Tutorial : Using Watercolour Pencils to Make Cards

Today I needed to make some cards, so I thought I would make a tutorial to show you an easy way to do just that using watercolour pencils.

Anyway, back to the cards... Depending on how detailed your design is, it will take you between 10 - 30 minutes to make.

You will need:

Watercolour paper (It is sold in a pad of around 10 sheets in art supply shops). You can use ordinary card, but if you use too much water when you're painting then it will wrinkle.

Watercolour pencils. These are pencils specially designed to get wet. You can get these from an art supply shop also.

Tracing paper

A Pencil

A fineliner

A fine paintbrush

A glass of water

A piece of plain white paper (for drawing your design on)

Instructions:

Start by drawing the design you want onto your piece of plain white paper. I suggest folding your paper to the size the front of your card will be. This will ensure that your design will fit just right:

Next, trace your design with a pencil onto your tracing paper:

Turn your piece of tracing paper over and copy the design. This will ensure that when you complete the next step, your design is the right way around:

Take your piece of Watercolour paper and fold it in half to make the card. Turn your piece of tracing paper over and line up the design onto the front of your card. Colour over all of your traced lines heavily, like so:

Once complete, your design will appear lightly on the front of your card:

Next, take your watercolour pencils and roughly colour around the edges of all sections of your design. Remember that the more colour you have, the more 'paint' you will have in the next step:

Take your paint brush and dip it into the water. Paint over the sections that you have coloured, making sure you clean the brush between each colour:

and keep going....

Until you are finished:

It is about this time that I think how terrible my card is turning out and makes me realise that I am certainly no artist. BUT KEEP GOING.. I promise it does turn out alright!

You will need to wait for the card to dry. I usually bust out the hair dryer or sit the card over the central heating vent to speed this part up. Once dry, take your fineliner and draw around the outline of your finished design. Like this:

See, I told you it would all be ok.

Obviously you can cut down on the time the card takes to make by drawing your design straight onto the card with your watercolour pencils. Below is a picture of a card I completed by doing just that:

Better yet, there is no reason why your kids can't help out with this. Why not draw the design and have them paint it for you!