Inspirational Quote Style Watercolour Birthday Cards

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Inspirational quote style watercolour birthday card that even the younger kids can do!

Inspirational quotes on a watercolour background seem to be everywhere right now. You can even buy kits to make your own from craft shops. But would you believe that a toddler can do it mostly using supplies from their craft box and a little help from you? You bet they can!

This article shows you how to make a birthday card in the watercolour inspirational quote style. The results can be spectacular and the card you see in this article was produced by a 2 1/2 year old!

Time: Painting time 10 minutes. Card preparation time up to 20 minutes.
Age: Any Age
Level: Easy

Materials

Watercolour paper. This is the one thing you may not already have in the craft box. You need paper that can absorb and stand up to a lot of water without disintegrating. This is exactly what watercolour paper is designed to do so it is crucial that you get some. I bought an A5 pad of it from a $2 shop for $5 but you can also buy it from art shops in single sheets (poster sized).

Acrylic paint. I used Crayola's washable non-toxic acrylic paint but any acrylic paint would work. You could also experiment with a children's watercolour set.

Paintbrush. A soft brush or "mop" that holds a bit of water is ideal.

Palette for watery paint. Or any other containers you are happy to have paint in.

White crayon

Old newspaper if you are concerned about the surface you are painting on.

Smock if needed to protect clothes.

(Optional) Computer. Only if you aren't confident to use your own handwriting.

Method

Remove a piece of watercolour paper from the pad. I find it best to rip out the page entirely and the cut along the perforation to get a nice edge.

Fold the sheet in half. If your sheet has rounded corners, fold up to the rounded edge and trim the excess.

Write "Happy Birthday" on the card in running writing using white crayon. Make sure you press down hard to transfer lots of crayon. If you don't like your own running writing, open an application like Word. You can type "Happy Birthday" in a large font size and change the font to something you'd like to use.

Using Word to help with font for the card

Find a font you like in Word and increase the font size to help you write 'Happy Birthday' if you don't like your own handwriting

Mix up a few different colours of watery paint. I used three in this example. Put a little bit of water in your palette and add a couple of small blobs of paint to it one at a time. Mix the paint with the water thoroughly after each addition of paint. You want a mixture that has just turned from transparent to opaque.

Three watery paint colours are mixed up to paint this particular card

Now it is time to go wild and add splotches of watery paint to the card any which way you want. Make sure you cover areas with crayon so that they show up.

Adding the first splotches of paint

Half-way through adding paint to the card

Almost finished

When you are happy with the result, encourage the paint off the letters, if necessary, to ensure the writing is as white as possible. You can use a tissue or tilt the card.

Put the card in a safe spot to dry.

Press the card in a heavy book to flatten it out if necessary.

If you aren't finding the paint isn't quite as strong as you would like and your child has already made a watery mess, don't worry, allow the card to dry, then mix up stronger paint mixes and try again.