I really do enjoy dabbling with painting. Each house has limited wall space and friends and family likely don’t want an entire gallery of your work either. The solution? Paint your own Christmas cards. Then it is up to the recipient to decide if they keep it or not. Involve your kids in this craft and have some fun.
For this project you will need to research a couple of designs you would like to use. I have found three designs.
Materials
140 lb watercolour paper
watercolour paints
watercolour paint brushes (round size 10,8,4 and 0)
pencil and eraser
scissors
glue stick
blank cards
Method
The first step will be to paint the background. Here I used quite a bit of water and the blue, then I added a bit of black to the mix to get the sky tones to have some interest. While the paint is still quite wet dab with a paper towel. This gives some interest to the sky.
Continue to use quite a bit of water, block in the colour of the petals and. leaves using a thin paint mix
Continue to add washes of colour.
For each pass of colour add a bit more paint to the mix.
Add layers starting at the centre of the flower
and work the paint lightly to the tips of the petals and leaves.
Continue adding layers and shortening your stroke. This will
add depth to the centre of the flower. Use light strokes as you want to avoid breaking the surface of the paper.
Allow the painting to dry. If you find they have curled up you can lightly iron from the backside. Using a glue stick, glue the painting to the blank card.
The Big Cheat Scan your cards and print copies. This cuts down the time if you want to send out many copies.
One response to “Watercolour Christmas Cards”
Very interesting!