Thursday 18 October 2012

Corn Husk Sunflower Wreath

After harvesting our corn from the allotment the children have been trying to find craft uses for the left over husks, last week we made the corn husk dolls and this week we are making a sunflower wreath. We love sunflowers and due to bad weather and slugs we didn't manage to grow any this year, so the children have made one starting by painting the corn husks.


After they painted the husks yellow they were left to dry and we twisted some garden wire into a circle to form the basic outline for our sunflower shape.


The 'petals' were then bent around this wire and glued in place, we used hot glue as it is very quick and dries fast.


When bending aim to have the yellow side facing forward and glue on the back, this should keep the front looking nice, continue around the hoop as seen below.


We started with the larger petals first to get a complete circle all about the same size.


Once you have finished the first circle if you want to you can layer the flower to add more fullness, just continue going around building more layers until you are happy with the result or run out of petals.


Here's ours after the layering, as you can see it has a beautiful 3D effect. I have pinned it on the notice board so you can see how it hangs, I really love the wreath like this but the children decided it needed something else to make it more sunflower like. They have cut out a circle of brown felt and glued it to the back.


The children are really pleased with their sunflower wreath and I think it looks lovely. This could also be achieved with leaves if you don't have access to corn husks, as there are some beautiful coloured leaves about at the moment. We may try a red one when we collect enough leaves.







6 comments:

  1. they look really effective. next year i am going to do some of these as i clearly harvest my sweetcorn earlier :)

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    1. Thank-you, we harvested our corn a while ago too, I've had the husks drying out for a couple of weeks for this to make them easier to paint. :)

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  2. aha! i will remember that too - all ours go into compost

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  3. I think it's lovely, and the dolls too! We've not grown corn (yet!), but I'll have to remember to get some husks next year . . . have been looking for stalks for my Sahmain decoration outside, but not had any luck so far :(

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    1. Thank-you, haven't even thought about the Samhain decorations yet :)

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  4. Oh wow. Another wonderful craft. I love these kind of ideas. Beautiful.

    Thanks for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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