Christmas Card Day : Make Splattered Christmas Cards

Today is the day to get those Christmas Cards ready and in the mail. We love to get Christmas cards they are always a treat in our mailbox. So what would be better than helping our children create their own cards to give to those they love.

You will need
one large sheet white watercolor paper
watercolor paint
acrylic paints of black, silver and gold
large sheet black lightweight cardboard
utility knife
ruler
double sided tape
scissors
blank cards and envelopes
bone folder (optional)



Splattering paint is a lot of fun, but tends to go all over the place. If you can’t do this outside, make sure your work area is well covered with newspaper or tarps. Select a large sheet of watercolour paper that is at least 90 lbs in weight, so it absorbs the water and paint without too much buckling. Using watercolour paint and a large brush, cover it with a variety of colours, making sure some areas of the white background are left unpainted. Allow to dry.



2. Prepare acrylic paints for splattering. Some water should be added to them so the consistency of the paint is good for splattering, but don’t dilute them too much or the colours will not be as intense.
Three colours I would recommend using are black, gold and silver, along with a variety of other ones of your choosing. The black tends to bring out the best in other colours, and the gold and silver are very festive this time of year. Different sized paint brushes will create different sized splatters, so it’s a good idea to experiment on a piece of newspaper to see what you prefer. Cover the paper with splatters by dipping a brush in the paint, removing some of the excess, and using a throwing action with your hand across the paper. If you leave too much paint on the brush you’ll end up with lots of big blobs…which actually don’t look too bad combined with the splatters. Allow to dry.



3. Blank cards and envelopes can be found in many places such as art supply stores, stationary or business supply stores. Mine came from Business Depot. A cheaper way to do this is to purchase envelopes, and buy large sheets of lightweight card stock that you cut into the appropriate card size. A bone folder is helpful when scoring them to fold them in half. Once the card size has been determined, you can decide how big you would like the artwork to be on the front of the card.



4. Cut the large sheet of splattered paint into the size you will be using on the cards. It makes measuring and cutting so much easier. Remember to also mount them on another color. I used black because it brings out the colors nicely. Once the artwork and black backing have been cut, your assembly line can begin. Kids tend to love this for some reason. Small pieces of double sided tape first need to be added to all four corners of the back of the artwork. They also need to be added to the back of the black backing. Stick the artwork onto the black cards. With the artwork on the black card, stick it onto the greeting card. At this point they should be looking pretty impressive, and you’ll be amazed by how many you can make from just one sheet of paper. We ended up with 50 cards and some artwork to spare.

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