Silk Painting

I first started this when I was about 20ish (I think). I found a couple out recently which I had painted and put them up on my gallery on the docrafts website. I was then challenged by Bobs - one of me buddies - to make a silk painted ATC. Quite tricky when I was used to buying the pre printed silk (which are so much more easy LOL). So I cut a piece of spare silk and wrapped it around a piece of ATC sized card and backed it with another piece of card. I then used the gutta outline to design a pattern & wait to dry. Then I just simply splodged silk paints over it & let them merge into each other. and Voila!

With silk painting, it can be tricky to get the right amount of paint on the brush - it's always better to have too little rather than too much as it can bleed. When creating your own designs, use the gutta outliner 1st & wait to dry. Then use water, as if you are painting on the silk. This will show if there are any gaps in the liner (which will cause bleeding) so that you can re-apply the outliner. When it has all dried it is ready to paint. Another fab technique with silk painting is applying salt as it give a fabulous speckly effect.