Sunflower Shine!

Hi there!  Today I'm sharing a page I created in my art journal for my grandmother, Iris Cheek.  She was one of the most beautiful people inside and out that I have ever known.  My mother passed away when I was 4 and my grandmother stepped in with all the love and hugs she could give.  She loved plants of all kinds but flowers were her favorite.  What started out as a simple walk in the country turned into a special moment between us when we stopped to admire some sunflowers.  We were looking at them and my grandmother asked me how anyone could be sad looking at such a happy flower.  She explained to me how they follow the sun throughout the day always keeping their “faces” to the sun.  She told me I should keep my face to the sun as well and always try to be happy.  She knew that I carried a deep sadness in my heart over losing my mother and I know she wanted so badly to lift it away for me.  She carried the same deep sadness I did, after all, it was her daughter she had lost.  So this page is for her and for our day together admiring sunflowers.  I've left room for myself to write some thoughts of her and I've decided to keep those private for now.  

I used Dylusion sprays for the the background and the birds and mushrooms are stamps from Dyan Reaveley as is the sentiment.  The sunflower is from Stampendous and is one of my new favs!  It's called Cling Jumbo Sunflower and it comes with a FREE 2-part template that lets you do very cool masking of the flower or the background! I stamped all the images with my black Archival ink pad and colored with Derwent Ink-tense pencils.  The grass is a combination of Dylusion inks and Ink-tense pencils.  

It's a simple page in honor of a woman that lived and loved simply.  I hope you like it.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you again soon.  In the meantime, don't forget to shine!

Hugs,

Lea