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Hello, friends!
Seeing as my last how-to letter was so popular, I have been putting together some more fun tutorials for you! Today, I’m going to show you a creative way to make your own card (perfect for birthdays, anniversaries, or even thank yous).
To start, here is a list of supplies you will need:
-watercolors
-watercolor paper
-brush
-cup of water
-black pen
-scissors (or paper cutter)
-ruler
Watercolor sets and paper can easily be found at your local hobby store or Amazon! In this tutorial, I am using Brea Reese watercolor ink, but any pan of watercolors can be used too.
To start, measure out your card’s dimensions using a ruler. For a 5x7 card, you’ll want to make the dimensions 7”x10”. Once you’re got it measured out, go ahead and cut the card out and fold it!
1.Draw two parallel lines that are slightly wavy.
2.Connect the lines at the end to make a box.
3.Starting on the left side of the box, draw a wavy line extending downward, and then draw another line exactly parallel to it.
4.Connect the lines at the bottom with an inverted V. This creates the “ribbon” part of our banner.
5.Repeat steps 3-4 on the right side of the box.
6.Finish the ribbons by adding the little line right underneath the box, where the ribbons begin.
7.Shade in the area of the small triangles you made. (optional)
And there you have it! Making banners is really that easy. You can use this technique to make all kinds of different ones, too.
Now we’re going to start with the watercolor. If you’re using a pan of colors, wet them down with either your brush or a water spritzer. Dampening the watercolors helps make the colors easier to pick up!
With a clean, wet brush, brush your paper with a thin layer of water, making sure to keep the banner dry but every other part of the paper wet.
Next, load your brush with a color and then touch it to a wet part of paper. Doing this wet-on-wet technique allows the paint to spread across the paper by itself, causing a beautiful burgeoning of color! Repeat this step as many times as you wish, using 2-3 different colors all over the paper.
If you wish, you can carefully use your brush to swirl your colors together. This makes a fun, almost galaxy-like look! Any way you choose to mix your colors will look amazing--and the funnest part of this technique is that no two cards will look the same!
Wait for your paint to dry, and then fill in your banner with whatever you want. For my card, I wrote, “Happy Birthday” in brush lettering with the same pen I used to make the banner.
See how easy it is to make your own fun and unique card? Creating cards is something I really love to do, as I think it shows the recipient just how much you think of them. Of course, the next step here would be to then create your own specially addressed envelope to send this card in. But I think I’ll save that for the next Ink-stained tutorial!
Let me know what you thought of this DIY card! I would love to hear from you and see your work. If you want to show me what you created, you can always tag me on Facebook or Instagram!
Go and create!
