Let’s face it; creating cards for guys can be tough. With my husband in mind, it has to say ‘happy birthday’ on it otherwise it’s not a birthday card – no fancy greetings LOL. And talking generalities, also clean and simple seems to work well, no bells and whistles just a simple, straightforward card! Keeping this in mind, I created this card using the leaves from the Be Kind set from Simon Says Stamp. I’m often more drawn to leaves than flowers and usually colour these in first, so the Be Kind set with a trio of leaf images is right up my street. I’ve seen some lovely cards made with this set, many similar to the one I’ve made here. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, just enjoy my watercolouring, creating a card for a guy I have in mind who is spending more time in the garden since retiring. I’ve linked all supplies at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.
Simple Masculine Watercoloured Birthday Card
I feel a bit like a broken record with my love of muted colours. But for me, it is the emotion a card portrays, and more moody, subtle colours speak more than brighter ones. When creating this card, I referenced a colour mixing chart I’d just made. I’d made up a new travel palette of watercolours fitting 15 colours into one of the cute Daniel Smith palettes. The best way to work out how to get the most out of your supplies is to use them and experiment. I created a grid leaving space for fifteen colours down the left-hand side and fifteen colours across the top. Slowly but surely I mixed each square in the grid by combining the colours referenced.
For example, when completing the Quinacridone Gold row (one of my all-time favourites and will always be in my palettes), I mixed 14 spots of Quinacridone Gold on a side plate as a convenient mixing palette. As this is the Quinacridone Gold row, this is the dominant colour, and so for the mixes, I took a tiny bit of each of the other 14 colours to mix with it. Quinacridone Gold with a touch of Quinacridone Rose, mix, paint the square on my grid, move on … Quinacridone Gold with a touch of Phthalo Blue Green Shade, mix, paint the square on my grid, move on … Quinacridone Gold with a touch of Ultramarine Blue mix, paint the square on my grid, move on … And so forth until the entire row is filled. Using the completed mixing chart, I was able to pull a couple of colours which spoke to me for painting this elegant Eucalyptus leaf. The mix for the leaves was Phthalo Blue Green Shade, knocked back with a touch of Pyrrol Red to get that lovely dusky eucalyptus blue-green.
I painted the eucalyptus leaves from the Be Kind set with the Phthalo Blue (Green Shade) + Pyrrol Red mix on Arches Cold Pressed watercolour card and added in violet and lime green mixes for contrast.
I then tore the watercolour paper around the illustration, tied May Arts twine randomly around the base and foam mounted the panel to a Neenah Desert Storm card base. I am very much looking forward to the new Tim Holtz Deckle Edge Trimmer coming out later in the year!
I took a simple birthday greeting from the Tiny Words set and stamped it in clear embossing ink on Slate card before white heat embossing and trimming to a skinny banner. I foam mounted the greeting below the twine to finish. I love how this clean, simple botanical art style turned out!
SUPPLIES
You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or shop icon to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you! Items marked with an asterisk (*) provided by a store or the manufacturer. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I genuinely appreciate your support.
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PIN ME
Summary of the project which gives all the views of the card in one photo :D I’d love if you pinned and called by on Pinterest :D
How beautiful. Most definitely being pinned.
Beautiful!
Hi Debbie,
I am swooning over this card!
I re-read your description several times and have to ask what did you use on the stamp to make your image?
I’ve pulled the picture up close and it looks like to me, it’s just hand painted.
Thank you in advance for answering my post.
Most Sincerely,
Holly
Hi Holly. I’m so glad you liked this card! I am aiming for a no line look. Most times I stamp the image with antique linen distress ink. This leaves a light line which is water soluble. However I can sometimes still see the line. So recently I’ve started stamping off the ink on scratch paper so that I get the barest of bare outlines to colour from. And it’s working as I think the result is a much more no line look. Not so good for the eyesight though LOL. Hope that helps!
love this ….the colour and simplicity of the image is beautiful
I think this card is extraordinary. Well done!
Wow Debby THESE are my absolute favorite kinds of posts on your blog! Teaching us little bits about your watercoloring! I love when you post your color swatches for the projects. I just love watercolor color swatches, seriously it’s just one of my favorite things when someone posts a project and they show their colors and my most fav their color mixes I know really goofy but I just LOVE watercolor and especially the muted tones as well like you! I must make a chart like this with my DS paints. Knocking back the Phthalo Blue with Pyrrol Red made the perfect eucalyptus color definitely and I love the entrance of the lime and violet as well just PERFECT Debby! Could you please show us photos of your color mixing chart and show us how you did your chart? I love it! Did you do painters tape to align the grid so perfect? Please do a post on your chart, I understand if you don’t have time to do a blog post could you post photos on instagram? Thanks so much Debby for all of your amazing watercolor tutorials, the crafting world would not be the same without you in it, you’re awesome!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this post, Tami! I’ll certainly make a note to do a watercolour chart post/video/Instagram at some point. I used narrow washi tape to get the perfect grid. It helps tremendously and means you can move from one square to the next without having to wait for each to dry :D
This card is stunning! You have such a talent for water colouring. Knowing which colours to use and where to place the colour. I have been following your blog and watching your videos but my water colouring doesn’t turn out anywhere near yours. But I enjoy the process so much. I have a bit better luck with water colour pencil crayons as it gives me a bit more control. So I am hoping with more practice and following your blog, one day I will be able to make a card half as pretty as you.
Thanks so much for your colour swatches. I use pretty generic water colour brands. Do you find that the Daniel Smith is easier to work with? Do you like the colours better? Why is it your go to water colour paint to use?