DollarTree Sunflower Sticker Art & 3 More Sunflower Creations

Hello Crafty Tribe, this is Artsy Maddie and let's get creative. So today I'm working on a two foot by four foot quarter inch hardboard just from Home Depot. It costs about five dollars and I'm just giving it two coats of a blue latex paint. You could use acrylic or just whatever you have on hand, one of those little testers from Home Depot would be perfect too. And then I just rounded up some stencils from my craft room and a little stamp that I found and what I'm going to be doing is just creating texture onto this blue paint. So I also found this doily that had a butterfly pattern and I'm just using a lighter blue, it's the pale blue acrylic from Dollar Tree and I'm just creating very imperfect pattern all over this. So I'm going to be using Dollar Tree stickers that look like patchwork. So they have sunflowers that have all this pattern on them. So I'm just going to try and create a backdrop that has the same feel to it. So I'm not going to worry about smudges, I'm not going to worry about imperfections, I'm just creating a really fun, all over, very random as I can pattern. So just making use of the stencils I could find and that doily and the stamp. And then I'll just show you, so I'm just turning them and using different parts and different sections just to get different pattern all over. So even using these little tiny stencils and just putting them side by side to build up a bigger pattern, just to fill it in so that this whole board will eventually here be covered with pattern. So most of these stencils are quite old, I've had them around for a while, but really you could use anything. You could make your own stencils or even if you just use some crinkled paper, just anything to give yourself some texture on your background. So some of these stencils, and for sure this next one that I'm going to be using just came with some stickers and stamps and that sort of thing. I'm sure if you're a crafter you'll have some of these around and this is a perfect chance to use them all and just get creative and have fun and not to worry about perfection. I found this like super therapeutic and great to work on, it was a really fun project, no stressing out, no need for perfection, so it was just really fun. And then I just went in at the very end, there's this little tiny dot part on this stencil and I just went in and filled any blank spaces with that, and if you notice too I'm just not doing it right to the edges, just kind of randomly in the middle. So now that I have the pattern all over I'm going to go in with this glaze. So I used to use this for faux finishing a long time ago, maybe some of you are familiar with it, and this is a faux finishing sponge that I actually found at Dollarama of all places not that long ago, I would have died to have this back in the day, I'm sure it costed like $30 back then, but you don't have to have this sponge, like a round sponge or really any sponge would work just from the dollar store. If you don't have a sponge you could even just use some crinkled up paper or a plastic bag, just make sure the bag doesn't have any print on it because the print will eventually come off. So I'm using about one part paint to about eight parts glaze, just to get a nice transparent finish, and this is just white paint. So I'm kind of trying to create like a sky effect as our background for these patchwork sunflower stickers. So I'm just going in and kind of modelling it, just making kind of a cloudy effect, again not going for perfection, trying to stay random, so a little heavier in some places, a little bit lighter in others, and this glaze will actually dry a little bit more transparent than it looks when it's wet. So then I actually went in and did a second coat, so I just mixed up some more glaze, same thing, just one eighth paint, so one part paint, eight parts glaze, and just did the same thing all over again, so a little heavier in some places, a little bit lighter in others, and just creating that kind of cloudy sky kind of texture to it. And again this is going to dry a little bit more transparent than it looks when it's wet, so I did end up with kind of the effect I was going for, so it worked out good with the two coats. And then here are those stickers I was talking about, so I only had three of the stickers and I didn't feel like going to more duller trees on a goose chase for them, so I actually just photocopied a couple more and made them a little bit bigger so I'd have some variation too. So if you guys really like this project and you're not able to find these patchwork sunflower stickers, I'll have my email address in the description box, feel free to email me and I can send you what I used to make copies of them, because I know it can be super frustrating trying to find things at Duller Tree. So obviously the stickers are way easier to use than having to cut out, like it is pretty finicky on these printouts, but it wasn't too bad, like you just kind of go into a zone cutting it all out, you even have little detail