DIY - Easy Watercolour Plant Pot Card
Have you always wanted to be able to create your own cards but never really had the confidence? Well this tutorial is really easy to do and the simplicity of it along with the texture of my beautiful handmade cards will make your cards super special!
Here’s what you’ll need…
Handmade Card & Envelope
Dried / Pressed Leaf or Flower
Pencil
Eraser
Ruler
Ceramic Palette / Plate
Watercolour Paints (I used burnt umber, vandyke brown and a little bit of black but you can easily mix a lovely brown using basic primary colours. You could also use coloured pens or pencils in place of watercolour)
Piece of Kitchen Roll
Jar of Water
Paintbrush
Glue Stick
Now for the ‘How To’…
1. Place the leaf roughly where you would like it to be on the paper and using the ruler draw a square.
2.On the bottom line of the square mark in half a cm on each side
3.Draw two thin semi-circles on the bottom and top lines of the square
4.Add an extra line under the bottom semi-circle
5. Join up your plant pot using the ruler, to create the rim slightly indent the vertical lines from the outer edges.
6. With the eraser gently rub out the lines until they’re very faint.
7. Using your lightest brown and plenty of water on your brush paint in the entire plant pot.
8. Leave to dry
9. Decide where the light will be, on this example the light is coming from the right creating a shadow on the left side of the pot. On the shadow side start painting using a mixture of your light and dark brown, blending in as you bring it round to the light side.
10. Remember the darkest parts are where the light is hardest to reach so underneath the rim on the left of the plant pot will always be the darkest.
11. Leaving the rim for the moment so your edges don’t run into each other, paint the inside of the pot using the darker brown. The shadow on the inside will be darkest on the right of the pot. The more water you use the longer you’ll have to wait between layers. I use the kitchen roll to dry my brush from time to time but it all depends on how you like to watercolour. The more water you use the more freeform your plant pot will be. Be careful to let it dry so your edges don’t bleed into each other.
12. Paint in the rim still keeping the deeper colours to the left of the pot. Keep building up the layers adding a little black to the very darkest parts of the plant pot. (Underneath the rim on the left side and on the inside right of the pot.)
13. Wait for it to dry
14. Rub out any remaining pencil lines
15. Now just glue on your leaf and sign the reverse of the card.
Remember to enjoy the process, If you’re nervous it can’t hurt to practice a little first before you use up the beautiful cards.
If you’ve never used watercolour before it might help to grab some scrap paper first and play around with it. Get a feel for how the paint behaves and how the amount of water on your brush effects your strokes.
If you make a mistake and paint outside of the lines you can add water and with a clean dry brush most of the paint should lift out. Keep wetting the paper and cleaning and drying your brush to lift it out.
The most important thing is to have fun, relax and however it turns out. It’s a very special card with extra thought and care gone into it. I’d love to see your paintings so do tag me on Instagram if you try this one! @brookemarie_art
