Mother’s Day cards - Maria Scott Designs

I am making watercolor Mother’s Day cards using my floral practice samples. The floral images are painted with Sumi-e watercolors. The paper is a light weight rice paper. The technique shown here also works with traditional watercolors and watercolor paper.

watercolor painting — These are samples of my warm up exercises; testing the brush strokes, paint application and basically relaxing and clearing my mind before painting my cards. They are not the final image but I do not like to discard them. I set them aside until I have a few to use in other projects as backgrounds or as the main image as shown in these Mother’s Day cards.

easy Mother's Day cards — I am using a kid’s watercolor set for the painted backgrounds. Because the paint color is not as intense as artist grade paints this allows the main image to remain the focal point.

To paint the background use an image that is completely dry. Wet the paper around the edge of your image and then add the watercolors that will coordinate with the colors of your painting. Note, this does not have to be a smooth application. Splotchy backgrounds work well.

I painted multiple backgrounds and let them dry overnight rather than force the paper dry with a heat gun or hairdryer.

Hand painted cards — I outline the flowers and leaves with a waterproof pen. This is also when I add any details such as veins to the leaves and lines on the flower petals. Also, you do not have to follow the exact shape of your image. Be abstract.

The completed florals are cut to fit my cardstock. You can see that the splotchy, lighter background works well with the finished card.

This image is first glued to a square of mulberry paper and then added to the blank card. A butterfly die cut adds dimension.
I also inked the edge of the rice paper before gluing it to the backing.

The blue textured paper behind the pansies was in a paper packet my son gave me. On this one the butterfly has landed in the center of the flower instead of the edge of the design.

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I like the look of a wide white frame as shown on the double yellow floral card. And the butterfly has landed again.

This technique also works well with landscape, animal or nature paintings.

This past week was my birthday, I look forward to sharing the thank you cards I made in an upcoming post.

How do you use your practice papers?

Have fun using them in different applications.

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