Blooming Intentions

  Week 7: Carnations This week I made carnations, which are generally associated with Distinction. Carnations are one of my favorite flowers and my go to if I am buying flowers or making a bouquet. Distinction is defined as "excellence that sets someone or something apart from others." Bringing this energy into my school work and hobbies reminds me that effort can make all of the difference between something mediocre and something great. I have made many of these flowers before, often as pens, so this was a nice and relaxing break compared to the frustration of the Dahlias last week, although I was not totally happy with how some of the shading ended up. A story I've heard before about carnations' history is a Roman myth about Diana, the goddess of the hunt. Her hunt was ruined one day and as she left she found a shepherd playing music, who she blamed for ruining her hunt. She plucked out his eyes, and it is said where his eyes fell, red carnations grew to represent t...

  Week 6: Dahlias This week I made dahlias, which are thought to represent kindness. I have had a very busy and stressful week, so I am taking this to mean be kind to myself as well as others. It is important to remind ourselves that we deserve grace, especially during busy times. The last few days have been really rough, and although I had no energy or time to make these, they gave me something else to focus on and was somewhat relaxing (at least at the start). These flowers start off as a bunch of small rhombuses that I cut out on my Cricut (shown below), along with two base circles used for assembly. There are around 70 per flower. I then used hot glue to attach two corners of the rhombuses to form cones. This part started off well but got more difficult as time went on and I became quite frustrated with the hot glue strings and the cones not sticking. But regardless, I eventually finished the cones and began attaching them to the circle bases, slowing stacking and alternating t...

  Week 5: Sunflowers This week I made sunflowers, which commonly represent positivity. They are also my mom's favorite flower, so I have a lot of experience making these into pens as gifts for her. I think being positive is crucial to finding happiness and enjoying life. Focusing on the small but good things can do a lot when it feels like all the big things are going wrong. I worked on part of these outside with a friend and it was very grounding and refreshing to have a chance to do crafts while enjoying nature. Today also had an incredible sunset, which is just another positive thing to focus on.  These sunflowers are another "rolled flower", like the roses I made last week. It cuts out petals around a spiral (shown digitally below since I forgot to take pictures of it cut out before assembly (again)), that form a flower when rolled around itself. I shaded the base of each petal using pastels to be more orange, although it does not really show in the picture. I use a s...

  Week 4: Roses This week I chose to make roses in the spirit of Valentine's day coming up. Red roses are very commonly associated with love and passion, but not as many people know the meaning of other colors of roses. I incorporated pink roses as well, which are symbolic of happiness. I also thought roses were fitting because I get to visit my boyfriend of 3 years at UCF this weekend, which has kept me going through this long week. I had three exams this week and created these roses right after my Calc 3 exam, which was a good way to relax. It definitely helped my mental health by giving me something fun and relaxing to do right after a very stressful experience. My friend also helped me add shading and roll them, so I got to talk and joke while making them as well.  These flowers are a little bit different from the ones I have done in past weeks, as it is what is called a "rolled flower". It cuts out petals around a spiral (shown digitally below since I forgot to take ...

  Week 3: Lavender This week I chose to make lavender, which is commonly associated with calmness. I have three exams in the upcoming week along with many assignments to get done, so I knew this week would be busy. Making lavender helps remind myself to take a break every once in a while and avoid overworking myself. I have never made this paper flower before so it was fun to design and create something new. I think this definitely helped my health by giving me something to look forward to during a stressful week. I created these flowers using my Cricut machine to cut out flower shapes with a slit (shown on the left below). Then, I hot glued the gap together to create a 3D effect (shown on the right below), and stacked them by size onto a dyed wooden dowel. I used hot glue to attach everything, including the leaves as a transition into the "stem".  And this is the bouquet so far, made up of camellias and lavender: Read more about lavender: https://bouqs.com/blog/lavender-flow...