Happy Flowers Wall Art - a 3-Dimensional Mixed Media Artwork

This project was born out of a desire to create something bright, fun and happy to look at everyday while at my work desk. I love my garden and miss the flowers while I am off at work. Now I can have a little spot of that “happy”, with these fun flowers while I am working! I have made my version small enough to sit in a small easel on my desk, but this is very much 3-dimensional wall art, and I think it would look lovely in a children’s room.

This project is very mixed-media, but each of the parts is quite achievable. I have included plenty of photos and tips for the face painting. You really don’t need to be super artistic!

I have also worked my instructions on a small scale version to keep it simple, but I have included some variations you could easily try to extend the idea.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

First you will need to gather your materials. I have grouped materials so you can work section by section through this project.

Materials to make one flower in a frame:

To sew the faces:

• 30cm * 15cm piece off-white cotton fabric (mine had little white swirls on it)
• 30cm * 15cm piece light weight iron-on interfacing
• Small amount polyester filling
• Sewing thread to match fabric

For painting the faces and the background:

• Small artist canvas (3d type with wooden frame) Mine is sized 15cm square
• White Gesso
• Paint brushes:
  • Student grade ½ inch artists paint brush (for background of canvas and applying sparkles to flowers)
  • 2/0 round artists paint brush (for the eyes and mouth)
  • 5/0 round artists paint brush (really fine small one for facial lines)
• Student grade acrylic paints in the following colours:
  • Off-white/antique white
  • White
  • Spearmint
  • Purple
  • Turquoise
  • Magenta
  • Burnt Umber
  • Black
  • Crystal glitter (from Derivan)
• Prismacolour pencils:
  • Dark Umber PC 947
  • Process Red PC 994
  • Goldenrod PC 1034
• Sponge
• Paint palette or old vegetable packaging tray and little water container

For the flower petals:

• 2 * A4 sheets felt in shades of pink or purple (nice bright colours)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Old bowl to hold felt flowers as you apply with glitter (this will shape the flower as it dries)

For the leaves:

• 2 * A4 sheets felt in shades of green for leaves
• Embroidery thread to stitch the leaf veins. I used:
  • DMC 906
  • DMC 14
  • DMC 3347
• Use colours that are lighter than your felt to make a nice contrast for the veins in the leaves
• Embroidery needle

Putting it all together:

• Dental floss
• Curved sewing needle (also called upholstery needle)
• Big sized sewing needle
• General supplies:
• Fabric chalk
• Pins
• Scissors (I used my old scissors to cut felt, my pinking shears to cut out the fabric, and embroidery scissors for embroidery)
• Iron and ironing board
• 2B pencil

I recommend starting with the flower faces, then preparing the background, then the flower petals, then the leaves, than putting it all together. Lots of the pieces can be worked on at the same time, while other parts are drying.

Step 2: Sew the Flower Face

Iron the 30cm * 15cm piece light weight iron-on interfacing to the back of your chosen cotton fabric.

Download the pattern sheets. Cut out the circular pattern piece and transfer the shape once to the back of one end of the interfaced cotton fabric panel, leaving about 1cm from edge.

Fold the fabric in half, right sides together.

Pin the panel together.

Using a sewing machine with matching thread to your fabric, stitch the entire circumference of your circle.

Cut around the perimetre of your circle leaving a small seam and clip curves, or use pinking shears.

In the centre of one side of the fabric ‘sandwich’ you have created, carefully cut an opening through one layer of the fabric ‘sandwich’ about 5cm long. This will be your turning and filling hole and you will hand stitch it closed later.

Turn through your circle and using a pencil end, carefully ease the circle seam to make a nice even circumference.

Press the circle nice and flat.

Using polyester fill, stuff the circle until it is a nice shape like a cookie (not too full or too loose)

Using matching thread and a sewing needle, stitch the filling hole closed.

You are now ready for painting.

Step 3: Transferring the Design to the Fabric Faces and Painting

Refer to my painting photo as a guide and the pattern sheets for this step. You will firstly paint a background circle for the face on the side of the fabric without the filling hole, then transfer the face design in pencil, and then paint the face. Finally, you will work some coloured pencil over the paint to highlight and then add a little extra sparkle to the eyes and lips. I would also recommend practising on paper first so you are comfortable.

Lightly draw a circle on the front of your face fabric, about 1cm in from the edge in pencil. It might be worthwhile finding a cup or bowl to use as a template.

Using your larger brush, paint a layer of white Gesso inside the circle you have drawn. Leave to dry.

After drying, paint over the top of the Gesso with a layer of the off white paint. Leave this dry.

Transfer the face design to the front of your circle. The easiest method is to cut out the eyes and mouth shape from your downloaded pattern piece and then lightly draw the outlines of the eyes and mouth through the holes!

