I was walking in a park in East London at the weekend, when I came across a ginkgo tree.  I've always loved the shape of ginkgo leaves, and there's something about the fact that they were around with the dinosaurs.  I thought they would make a nice design and decided to use them with sun-print paper.

Sun-print paper can be hard to find.  I bought mine from Hawkin's Bazaar, but it's a while ago and they don't seem to have any on their web site at the moment.  However, Amazon came to the rescue!  You may also find it in craft shops or catalogues.

Place your sun-print paper on a board (if it's a breezy day, you may need to pin your paper down) and arrange your objects on top.  Put them in the sun (my paper said for 2 minutes, but follow the instructions that come with yours) and fix the image in cold water.  Dry flat, and there's your image in pale blue, with a darker blue background.  The best objects to use are ones with a clear, but interesting, outline, and possibly quite a bit of detail.  I think I'll try with ferns next.

This is something that even quite young children may enjoy, and the finished prints (maybe after you've used them for your design!) can be made into greetings cards or framed to go on the wall.

Back to designing.  Once the print is dry, scan it into your computer and use Photoshop, Paint or whichever program you use, to put your design together.  You can arrange it in a regular pattern, or try making a repeating design.

The sun-print will be in two shades of blue, but you can change the colours in Photoshop etc.  I've decided to leave mine blue for the moment.