Gift

Sweet Sunshine Sunflower

Sweet Sunshine! Need a fun and exciting gift to brighten someone’s day?  Well this Sweet SunShine Sunflower is perfect for anyone that needs cheering up, it has delicious tootsie rolls and looks amazing! Also is great as a center piece for a summer get together.

Sunflower

Supplies:

  • Approximately 500 tootsie Roll midgees
  • 1 (4 inch) Styrofoam ball
  • Sharp knife
  • Butter knife
  • Approximately 20 12 x 12 inch pieces of yellow cellophane
  • 1 (18 inch long) 5/8 inch dowel painted green
  • straight pins, I like the ones with the colored ball on the ends it makes it easier to push into the Styrofoam ball
  • Styrofoam for the base
  • 6 inch clay pot (I painted mine red but can be whatever color you desire)
  • Approximately 10 6 x 6 inch pieces green cellophane
  • Optional: extra green cellophane and tin foil

Directions:

  1. Get all your supplies cut, painted, and gathered together.
  2. With your sharp knife cut two lines around your Styrofoam ball around the center ½ inch apart and about ½ inch deep. Don’t cut too deep or it won’t hold the cellophane as well.Sweet SunShine Sunflower by Nikki Christiansen for Busy Mom's Helper
  3. Get your yellow cellophane and one piece at a time pinch the center of the square to form a tip. Now flatten the tip and lay it against the ball so the tip extends 1 ½ to 2 inches beyond the cut closest to you. With your butter knife poke the cellophane into the cut closest to you until it is secure and just the very tip of gathered cellophane shows. The tip should be facing the others line so when complete the tips are hidden by the two rows.Sweet SunShine Sunflower by Nikki Christiansen for Busy Mom's Helper
  4. Continue adding the pieces of yellow cellophane into the same cut about every 1 ¼ inch apart. Sometimes you will need additional pieces or less but fill to desired fullness.Sweet SunShine Sunflower by Nikki Christiansen for Busy Mom's Helper
  5. In the middle of the two cut lines insert the dowel about 1 to 2 inches into the ball.
  6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 on the other cut line.
  7. Gather your tootsie rolls and pins.
  8. Starting at the edge of the yellow cellophane poke a pin through the twisted end of the tootsie roll wrapper and insert into the Styrofoam ball.Sweet SunShine Sunflower by Nikki Christiansen for Busy Mom's Helper
  9. Continue densely adding tootsie rolls into the Styrofoam ball until one side is completely filled. (I would insert the pin into two tootsie roll ends just to save on pins and to save some time)Sweet SunShine Sunflower by Nikki Christiansen for Busy Mom's Helper
  10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 on the other side.
  11. With your clay pot cut extra Styrofoam to fit in the base. You will want the Styrofoam about 1 inch from the top of the pot. Optional: cover Styrofoam with tin foil and green cellophane to help keep Styrofoam from crumbling everywhere and to fill in with green color.Sweet SunShine Sunflower by Nikki Christiansen for Busy Mom's Helper
  12. Fold a piece of green cellophane in half and then half again and fan slightly, then in the same manner of the yellow cellophane fold the point down between the pot and the Styrofoam and poke into the base with a butter knife.
  13. Continue inserting green cellophane into the base to desired fullness of ‘grass’.
  14. Insert the dowel into the Styrofoam base as deep as it can go keeping it straight.

*can use different sizes of dowels, Styrofoam ball, and pot for different sizes of sunflowers and also can use different colors.  If using bigger sizes be careful because it will be very top heavy.Sweet SunShine Sunflower by Nikki Christiansen for Busy Mom's Helper

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