I always looked forward to making homemade Valentines with my own kids, but now they are grown. I do still make them every year with my preschoolers during Story Time, but time is short and their skills are somewhat limited, so this year I decided to start a new tradition by making my own handcrafted Valentines. I am sharing a few of them with you.
I have been dabbling with watercolor painting and trying to learn to hand letter (it’s not that easy as a lefty), so I decided to combine the two in my quest to design pretty, handmade Valentines. My painting and lettering skills are still very beginner and I definitely could use more practice, so you are seeing my abilities at the infant stages of learning a new hobby. If I can do it, you can too. Hopefully, my proficiency will improve with time and practice. I would love to take a class.
After the initial investment of some watercolors, some good watercolor brushes and some decent watercolor paper; the cost was zero. I used supplies that I had previously purchased and I will link the supplies that I used, but you could also achieve good results with inexpensive watercolor sets and brushes. (Prang makes a really nice set of watercolors that are often found with school supplies and they would work just fine. I do recommend using watercolor paper; your results will not be as nice if you aren’t using watercolor paper). You will also need a jar of clean water and some paper towels.
The easiest of these cards to make is the watercolor heart. You lightly pencil sketch a heart shape or you can cut out a heart pattern and trace around it, then you simply fill with watercolors and allow them to spread and run together to get that tie dye effect. I used a pigment pen to outline a couple of my cards.
I didn’t spend a lot of time making these perfect; I was just having fun and they turned out pretty cool. These cards were easy to make and fun and I like to think that the recipients will enjoy them and feel special because they were handcrafted.
So share some love and beauty for Valentine’s Day; make your friends and loved ones a handmade Valentine.
Here is a list of my supplies, including the inexpensive Prang set of student watercolors that would work just fine for this project.