scissors that make it a lot easier to cut out. Anyway, so just trying to work out how I'm going to fit them all on, and just trying to get a nice random pattern as well, even though there's only two designs. Like each sticker has a front and a back to it, a pair, and then I'm just mod podging them down. So just doing some decoupage with the ones that I had to print out, and I'm just using the matte finish decoupage and a fairly heavy coat. Of course, I wasn't really going for perfection, it won't be looked at really close up, so I did end up with a little bit of wrinkles, but nothing too bad. If you are doing like a smaller one, or just worried about perfection, there are better techniques for sure for decoupaging, I've seen some neat ones where they actually let the mod podge dry and then iron on the image, but you can definitely find great videos for those, I've watched them before, there's lots of neat ways to decoupage now, and people share lots of wonderful ideas, but this worked fine for this project. I know that where I'm putting it is up above a big china cabinet thing that I have, so it doesn't get looked at close up, and just that little bit of wrinkling didn't bother me too much. So just getting these all laid out, and I thought I would just share with you guys, so sometimes this time of year can be a little bit hard for me, I lost my mom 12 years ago now to her 25 year battle with multiple sclerosis, and so her birthday is in April, and then with Mother's Day and stuff I always kind of struggle with this time of year, but this year I'm just really embracing it, and she loved sunflowers, they were her favourite flower, and so I just thought what a fun way, and everyone's so into yellow right now, and I am too, I think we all need hope and the yellow sunny happy colour, so I just thought this would be a great way to honour her and just kind of have a lot of sunflowers around to remind me of her, and just to help make this time of year a little bit easier. So that's where my sunflower inspiration comes from this year, and hopefully, this is a farmhouse playlist, so hopefully a lot of you probably like sunflowers too, I'm sure, if you're into the farmhouse theme. So now comes the fun part, I get to stick on all these cute, cute little honeybees that were part of the stickers, and then just decoupaging the rest that were from the printouts, so that was kind of fun just placing them all on there. I really love honeybees too, I'm going to have a video next week, for Crafted with Cory I'm doing a honeybee tiered tree as well, so if you're into bees be sure to subscribe and look for that video next week. I also plan on doing some more sunflower videos as well, so I just gave it a clear spray with this clear acrylic sealer by Mod Podge, just to kind of help with any discrepancy in the sheen, like the sheen of the sticker and the sheen of the Mod Podge and the paint, so it just kind of gives it more of a uniform finish. And then just as a quick frame, I have these 1x2s that are cut down the middle to make a 3 quarter by 3 quarter inch strip of wood, and then I just stained it with a dark walnut stain by Minwax, and then just tacked it on top of the hardboard. And voila! This is the sunflower artwork, so it makes a beautiful backdrop, I have it up on top of my china cabinet, and then I hope to put a few things in front of it as well, but just kind of a fun, happy spring summer idea. So like I mentioned, this is part of the Heidi Sombol DIY Challenge, this is my second time participating, I'm so excited, I love Heidi's channel so much, I'll have a link to her channel if you have never checked her out, please do so, and then there's also going to be a link to the playlist, so lots of people participate, it's farmhouse theme, and you'll find tons of inspiration. So for a second project, I have one of these fun little wall vases from Dollar Tree, and some sunflowers from Dollarama, these little wooden slat kind of boards that are from Walmart, I was actually lucky enough to get mine on clearance, and then this little awesome self-adhesive stencil from Dollar Tree, and I had never used them before, and they are awesome, so I'll just go through the process of using it with you. I wanted to make a little mini chalkboard type of thing to put the stencil on, so I just kind of did a faux one with some black paint, and let that dry, and then I had a fight with this sticker, some stickers come off so nicely, and other ones, I don't know what type of glue it is, but I wish they would sell it at Dollar Tree, because it's an incredible glue, I let that Goo Gone sit on there for three hours, and that sticker did still not want to come off, so, anyway, moving on to the stencil, I was super impressed with these, I did a little coat of black first, just to help get rid of any bleed through the stencil, if there was going to be any, I don't even think I needed to do that, it was a great stencil, it sealed really well, but here I am doing it anyway, I didn't know yet, so I did a coat of black, and then that was after three hours with