Sunflower Shadow Box

I really like how this turned out.  My original plan was to make an all paper flower pot filled with what else but paper flowers but as I was finishing assembling the flowers I realized that I didn't have anything weighted to use as a filler. Then I recalled something I had seen on several different FaceBook craft pages, crafters were making rolled flower shadow boxes and it dawned on me that I had a shadow box frame just hanging out in my craft closet.  It's a bit hard to tell in the picture but the frame is maple and blue in color. I would have preferred a solid maple box but I was going to use what I had on hand. 

Determining how to arrange the flowers and fill the frame so that it would be balanced without actually filling it 100% with flowers was slightly challenging. I also wanted it to have a little character so I scavenged through my collection of paper and came across the textured background. The background is an 8.5 x11 piece of paper that I had purchased at Joann’s a few months back as a single sheet, it's made by The Paper Company and titled Green Floral Embossed. The paper is embossed images of leaves and flowers making it a perfect fit for this project. 

I have zoomed in on the embossed paper in an attempt to give you a better visual. 

I still have a lot to learn about photography!!

To help add some dimension prior to cutting out my leaf shapes I dabbed my green cardstock with a brown ink pad. Then after cutting out my leaves I crumbled them up in my hands and reopened them, placing them on a plastic mat so that I could apply Perfect Pearls Mist. If you look closely you can see the leaves have some shine.

The flowers themselves were made using the last two 12x12 pieces of yellow card stock that I had on hand, and they just happened to be of two different shades. The stars must have been aligned as things were falling into place perfectly. As I did with the leaves I took an ink pad this time in a bronze color and dabbed the yellow paper. For the flower centers I used a two colored double sided cardstock, one side was a dark brown the other a tan. This again was done to help add dimension to the final project. 

The sentiment on the glass that was tough. I wanted something that was catchy yet positive and fitting of the recipient. When I came across design #70844 in the SIL store I knew it was the right one.  I cut this from a permanent glossy white vinyl from Vinyl Ease and adhered it to the inside of the glass. 

This was a fun project that was inspired by a friends love of sunflowers and her crazy lifestyle.