Hand painted hello

By Spotlight

You don’t need to be Picasso to create your own whimsical cards, complete with orginal artwork.

Final Result

Materials

• 6B pencil
• 2B pencil
• A4 light weight cardstock (for painting)
• PVA glue
• paint palette
• acrylic paints - black, white, mustard yellow, cream, pale yellow, aqua, mid-blue, light-blue, dark green, light green, crimson
• dimensional magic or Diamond Glaze glue (optional)
• 12” x 12” white cardstock
• fine round paint brush
• ruler
• craft knife
• cutting mat
• paper trimmer
• embossing tool (optional)
• paper towel

Step 1

Draw a 7.5cm x 10cm rectangle on a sheet of sturdy cardstock (to paint on). Use a 2B pencil to sketch the overall design in the panel.

If desired, make an additional sketch on a second sheet of paper so you have a reference for the drawing as you’ll be painting over some of this design.

Step 2

Squeeze a little of each paint colour onto a palette.

Using mustard yellow paint, paint over the top portion of the image excluding the house, legs and shoes.

Throughout the process, don’t wash your brush and never add water to the paint - the somewhat messy mix of colours is what you’re looking for. If necessary, wipe excess paint off onto a paper towel.

Using white or cream, paint roughly over the mustard but not covering it entirely.

Continue to build up colour layer by layer around the edge of the house. Use some blue and aqua paint too. Use black paint to outline the edge of the image.

It might take 10 layers or more to build up the required amount of colour depth.

When you have a multi-coloured background, paint the house starting with mid-blue and using the same process to build up colour layer by layer.

Paint the stockings using cream and black paint and the shoes using layers of crimson and cream paint.

Step 3

Paint the cloud using white. Trim a small sheet of patterned paper and adhere to the bottom portion of the painting under the shoes.

Step 4

Paint over the patterned paper and the bottom portion with layers of green and cream paint as you did the background and the house.

Set the painting aside until it is completely dry.

Step 5

Using the 6B pencil, sketch around the outside of the house, around the cloud, the shoes and stockings and draw a curl of smoke coming from the chimney.

Write the greeting in pencil over the grass area of the image. Paint a small heart shape at the end of the smoke trail using crimson paint.

When the heart is dry, dot it with dimensional magic to give it a shiny finish.

Step 6

Trim a sheet of white cardstock 30cm x 14cm. Fold in three and cut a window 7.5cm x 10cm from the centre panel to frame your painting.

Tip: Cut a piece of scrap paper the size of the finished painting and use as a guide to check your measurements before you cut the window. If desired use an embossing tool to indent around the edge of the window.

Step 7

Trim the edges of the painting so it is small enough to fit inside the middle fold of the card.

Glue the painting to the inside of the window, fold the card and adhere the front fold to the back of the painting to secure.

Handy Hint

To create your own whimsical image, draw your main object like a house or car, as an unusual shape but with features so it remains recognisable for what it is. For example, although our house is an unusual shape it still has a door, window and chimney. Add wings, a hat, feet or shoes to the object even if it doesn’t typically have these. The appeal of this genre is that the designs are wacky rather than complex.

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