Summer Fun - Rainy Day Creativity

I've absolutely loved day-tripping with my beautiful boy this holiday, but sometimes, all you want to really do is slob about, totally make up-less, PJs on and not leave the house all day.

I'll admit, we've certainly had a fair few of those days thrown into the mix too, especially during the recent horrible downpours we've had.

Who wants to venture out in rubbish weather - ugh - certainly not me!

So on days like these, it's fab to have some sort of an indoor, getting-dressed-not-required kind of activity to keep us entertained, and luckily for me I had just the thing.

Kel gave me a Crafty Creatives box just after our last Bloggers Holiday - which feels like a very L-O-N-G time ago and if I'm honest, I totally forgot that I had it.

Oopsie.

Until now that is.

Crafty Creatives offer a subscription box sign up for £15 per month + p&p of £2.95  and they send out different themed arty goodies each month.

The box I recieved contained all the tools I would need for a little bit of silk painting

Now silk painting is something I have never attempted before, but it sounded like lots of fun, and my son was eager to get started...so, rainy weather a-go - creativity, here we come.

Following the instructions carefully, I first ironed backing paper onto all of the pieces of silk we were to be using - the first having gold-outlined practice pencil shapes all over it. 

The gold lines act as a barrier to help stop the paint spreading all over, to demonstrate just how the paint reacts once it is applied to the silk.

I'm so pleased about having the practice sheets because once we began, it was clear to see that this wasn't at all like your run-of-the-mill painting on paper at all - we certainly needed to perfect our technique.

My son was a natural and loved watching the paint spread around on the material each time he dabbed some into the centre of the pencil shape.

We attempted some of the different techniques that were highlighted in the instruction booklet too:

~ we added sprinkles of salt to the still wet paint

~ we mixed colours together

And all this just from the practice run.

It was a whole lot of fun - and became slightly addictive too.

Then came the next step.

Away went the thick gold practice lines and instead, there was an almost invisible clear outline to the picture

This outline again helped to stop the paint bleeding all over the silk, whilst giving a little more of an indication to how the paint behaves on the material, whilst still offering that all important (for me!) guide.

What we found brilliant was that apart from being careful not to overload the brush with too much paint you don't particularly have to be neat.

Just touching the paint to the silk in the centre of the lines meant that it spread out itself until it hit all of the other lines - which is fab news for an arty eight year old who's always in a rush.

Once we were finished with all of the practicing - my son was impatient - it was straight onto the real deal.

The plain piece of silk.

Total creative freedom.

And there's no way we were getting a really neat piece of work from this, so I let my son have free reign to design as he pleased.

This is the beginning of his New Universe masterpiece, complete with ever expanding black-hole 

I love how his imagination triggers with the slightest of things.

We've certainly had a whole lot of creative fun - thank you lots Crafty Creatives.

A rainy day made all the more interesting

*Box passed to me free of charge to trial, test and review - words, pictures & thoughts all my own