10 Creative Ideas For Summer

Summer is my time to shine! Being a Leo I really struggle with winter, so when spring and summer come around, my personality defrosts and my creativity goes into overdrive. Join in the fun with my 10 creative ideas for summer...

Beach Crafts

Living in Devon we are blessed with the surrounding coastline, but this can also work with leaves, twigs, pottery shards dug out of your garden or bits and pieces found along the riverbank. I like to head to the coast after a good high tide and scour the tide line for interesting bits and pieces. I often find fishing net in bright colours, sea shells, driftwood, sea glass, seed pods and cuttlefish bones. When I get home I lay them all out and see what they inspire me to create - sometimes it's a collage, a sea glass necklace or just a little seaside corner in the studio.

A Little Guerrilla Gardening!

Is there a sad patch of unloved and unused ground you've spotted near your house, at the bottom of your garden or on your way to work? Somewhere that could do with brightening up and creating some homes and food for our lovely pollinator friends? A spot of guerrilla gardening could be the answer! I like to make wildflower seed bombs to spread to some joy and colour. Mix up 3 parts clay to 1 part compost and 1 part wildflower seeds (native of course!) and add water until you get a nice thick dough texture. Roll them into balls, dry them out for a day or two and then they are ready to be used. Just remember to be careful where you pop them - don't target any private property or nature sites.

Campfire Cooking

Creativity is so broad to me, and cooking is certainly a creative thing I love to do (plus the eating the yummy food is a bonus!). We all know food tastes better outdoors, and I think anything cooked over the campfire tastes even better. Whether its a cowboy style campfire at the bottom of the garden, a firebowl on the beach or a bbq outside a tent, cooking outdoors is a great time to experiment, get creative and try some things you might not cook indoors. Take a peek at Campfire Foodie for some fab recipes.

Wildflower Shadow Sketching

On a lazy summer afternoon I wait until the shadows grow longer, grab a pad and pencil and head into the garden or a local field. Lay the pad down in front of a flower to capture it's shadow and you can trace around it, perfectly recreating the flower on the page. It feels very freeing as the light and shadow distort the flower, meaning that there is no wrong representation. Leave them as pencil sketches or fill them in with watercolours, the choice is yours!

Fabric Dyes

Have you ever used the plants from your garden and the power of the sun to dye fabric? The basics of it is you chop the plant material into small pieces and infuse it into water by simmering for about 90 minutes. Once it has cooled pour the water into a large jar, add some natural fabric and then leave on a windowsill in the sun for a few days. Then simply remove, rinse in cold water and hang to dry. What you can then create with your dyed fabric is up to your imagination! A cushion, jam jar pot covers, herb bags, hair scrunchies...the list is endless. 

Here are some plants to experiment with and the colours they produce:

• Orange/yellow - onion skins or marigolds
• Pink/peach - avocado stones and skins
• Purple/blue - purple buddleia, elderberries, red cabbage
• Green - nettles or spinach
• Brown - walnut husks