How to Make an Easy Watercolour Christmas Card

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Add a personal touch to your holiday gifts by creating your own unique Christmas cards with Shore & Marsh's beautiful watercolour paints.

This is a simple way to get started in watercolour paints and make yourself more familiar with how they work.

These festive designs will stand out and show your loved ones how much you care!

Project and instructions by Molly Craven

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You will need

Shore & Marsh Bright Half Pans Watercolour Set 12 Pack

Is $ 18.00

Art Sale 3 for 2 Mix and Match

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Is $ 18.00

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Anita’s Textured White Cards and Envelopes 5 x 7 Inches 20 Pack

Is $ 7.49

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Is $ 7.49

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Uni-ball PIN Sketch Selection Fineliners 3 Pack

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White Pipe Cleaners 12 Pack

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You Will Need
* Shore & Marsh Bright Half Pans Watercolour Set 12 Pack

* White Pipe Cleaners

* Anita’s Textured White Cards and Envelopes 5 x 7 Inches 20 Pack

* Uni-ball PIN Sketch Selection Fineliners 3 Pack

How to make

Step 1

Start by spraying your whole watercolour palette with water. This will make sure lots of colour comes through when you’re ready to use them.

Step 2

Using one of your pipe cleaners, make a shape of a Christmas tree. This doesn’t need to have too much detail as the paint will do all of the work. We had a bit of pipe cleaner leftover so made myself a small handle at the back of the tree to make the stamping easier.

Step 3

Cover your pipe cleaner with your paints in the colours you want them to represent. We chose green for the tree and brown for the trunk.

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Step 4

Place your tree stamp on the card and press down around the shape with your fingers. This can be a little messy but washes off your hands easily! The trees can be in any pattern you like.

The texture from both the pipe cleaner and the card will make a frayed effect on the outline of the trees, creating the illusion of leaves.

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Step 5

While your trees are still wet, use the water brush that came with the Shore and Marsh watercolour set to blend the outline of the tree shape into the centre to fill it with colour. This doesn’t have to be neat as the different shades of green will create small highlight and shadow effects.

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Step 6

When your card has completely dried, outline the trees with a fine-liner pen. We went around each shape two or three times to create a sketchy style.

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Step 7

Your first style of card is complete! You can finish these off in any way, by adding an outline, writing a jolly sentiment or both. Make it personal to you, and most importantly be creative with it.

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Holly Design - Step 1

For this second design, all you need is your watercolour paint and your finger.

Create three red dots with the tip of one finger and add a little bit of white paint down one side as a highlight.

Then, paint the top 2cm of another finger green. Press this onto the card in groups of 5, fanning out from the berries. This will create a base shape for the leaves.

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Holly Design - Step 2

Using your black-fine liner, outline the berries and holly leaves the same as we did our trees. We stuck with the sketchy style so all of the cards matched as a set. Using your finger prints will create natural darker and lighter areas that really bring the holly leaves and berries to life!