Scrap Sunflower

Sunflower

After I had finished building the log cabin playhouse I had a lot of left over pieces that I just couldn't throw away. Originally I thought of making them into balloon powered boats for my Son, but they floated just below the surface of the water so that didn't work. After looking at them and thinking for quite a while I came up with this plan.

Taking the left over tips that I cut from the tops of the walls and floor panels in the playhouse I placed them out in a circle face down, two layers deep. I then measured for a plywood circle that would cover the back as much as possible without showing through to the front. I cut out the circle, and then cut a matching circle from the left over roofing material to try and match the texture of a sunflowers center. I then painted all of the pedals yellow, the plywood green, and a couple of pedals green as well to use as stem leaves. When everything was dry I setup the pedals in a circle again, two layers deep. Lay the Plywood and roofing circle on the back. Pre-drill and screw the backing onto each pedal so everything is secure. This took me quite a long time. Now for the Stem and Leaves. This requires the use of some Galvanized strapping that I found in the plumbing section of a hardware store and some old galvanized fence posts that my neighbor was throwing away. You have to make two loops on the back of the flower to secure the fence post to. Attaching the Leaves is also quite difficult as you have to wrap the strapping around the pipe tightly, twist to the side so it lays flat under the leaf, then place two short screws into the bottom of each leaf. I also put a tiny Nut and bolt through the strapping close to the stem so I could tighten it up so it wouldn't move. The leaf was close enough to the stem that it hid the bolt and strapping from sight.