Christmas & New Year cards on their way

Hello again!
Last year I was so behind on making the annual Christmas and New Year cards that we usually send out to all our family and friends. This year I’m before schedule on the greeting cards I just have a few things left to paint in and then I can start printing them. It just kind of happened by chance that I created more than one motif for the Christmas cards and I think that it’s quite fun and unique that not everyone will get the same type of card. All the motifs are painted with watercolor and ink, I will precise the brand and products I used under each painting, down below.

The pine tree christmas lights
For this drawing I didn’t want to use my most expensive watercolor paper so I used an acceptable watercolor paper from Panduro hobby. When I sketched the outlines for it I had my HB DERWENT GRAPHIC and it’s the pen that I prefer to use when I sketch and to just to be safe I have a STAEDTLER Mars plakstic combi eraser. The ink outlines were created by 0,2 UNI PIN FINE LINE pen. The colors were achieved with DERWENT INKTENSE PURE. VIBRANT WATERSOLUBLE INK PENCILS.

Leaves and Berries
I used a more reliable and professional watercolor paper for these two paintings. What I mean with reliable is that it works as it should and the colors does not dry to fast witch can happen with cheaper paper. So, the paper that I had was SAUNDERS WATEFORD CLASSIC WATERCOLOUR PAPER, 300g/m2, white rough. I never heard of this brand of paper until a year ago when I attended a watercolor course and the teacher said that this was a must have and I must agree. There is a big difference between watercolor paper and watercolor paper and it’s not until you tried the real thing that you will notice the difference. I used the same tools to sketch as I mentioned on the previous painting. The watercolors are also an important part when you want to paint. Before the course I always used Winsor & Newton colors and I still do but he recommended Schmincke. Van gogh and Schmincke were the colors of choice for these two cards. The last but not the least important thing in watercolor painting is the paintbrush and mine were and usually are a Lukas nr 8 or nr 6 defending on the motif. To get the snowy effect of the card with berries I choose to use white acrylic paint and a fan brush.

 

Christmas Creatures
This drawing was only supposed to be an exercise in my watercolor sketch book but then I liked how it turned out so I wanted to have it as one of this year’s Christmas cards. The sketchbook I have is a Moleskine watercolor traveling sketch book. The papers in that book are quite rough. The ink outlines are once again made by an 005 SAKURA PIGMA MICRON, ARCHIVAL INK, pen and the colors are created with DERWENT INKTENSE PURE. VIBRANT WATERSOLUBLE INK PENCILS.

Here are the finished versions of the greeting cards. I used gimp to create the white frame around the paintings and the christmas greeting in my mother language.
Well this post was a very long one and turned out way different than I had planned. But now you all know what supplies I use, in general when I create with watercolors. So, this is pretty much my base for working with watercolors and the supplies I use the most. If any of you are interested in knowing some more about the materials I used and my experience of them then please do tell me.

 

All the different cards have now been printed, written and sent off to friends and family
I really hope you all had a nice in my probably longest blog post and maybe even an educational read.
I wish you all a good night, morning, day or evening wherever you may be on this earth.

CraftGirlsWorld

Handmade Greeting Cards

 

Hello everyone!

Over the years you give away many birthday cards, greeting cards or just cards. I usually create my own cards that I give away and therefore I thought that I can show you a selection of some of them. The two first cards that you can see are made in October, the rest of them are created some years ago more or less.

This is a homemade gift card for a visit at a café. I created this in mixed media and I just want to say that it was one of the most entertaining crafts I ever made. Mixed media will absolutely appear on my blog again. I used my big storage of scrapbooking paper and accessories for this project together with ink pencils in various sizes and ink stamps of different colors.

 

 

The shoe card is a thank you card painted in watercolor. I used watercolor paper, watercolors, a small watercolor brush and ink pens. The card base is from my scrapbooking supply.

The roses that pop out from the card and the cute little cake are maybe obviously birthday cards. Both cards are made with watercolors, my favorite type of color. I used 3-D paint or some type of special glue to get the pop effect.

 

I saw this type of card the first time on Pinterest and then I decided to make my own. I made them as birthday cards for two brothers in scrapbooking paper, hard colored paper. The little green beetle card it’s made with the same material.

 

In this collection, there is one thank you card and one birthday card. Both cards are created in watercolor and ink pencils. I like to use ink and watercolor to create this type of look in especially cards.

 

I hope you all had a nice time in this post.

I wish you all a good evening, night, morning or day wherever you may be on this earth.

CraftGirlsWorld