Hi, everybody!
Have you gotten a gift for all of the special mothers in your life yet? No?! Well, fear not! This post is coming at you a week early, so you’ve got plenty of time catch up! This week’s project is a handmade Mother’s Day card that your mom is sure to love! Besides, taking the time to make something always means more to her than just buying her another pair of socks.
If you haven’t heard, our Cheap Joe’s Goof-Proof Blank Greeting Cards are the greatest things since sliced bread.
I’m serious! This little kit has EVERYTHING you need to make one-of-a-kind cards for your loved ones!
A set of 10 comes with 10 blank cards and envelopes (with either a deckle edge or non-), 10 pieces of Kilimanjaro Original Bright White 140 lb. Watercolor Paper PLUS two pieces of Kilimanjaro Original Bright White 300 lb. Watercolor Paper and two of Yupo Watercolor Paper, and enough ATG adhesive strips to put it all together!
For my card, I taped down one of the pieces of 140 lb. Kilimanjaro to some Gatorfoam Board and did a slightly gradated wash of American Journey Artists’ Watercolor, Joe’s Blue with a touch of American Journey Artists’ Watercolor, Taylor’s Flamingo Pink because I wanted a nice sky blue.
My card is going to feature little fluffy white dandelions, so I dripped a little rubbing alcohol onto my wet wash and let it do its thing!
Some of the dandelions didn’t turn out as white as I wanted them, but I just helped them along with my Cheap Joe’s Fritch Scrubber Brushes!
Much whiter!
With my dandies in place, I let my wash dry a bit more before adding their stems and grass by mixing American Journey Artists’ Watercolor, Joe’s Green (Phthalo) and American Journey Artists’ Watercolor, June Bug.
Now they’re taking form! Time for some lettering!
I lightly drew some guidelines and then sketched out a rough idea for how I wanted my words to look.
Then, using a Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Artist Pen in Indigo Dark, I drew in my letters.
The awesome thing about these Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Artist Pens is that they have a marker feel to them, but they’re made with waterproof India ink that’s acid-free and lightfast!
Now that the front of my card was done, it was time to work on the inside!
I did more guidelines and another rough sketch of my interior message and also went over it with the Indigo Dark Pitt Artist Pen.
To add consistency, I made smaller cut-out dandelions out of a scratch piece of watercolor paper I tested on earlier!
When I used the adhesive strips to stick those babies onto the card, it all came together!
Here’s the finished inside!
And with a few more adhesive strips…
The front was finished, as well!
Whenever I make a card, I like to put my name and the date on the back–it’s easy to look back at cards and forget which Mother’s Day it was!
And the final step: addressing the envelope.
Now I’m ready for next weekend!