Happy belated birthday, best friend!
I mentioned last week that I was late for my sister’s birthday; I was also very late for a very good, long-time friend’s birthday back home. I sent her gift out when I sent my sister’s and sent some of those oatmeal craisin bars too. But, for the main part of her gift, I had some fun with watercolor. I wanted to share this easy way to make a meaningful gift with you. In my mind, gifts don’t have to be expensive to be meaningful. I think some of the best gifts are those made with love and the recipient in mind!
🙂
What you need:
Acrylic paint, color of your choosing
Watercolor paper (when used for wet media, the paper is a bit thicker so it won’t tear as easily)
Paintbrush
Sharpie or thicker felt pen, black
Painter’s tape
Paper-cutting mat (or art board) Note: This isn’t the brand I have, but it’s similar. I just wanted you to get an idea of what kind of mat I used
What to do:
- Tape your watercolor paper to your mat or art board with painter’s tape on all edges of the paper. You want the tape to cover about 1/2″ of the paper and the rest of the tape to adhere to the mat or art board. Use more tape to adhere to mat or art board better. Note: In art class, we learned to soak your water color paper in water and then tape down. I tried both and the one I didn’t soak beforehand came out less crinkly.
- Let the paper dry.
- Using water and a little acrylic paint, paint your paper to get the desired watercolor effect. Make sure you paint the paper with just water BEFORE adding color to it, this will make sure your paint spreads.
- Let dry. When dry, peel off tape and detach from mat or board.
- Trim painting to desired size.
- Using your sharpie or felt pen, write out your desired quote. I did a couple test runs on scrap papers so I could get the sizing of the words correctly.
- Frame.
- Send to loved one.
C'est la vie 