It's Kansas Day!

Happy birthday to Kansas! Today marks 153 years as part of the Union. If you're not from Kansas, you are probably thinking of Dorothy, Toto, tornadoes, and Oz. If you are from Kansas, you're thinking, "there's more to our great state than that!" While yes, we do have lots of tornadoes, in 35 years I've never personally seen one and only had one touch down within 10 miles of where I was once.

Growing up in Kansas, January was one of my favorite months because we always had a Kansas Day celebration at school. I remember spinning wheel demonstrations, "experiencing" life on the prairie, making candles, and coloring many pictures. I'm sure there was more, but it's been a few years.

I wanted to create a card today to celebrate something about Kansas. I chose our state flower, the sunflower. I found this picture on pinterest:

I was instantly inspired to pull out my brand new Banners Framelits to make this card:

The base of the card was inspired by our state flag:

The base of the card is Night of Navy. I used the Big Shot and Banners Framelits to cut 26 banners out of Summer Starfruit cardstock. I gave each "petal" some dimension by sponging Summer Starfruit ink around the edges with a Sponge Dauber. I used the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle to create the middle with Early Espresso cardstock. I ran it through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder to give it a rougher texture similar to the sunflower seeds that grow in the middle. (That's right, sunflower seeds don't magically just come from a bag!)
I adhered it all together with Tombow Monoadhesive Liquid Glue. In hindsight, I now know that I should trim down the ends of the banner pieces hidden by the center piece. Layering them on top of each other made the center very bulky under the Early Espresso element.

Thank you for checking out my punch art card today. Please stop over at the Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration blog for some Kansas trivia!