DIY greeting card tutorial

Paint a card for Mum! (that she will want to keep forever):

Difficulty: Easy/ medium

What is more thoughtful than a handmade gift? Given it's Mother's Day soon, we thought we would share a beginner friendly DIY greeting card tutorial that you could make for a Mum in your life! But once you've made this one, you'll probably want to keep painting all of your greeting cards.

If you love this tutorial - you may like our online painting courses! They are perfect for beginner/ hobby painters. You can see the courses here.

MATERIALS YOU'LL NEED:

• 1x A4 sheet of thick paper or card (preferably painting paper or watercolour paper)

• 1x pencil

• 1x ruler

• 1 or 2 smaller paint brushes of your preference

• Paint palette (an ice cream lid or similar would suffice)

• Jar of water to clean your brush

• Cloth to wipe your brush

• Your favourite acrylic paint colours, or a simple palette of blue, red, yellow, white and brown so you can mix your own colours. If you're don't own any paints or you don't live near an art shop - we sell beginner art kits!

  
  

Bloom Art Kits

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STEP 1: SETTING UP YOUR MATERIALS

Set up a clear area to work, with fresh paint water for cleaning your brush and a cloth to wipe it on. We are using a sheet of acrylic paint paper for this project, but you can use any thicker card or water colour paper you have at home – something much thicker than normal copy paper. You can use your favourite acrylic paint colours that you think Mum/ your loved one will like, or stick to a simple palette of red, blue, yellow, white and brown to experiment with colour mixing! 

STEP 2: FOLD YOUR CARD IN HALF

Fold your card in half (this is where you can use your ruler if you wish).

STEP 3: DRAW YOUR OUTLINE

Sketch in a simple outline of a flower or a few leaves, depending on what you think your Mum will like. You can use a photo or a flower from the garden as inspiration – but keep it simple! We have chosen an Echinacea because they have a distinct centre and petals.

STEP 4:  PAINT IN YOUR OUTLINE

Start with a slightly watered down brown (we are using Raw Umber) to lightly outline your pencil markings. This will help to form a lovely crisp edge to your painting as you fill it in later.

STEP 5: BLOCK IN YOUR GREENS AND PETALS

Start by painting in your green foliage or stems first. You may need to water your acrylic paint down as you go, so the brush glides over the surface of the paper and the paint goes on smoothly – almost like watercolours. Start from the centre of the flower and paint your petals outwards in a controlled, sweeping brushstroke.

STEP 6: HIGHLIGHT YOUR LEAVES AND PETALS

Acrylic paints layer really nicely – so this is the time to add your highlights with your smallest brush. Add some white or yellow to your green to highlight your leaves or stems. Add some white or yellow to your petal colour to highlight your flower. You can keep going with lighter and lighter layers, to really see your flower or leaves come to life! Keep adding a slight bit of water to your paint as you go, to keep it looking lovely and smooth.

STEP 7: PAINT IN YOUR BACKGROUND AND ADD ANY DETAILS

Pick a background colour you think Mum will like – something that contrasts the flower you’ve chosen always works best. In this case, we have chosen a lovely sky blue. You can make this background as washy or textured as you like – experiment with the amount of water you add to your paint here.

STEP 8: WRITE YOUR MESSAGE AND GIFT TO MUM!

Once it’s dry, you can write a lovely message and even gift Mum with a picture frame so she can keep your creation forever.

We would love to see what you create – feel free to send any photos to our Instagram at @bloom_art_experiences.

Happy painting!

Kate & Emily

Bloom in Yeppoon

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