Don’t worry too much if you make a mistake, if you have worked lightly in pencil, a normal eraser will remove the mark from the face circle. If you are working free hand, I have included a couple of ideas for the mouth on the pattern sheet.

To start painting the features, use the white paint or Gesso to paint the whites of the eyes and the mouth gap. Let the paint dry. Depending on your paint, you may need two coats.

I next work the iris of the eyes with the middle sized brush. In this version I did a background of purple, but in others I used Aqua as the base. Let this dry. While the eyes are drying paint the lips in magenta. Again leave to dry.

Paint the highlight colour in the eyes as a wagon wheel in Aqua working from the mid point of the eye and dragging the paint out on a couple of spokes.

After this has dried, use your pencil to mark the pupil of the eye. Now paint this pupil in black paint. Add a couple of dots of white paint just on the right side of the pupil with your smallest brush.

After drying, use your smallest brush and a watered down burnt umber to paint the outside edge of the eyes, the lashes, the eye lid, the lips, and the smile lines. This looks best with soft flowing lines. Don’t panic if your line is not very bold looking. You can strengthen the line with coloured pencil later. Again, leave the face to dry!

I like to highlight the paint after it is dry with a little coloured pencil over the top. Prismacolour pencil is nice because the leads are soft enough to work into the surface.

I used a sharp Dark Umber pencil for the outlines of the eyes and lips (including a little bit of a chin).

I worked some Golderod over the eye lid as eye shadow.

I rubbed a little of the red into the cheek area. To do this a drew a little in red on a scrap of fabric, and then applied as a little circle like a blusher sponge.

I have highlighted the eyes and the lips with a little Crystal Glitter paint as a final shine.

The face is now complete!

Step 4: Preparing the Canvas Background

I have reused an old canvas from one of the kids projects (I checked with them first!) In order to use it, I have painted a couple of coats of the white Gesso as a base layer and let this dry. If you are using a nice new canvas feel free to skip this step.

To colour the background, use your largest brush and the spearmint paint. Paint the whole background in spearmint working in straight lines and don’t worry about being too perfect. I kept the paint fairly watery to let parts of the white base show through. Before the first layer is dry, use your sponge to sponge a second layer of spearmint, this time worked on the diagonal. This will give your background a little bit of a feel of sky. Don’t forget to paint the sides of your frame.

Leave the canvas to dry and once fully dry, sponge a layer of Crystal glitter paint over the whole surface.

Set the frame aside to dry.

Step 5: Creating the Flower Petals

From your two A4 sheets felt, in shades of pink or purple, cut out a large flower petal and a small flower petal, using the template from the pattern sheet. Be sure not to use good dressmaking scissors for cutting felt.

I have painted both of the flower petals on one side with Crystal Glitter using the largest brush, just on the actual petal parts that you see. The paint takes a while to dry and will dry clear leaving the glitter. For the largest petal I have laid the piece in an old bowl to dry so the petals will have a bit of natural curl.

Set the flower petals aside.

Step 6: Making the Leaves

Using the pattern sheet as a guide, cut the three leaves out of the two shades of green felt. Use the tailors chalk to mark the veins in the leaves, referring to the pattern sheet.

The embroidery of the leaves is worked in stem stitch. Stitch each of the leaves in a complementary lighter shade of embroidery thread, and use 2 strands of thread. It’s nice to tension the stitching slightly as you stitch as this adds natural curl to the leaves. If you are unsure about stem stitch, split stitch and back stitch would both work fine too!

Set your leaves aside.

You have now created all the individual parts of your wall art!

Step 7: Putting Your Happy Flower Wall Art Together

Using your hot glue gun (and following manufacturers instructions), glue the two layers of flower petal together. Then glue the face into the centre of the petals and let it cool a little.

Position the three embroidered leaves on the background and glue them down on the back of each leaf using a little of the hot glue.

To attach the flower I have actually used dental floss and a large eyed needle rather than hot glue. I wanted to flatten the flower a little to the surface so that it would sit nicely. Because of the shape of the canvas used for this project, you can stitch through.

To stitch the flower I used a curved needle and passed a stitch of dental floss with a long tail through the back of the flower. I then swapped to a straight needle and passed both dangling ends of the dental floss through the canvas. I then tied them together at the back of the canvas with a strong knot. I repeated this a couple of times.

Your 3-dimensional Happy Flowers wall art is now complete!

Step 8: Some Variations Using More Flowers

I ended up with lots of extra faces after the painting stage, so I was able to create some variations of the wall art using more flowers on larger canvases.

For the rectangular canvas I added two flowers. I painted a stem for each and some trailing vines onto the base canvas in green and just worked the rest of the project in the same way.

For the square canvas, I painted lots of trailing vines onto the background canvas in green.

Both versions are nice and work well mounted on the wall.