more Goo Gone, and that would not come off, so then I just switched to my heat tool, I was lucky enough to have another one of these, and then, that metal heats up so quickly, and so hot, so definitely be careful, any metal with the heat gun, it just conducts so fast, the heat, so definitely be careful, and then I just did two quick coats of white chalk paint, just to get good coverage on the black, so there's that second coat just showing for good coverage over the black, I didn't get video of the yellow, but I just mixed a little bit of medium yellow with a bright yellow acrylic that I had on hand, and then the worst happened, half of the yellow came off, but you know what, I'm just going to go with it, because it's farmhouse, right, and peeling paint kind of goes with farmhouse, so I'm just going with it, so I stuck in some floral foam, took apart this little bundle, because I didn't quite want it to go in that way, and then just cutting them down to size, so that they'll fit into this little wall of these, I love the quality of these, they're four dollars at Dollarama, but they are just, I think, incredible quality, they're really well made, and they have that nice velvety texture, just like the real thing on the leaves, so I just cut them down a little bit more, I wanted them to really sit inside that wall of these, and then just tacking on the little hello sunshine sign, and that is it, easy little DIY, and I just love it, it's just a little bright yellow ray of sunshine, and moving on to the next project, so I found this really cute little sign at Dollarama, I love this thing on it, and I thought I could just make it even more fun with some sunflowers, so I just kind of dismantled them, and made sure they were going to stick together, and lay a little bit flatter, so I just kind of took the stems, like clip them off, and I actually ended up taking them right apart, and gluing them all together, you'll see that here in a second, and just found some other greeneries to go with it, just some little sprigs, I think they just say greenery, they're from Dollarama as well, so just taking the time to lay the petals so that they lay nicely, and not directly on top of each other, and just gluing it all back together so they don't fall apart off my sign, and then I did end up putting the backs back on them, I didn't think I was going to use the backings, but just cutting off those stems made them lay flatter and nicer anyway, so just glued them all back together, glued some sprigs on, and it just all came together nicely, so you guys will have to let me know, do you decorate with sunflowers? Have you in the past? Is that something you guys are into? I'm hoping to make more videos, I've actually started on a couple other projects as well, and I would love to share them with you guys if you're into those, and then I just have one more quick DIY for you guys, so I found this cute little chicken wire vase, I guess you would call it, super farmhouse I thought, and I thought I would give it like a little denim sleeve to go inside, and fill it full of sunflowers, so here I'm just creating the pieces to make a little sleeve, I just had these scraps to mend my kids jeans with, and they're just a pair of my old jeans I think, so just cutting out a circle for the bottom, and figuring out my seam allowances, so I know I see most of you guys just glue fabric, and you can totally do that, I just, I'm a sewer, so I can't bring myself to glue fabric, so I just went down and sewed it all together, so just making that little sleeve, turning it inside out, and popping it into that little chicken wire vase, I thought this was just such a fun little find for a dollar, so these flowers I actually got at Goodwill, and the blue tags were half price last year, at some point, I can't remember, it was quite a while ago, but they're new, like they still had the tags on them and stuff, so I got them for five dollars, and they seem like really good quality, so I thought that was a great deal, and then just arrange them in the vase, so that the two ones in the front will be a little bit lower, and the two in the back will sit a little bit higher, and I just bent the stems, just in case I ever want to use them in a really tall vase, you never know, and voila, that's the finished product, so you guys will have to let me know if you have something like that, that reminds you of somebody, that makes you happy when you see it, and it reminds you of them, just let me know in the comments, and it's probably maybe your mom too, I know flowers remind us of our moms, so anyway, hopefully I've inspired you today, and if I have, I would love it if you would subscribe to my channel, definitely look for more yellow coming from me in the future in the next few weeks, and we will see you soon in the next video, thank you guys so much for watching, and make sure you check out that playlist, because it's going to be full of inspiration, I got so much inspiration from the last playlist, so be sure to check that out, and thank you Heidi for letting me participate again.