Cut a 3”x4” piece of watercolor paper. This will be the beginning of your art piece that will become a greeting card.
Using your pencil, draw a basic shape such as a heart.
Grab your ballpoint pen (unless if you feel more comfortable drawing in pencil and then outline it with the pen) and a ruler to create a funky grid over top of the heart. Start making horizontal lines with your ruler by placing the ruler diagonally on the paper to make a horizontal line. Example: Ruler should be closer to the top left corner than on the right side. Second line should be the opposite. Example: Ruler should be closer on the right side to the end of the line you just created. Continue going back and forth until you have interchanging diagonal horizontal lines from top to bottom. Repeat the process vertically until you have created funky shaped squares.
With your Sharpie, outline the heart shape to create a thicker line than what you have made with the ballpoint pen. Line thickness will help you control what will be the dominant focus. Thicker heart lines will make it stand out from the grid.
Using your watercolor paint and a brush, you can start to color in your inked drawing. If you are using copy paper, you may want to use colored markers or colored pencils instead. In this example, using cool colors in the background will help it recede and push the warm colored heart forward. When painting with watercolor, play with layering your colors. One layer of red may look pink, and another layer of red paint can make it closer to a true red.
Once the paint is dry, you can glue or use double-sided tape to adhere your artwork to a colored piece of cardstock (unfolded size: 8.5” x 5”). Remember, the color of your cardstock can really affect the way your piece is viewed. In this situation, the darker blue cardstock works the best because we want the red heart to be the star!
