Making Mondays: Sunprints

The weather over the weekend was bright and sunny -perfect for getting out the Sunprint Kit my Mum had sent us recently. Sunprints use a special paper that goes through a chemical change when you expose it to light. I think she got it from a bookstore. I found a lot of them online hereand we used this one.

Yashar and I had a lot of fun doing this and I really liked how they turned out. At 18 months Yashar needed close guidance the whole time -it would definitely be more suited to kids that are older than him. Here is how we did it:

1. We went on a little walk and collected some different plants to experiment with. I think the plants with the finer details, lots of small leaves etc turned out to be the most interesting. And of course this was Yashar's favourite part of the project!

2. We then set up in a dim room (so that the Sunprint paper wasn't exposed to too much light while we were arranging the collected objects on the paper). First we put down a small piece of cardboard (this didn't come with the kit), then a piece of the Sunprint paper -blue side up. We arranged the collected objects on top of the Sunprint paper and then put the acrylic sheet that comes with the kit on top.

3. Next we quickly took it outside and left it in the sun for about 1 minute. You should leave them in the sun for about 1 - 5 minutes depending on how much sunlight there is.

4. Then make sure your 18 month old son throws a little cup of water on it -oops! Just kidding - but the print still worked -yay!




5. Then we quickly rinsed the Sunprint paper in a little bucket of water for about a minute and left it to dry flat overnight.



We experimented with all sorts of things including lace, crochet and some of Yashar's toys. At the end I picked one out and put it in a simple white Ikea frame. I think the vibrant blue and white are perfect for Summer!


PS. To all the new visitors here - I'm having a giveaway this week!  Entries close June 8!  Click here for details.