shell.
- Place the shell on the circle so that it fits completely. Glue it with a glue gun.
- Cover the circle with plasticine so that the seeds can stick to it.
- Fill the circle with seeds so that there are no gaps.
- Glue the base of the flower and the sunflower.
- Glue the stem and leaves to the base of the flower.
From salt dough
Salt dough is a material that can also be used to make flowers. A product made from such dough does not need to be baked, it will dry in the open air, so you can work with salt dough both in class and at home.
To make a sunflower from dough you will need:
- Salt;
- Flour;
- A circle on which the sunflower will be attached, for example a disk;
- Satin ribbons;
- Sunflower seeds;
- Brush and gouache;
- Wooden sticks;
- Varnish for decoration.
Preparation steps:
- For salted dough, mix 2 cups of flour, a cup of salt and 250 g of water. For strength, you can add PVA glue. The resulting dough can be placed in the refrigerator for an hour.
- Thread satin ribbons through the disks.
- Roll the dough into a sausage, flatten it, form a petal and make veins with a thin stick.
- Using water, glue the petals onto the disk.
- To make the sunflower core, add grey or black gouache to the dough and mix.
- Form a flat cake from the colored dough and glue it to the center of the disk.
- Glue the seeds onto the dough.
- Wait until the dough dries and start painting the petals.
- To prevent the paint from washing off or fading, cover the finished work with varnish.
From plasticine
Do-it-yourself sunflower is a flower that can be made from plasticine. Schoolchildren and preschoolers love to sculpt from plasticine, so children often make flowers during classes.
To do this you will need:
- yellow plasticine for petals;
- green and dark brown plasticine for the stem and middle;
- wire for stem
- spatula for cutting pieces of plasticine.
You can start sculpting a sunflower from plasticine in the following way:
- Make balls and roll them into flat cakes. Draw a net on them that looks like sunflower seeds.
- Roll the plasticine into a stick and flatten it so that when cut the pieces look like a drop.
- Flatten the cut pieces and make them look like petals.
- Start gluing the petals to the back of the center. Try to glue them so that the flower is voluminous, so that some of the petals bend inward and some bend outward.
- Make a base for the flower from green plasticine in the shape of a cup.
- Glue the flower and the base together.
- From wire and green plasticine, mold a stem, slightly bending the upper part. Connect the buds and stems.
- Glue the leaves to the stem.
From cereals
A sunflower can be created from both cereals and seeds. You can take cereals that match the color of the petals, or you can take corn seeds.
You will also need glue and a sheet of cardboard onto which the applique will be glued.
- Draw a sunflower on a piece of paper or trace it using a stencil.
- Glue the seeds into the middle, apply glue and scatter the seeds.
- Spread glue on the petals and sprinkle with corn grits.
DIY Sunflower from scrap materials
Sunflowers can be made not only from cereals, dough or paper, but also from ribbons and foamiran. Such flowers can become a decoration for a hair clip or a bag.
Sunflower made of satin ribbons
The technique of making a flower from ribbons is also called kanzashi.
For this work you will need:
- satin ribbon in green and orange colors;
- felt base;
- satin cord for the center;
- ruler, tweezers, scissors;
- glue.
You can make a kanzashi flower according to the following instructions:
- Cut the ribbon into pieces, fold each piece at a 90 degree angle, and then roll so that the edges of the petal form an acute angle.
- Make sure that the bottom edges of the ribbons match.
- Form 2 folds on each petal, melt the edge with a lighter. Start gluing the petals to the felt base.
- Also glue the 2nd and 3rd rows.
- Make a sepal from green ribbon and glue it to the flower.
Sunflower from foamiran
Foamiran is a material from which you can make dense sunflowers that look like real flowers.
To work you will need:
- foamiran 3 colors: yellow, green and black;
- wire for florists;
- Moment glue;
- scissors;
- paper sheet for pattern;
- yellow acrylic paint;
- sponge;
- iron;
- toothpick;
- several shades of pastel.
To get started, you need to:
- Cut 2 strips of black foamiran. Cut two strips into fringe.
- Cut 10 cm of wire and make a small hook.
- Heat the iron, compact the middle by heating it on the iron.
- Glue black foamiran to the wire, making several turns.
- Cut out a petal template from paper, and then use it to cut out the required number of petals from foamiran.
- To make the petals more natural, you can print them on a special form.
- Glue the ends of the petals.
- Glue the petals to the core, keeping an equal distance.
- Make sepals from green foamiran, having first cut out a template from paper.
- Glue all the parts together. To make the flower more natural, you can apply a little yellow paint to the black core of the flower. It will resemble pollen.
Sunflower from bottles
The garden area can be decorated with sunflowers made from plastic bottles.
This will require materials such as:
- plastic bottles - 10 pcs., 2 of which are green and 1 is brown;
- soldering iron;
- tailor's or kitchen scissors;
- thin copper wire;
- tea saucer;
- acrylic paints;
- stationery knife;
- paint brush.
Sunflower is prepared in this way:
- Cut off the bottom and neck of the transparent bottles. Cut the cylinder lengthwise and make it into a sheet. Cut out a petal blank from it.
- Heat the end of the nail with a soldering iron and pierce the surface of the petal.
- From the top trimmings of plastic bottles, cut out the whisk blanks.
- When all the petals are cut, start making holes in them using a soldering iron.
- Cover the petals with yellow paint and let it dry.
- Cut out brown and yellow blanks, form sepals from green ones and also make holes in them.
- Place the sepals and flower together, thread the wire through the holes and tie a tight knot.
- Weld the brown core to the center of the front side of the flower using a soldering iron.
Sunflower made of beads
Parallel weaving is an easy way to create a beautiful beaded sunflower brooch.
For this you need:
- beads of black, green and yellow colors;
- beading needle;
- wire and green threads;
- scissors.
The weaving begins like this:
- To weave a petal, string beads according to the following pattern: 1 row - 2 pcs., 2 row - 3 pcs., 3 row - 4 pcs., and from the 5th row gradually reduce the number of beads. The length and width of the petal can be any.
- To weave the middle, make 2 rows of 2 beads and braid them with 2 rows of 7 beads each.
- Twist the wire, connecting the ends to each other.
- Form the sepals by making loops from wire.
- Connect all the sepals to each other.
- Make leaves using the same principle as the petals.
- Connect the petals by pulling the wire through them.
- Insert the black center inside the petals.
- Wrap the wire with green thread, add leaves.
Bouquet of sweets
A more complex, but no less interesting version of the sunflower is a flower made of candy. The petals themselves are not made of sweets, only the core consists of them.
Also, to create a flower you will need:
- corrugated paper in the color of sunflower;
- polystyrene foam;
- organza in the color of the plant;
- toothpicks;
- glue gun;
- double sided tape;
- scissors;
- sandpaper.
Manufacturing stages:
- Cut a circle-shaped base out of foam plastic and sand it.
- Cover with green paper.
- Cut a strip of yellow corrugated paper several turns long.
- Glue the strip to the base with a gun.
- Make cuts on the paper along the entire length, trying to ensure that the cuts on different turns are between each other.
- Use manicure or regular scissors to shape the paper into petals.
- Stick the candies onto double-sided tape. Try to stick them so that the ends of the wrappers are not visible.
- Glue all the prepared sweets to the base using a glue gun.
- Make folds from organza and place them between the petals and candies.
- Cut green leaves from corrugated paper. Glue them to the flower with a gun.
A DIY sunflower can be made from almost any material. The main thing is to be careful and make the artificial sunflower as similar to a real flower as possible.
Video about the craft
Master class: huge paper sunflower: