July 7, 2017 – Our Creative Haven

One of the reasons I started this blog was to give me an outlet to help deal with the general stresses of life and work. I find a calmness and peace in crafting and creating, and since I’ve started this blog I really have noticed a difference in my ability to handle stress and deal with it outside of work. This week has been a little on the stressful side of life and so I thought I’d share with you one of my most favourite stress relievers. It’s a very simple craft and doesn’t take much explaining, but there is just something about it that brings an immediate sense of calm. Maybe it’s the focus on the mixing of the colours, and the patterns they create.

For this you will need some paint brushes, some water to rinse them in, water colour paper so that the water doesn’t turn the paper soggy, and some ink (You can use water colour paints instead but they don’t have quite the same effect). I used Winsor & Newton Inks as they are readily available in WHSmiths.

Firstly decide on what you want to make or what word you’d like to create, for this I used the word ‘Love’. Then using clean water only, use the paint brush to draw the first letter. Using a finer paint brush, start adding droplets of ink over the water on the page and watch the colours spread out along the water line. Keep adding the ink, in different colours depending on your desired look, until the letter is fully formed. Then repeat the process for the rest of the letters and before leaving the page to dry.

It really is that simple! But the effect creates beautiful gift cards, bookmarks, wall pictures and anything else you can think of! And if you’re anything like me once you start you won’t be able to stop!