How To Make Mounted Cards Using Watercolours!…

Some people like the idea of making their own personalised cards. With a bit of time and effort these are easily achieved. Here you can add a mounted design to make a card or even enhance a picture, but you will need the following items.

A cutting mat, craft knife, watercolour paper, watercolours, scrap paper, compasses, 12mm flat brush, no.5 brush and a ruler.

Most handicraft shops and art supply centres actually sell ready made mounts and these are available in all types of sizing and forms, but personally it is much more interesting if you create your own. This is quite an easy exercise, making and decorating your own mount, to blend with a watercolour background.

So, what I suggest, to make an easy start, is to try with a flower, like a dahlia or a big daisy. Get your mat, you are going to use for a cutting board, and your knife.

What you need to do now, is to cut your card shapes. So, cut two pieces of your paper, a good size being 4ins x 6ins, then with your compass, draw quite lightly a circle in both, which is preferably about 3 inches in diameter.

Continue by making a circle inside one of these pieces to form your flower centre. If you go on to mix several of your watercolours, you can now paint round your smaller outline with a no.5 brush.

Now, bearing in mind the kind of flower you picked, paint in with a paler shade the centre of this, to make up your flower centre.

It is time now to begin colouring the petals of your flower. So dip your brush into whatever colour paint you need for your petals. When you paint your petals, all you actually need to do, is to put pressure on the bristles, so they are flat, to achieve petal shaping.

Proceed by creating your petals all the way round the outside of your flower centre. It is entirely up to you whether you add a tinge of another colour to these.

As at this stage your flower shaping is more or less complete, you could then try adding some seeds to your flower centre and also round the outline of this. Mix a dark paint, like a brown shade for example, and then with your brush put dots in the centre and a few larger ones on the outline here and there. A few shadings with a gel pen to your petals might enhance it in a toning colour.

We will now use the second piece of paper. Firstly, cut out your circle from this. Scrap paper will protect it and, with a colour that will blend well with your flower, you need to paint a watery mix of watercolour over this mount with a 12 mm brush.

What you can do then, is once the paint dries, add a border or edge above and below the cut out, according to your taste. This is just to make it more decorative. Here you can introduce your own colours and patterning.

To mount this now, make sure the mount is completely dry before placing this directly over your flower. You will see that this now is ideal as a picture to frame or a card.