Watercolor Valentine’s Cards

If you’re like me, there’s a chance that you like all sorts of stationery and cute cards to send to friends and family members just because. I’m always on the look out for fun and cute designs, and I actually have a few small drawers in my office dedicated to stationery. (Yes, I know this is a problem. No, I don’t want to stop finding fun cards. It’s just so fun!)

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I wanted to try something a little different this year. Instead of finding super cute Valentine’s cards at the store this year, I wanted to make my own. So I busted out my watercolor kit and had a blast painting various designs on some card stock.

Time commitment: 30 minutes — or however long you have to do a little paintin’. These babies will take about 10-15 minutes to dry total after the painting portion is completed.

Skills required: Patience. A good playlist. The ability to go with the flow, as watercolors are sometimes tricky like that.

What you’ll need:

1. A paintbrush or two (your choice of thickness and style)
2. A watercolor set
3. Blank card stock cards and envelopes
4. Water

The first step of all these Valentine’s starts with a good base color. Obviously, I chose red and mixed the color with a little bit of water in the palette side.

Next, I painted an outline of a heart using very little water so the color was intense. Then I dipped my brush into the water and used the water to fill in the rest of the heart. And then, I put more color on the brush and painted ‘Be Mine’ onto the card. Maybe not the prettiest handwriting with a paintbrush, but it’s a fun way to write a message, no?

Another technique I used was drawing an outline in crayon and then filling it in using the paint, using the same process as above. I love how watercolors blend so wonderfully, but they can be a bit tricky at times.

If you’re a little hesitant to try this technique, get out a spare sheet of paper and practice filling in spaces using the water to spread the color across the page. It’s a lot of fun… and it makes me wish that I was better at painting with watercolors. This could make for some awesome stuff to hang in my home.

There’s no rhyme or reason of what you can paint on your cards here, y’all. I painted a bunch of different hearts, varying the colors by the amount of paint on my brush and the amount of water. I did stripes, too.

It’s a blast, and it takes hardly any time… just a little creativity and a little patience, and you’ve got something fun to give to friends and family members for Valentine’s Day next week!

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Have you ever made your own cards like this? Would you be willing to give watercolors a shot?

Tagged as: cards, handpainted cards, handpainted stationery, stationery, Valentine's cards, Valentine's Day, valentines, watercolor