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
Gorgeous card.
Simply stunning & elegant! One of my first thoughts was that it would be beautiful if framed…
Gorgeous!!! I need a video!!!!
this is simply stunning – I love everything about it – yes Ive pinned it – twice – again simply stunning
Simple, elegant, stunning. I admire your work and style very much!
This is gorgeous I want to try some watercoloring of cards with stamped images. What do you use to get the image on your paper before painting it?
Hi Sandy. I’m so glad you liked this card! the short answer is antique linen distress ink. 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!
WOW! This is simply beautiful!!!
Like the beautiful simplicity of this card, Debby. The watercoloring is stunning. tfs
This card is so wonderful! Please do keep using the muted tones, they are my favorites of your cards, as is your amazing watercolor painting. I also like how you’ve done the mixing chart. I do need lots of masculine cards and your leaves are perfect.
Wow, Debby, another fabulously colored creation! Love these muted tones! The simple design is so beautiful & would make a wonderful sympathy card with a simple change of the sentiment!!