Sunflower crafts for the garden

I've always loved sunflowers, they are so bright and colourful! They are definitely one of my favourite flowers. A few years ago I made this Sunflower mosaic stepping stone for the garden, and I decided that it was time to brighten up our rather boring garden with a couple more cheerful sunflower crafts.

To add sunflower cheer to the dull corners I painted some sunflower rocks. I used green acrylic paint to coat the entire rock, then painted on the sunflowers using a combination of Posca marker pens and more acrylic paint. When the rocks were dry I sealed them using spray varnish. For the time being they are brightening up some of my pots, then as the flowers start to grow I'll be using them to decorate our gravel borders, or to place around the base of some larger plant pots.

Then I made a sunflower tin can lantern to light up our evenings by the fire pit. I'll be sharing how I make these lanterns in a separate blog post shortly, but it's very easy. You just need to freeze some water in the can to make it sturdier, then punch holes through using a hammer and nail. If you want to create a pattern it's easiest to draw it out on paper first and tape it to the can, so that you can see where to put the holes. I've decorated this lantern with a ring of beads in sunflower colours around the top. The lanterns look so beautiful at night time when the candlelight flickers through the holes, and it's a great way to re-purpose old tin cans.

 I love making things to brighten up the dull corners of my garden!