Watercolored birthday cards!

Can you believe March is almost here? I sure can’t! Time is just flying by faster and faster these days. Anyhow, March means that my two great aunts will having birthdays soon! (They are my grandma’s sisters, but they are also great!) Random trivia fact for ya that I learned today from a friend: in India, your great aunt is also called your grandma. Love that!

I usually make them similar cards since they live far enough apart so that the won’t see each other’s cards, ha ha. But I don’t make them exactly the same since that would be boring. :)

So for these two cards, I started out by stamping the Hero Arts Looped Flower background in soft granite ink on to some watercolor paper that I’d trimmed to 4.25 x 5.5″, then I watercolored the circles. I used the soft granite instead of black ink so that the inked circles wouldn’t stand out too much and the watercolor would take center stage.

painting away

Some of the circles I let dry before coloring the overlapping circle, and some of them I colored the overlapping one while the previous one was still wet. It’s kinda cool because it gives you different effects. This is so relaxing, I could have kept going happily coloring circles for hours. But I made myself stop and put together the cards. :)

Happy Birthday by Lisa Spangler

Here’s one of the finished cards — I just sewed the watercolored piece on a white card base with silver metallic thread, then added some sequins and gems. Oh and I kept the message in black so that it would be easy to read — my oldest great aunt is turning 93, so I wanted it to be easy on the eyes.  Here’s a closeup so you can see it better:

watercolor closeup by Lisa Spangler

Here is the other card! It looks a lot like the first one — but if you look at the watercolors you’ll see differences.

Happy Birthday by Lisa Spangler

Then I whipped up a quick felt flower brooch for each of them. Because everyone needs something special to wear on her birthday, right?

Quick felt flower brooch by Lisa Spangler

I just die cut the flowers out of felt — including polka dot felt that a friend sent me, and glitter felt, then sewed on a sparkly button and a pin back. It looks like the Sizzix die cut that I used is no longer available, but this one is pretty similar.

Happy Birthday Aunt Freda and Aunt Ada! I love you both. xo

Supplies

PS. There’s still time to enter the Hero Arts/BasicGrey Spice Market collection giveaway! To enter, leave a comment on my blog hop post. (If you leave a comment on this post it won’t get entered, so be sure to leave your comment on that one.) Comments must be received by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, March 2. And I just gotta say that I LOVE all of the projects on the hop. Just fantastic!

Hope you have a great weekend,

27 Replies to “Watercolored birthday cards!”

  1. WOW! Love these watercolor cards. Perfection!

  2. Penny Nichols says:

    Great idea on the background and so original on each card! Love the birthday card! Your Aunt will love it.

  3. This is lovely, Lisa – makes me want to pull out my stamp and play, too! Thanks for inspiring me!

  4. You’re a ‘great’ niece! :) These are lovely cards and an inventive use of the Looped Flower background stamp! Thank you for sharing – enjoy a wonderful weekend!

  5. Your photography, your cards, your style is hands down top on my list. always innovative, approachable, admirable just plain awesome.

  6. Adorable cards Lisa – I have treated myself to a posh(ish) watercolour set this week as I’m feeling inspired by this fab trend right now. You’re inspiring me even more to try it out ;)
    Love the brooch too… your aunts will be thrilled I’m sure, Rx

  7. Those colors…. this is so beautiful! I’m so interested in the yellow cactus as well!

  8. janet Wilson says:

    So pretty and soft, and the addition of the gentle embellishing is perfect :)

  9. Your water coloring card is definitely easy on the eyes!! What a gorgeous card for your aunt!! I just started a little challenge with the theme “watercolor”! Thanks for the inspiration!

    1. Oh Virginia what a great idea! Love your inspo photo that you have! I’m totally addicted to watercolor too — here’s my pinterest board in case you’d like some more eye candy :)

      http://www.pinterest.com/sideoats/watercolored/

  10. Fantastic Cards!
    Will definitely have to get some watercolor paper to try it out!

    Love the stitching and bling too!

  11. Great minds Lisa–I did something similar with the large Daisy background painting hearts! I love how you used grey as the background color with these circles!

    1. Ha ha Debstamps I just popped over and checked out your swanky daisies — love what you did!!!! :)

  12. awwwwww…super perfect!

  13. Awwww, that is sooo fabulous that you are close to your Great Aunts! I rarely talk to my own Aunts, and I have many of them. You have inspired me. Why do I make cards if I don’t even send cards for my family’s birthdays!?! Off to the scrap room I go..

  14. gorgeous, Virginia!

    1. Sorry, Lisa, got you confused with Virginia and her watercolors. I love these birthday cards, and your blog!

      1. Haha no worries! Glad you like :)

  15. I am totally in love with this card!

  16. barbara lassiter says:

    Your cards are perfect to send to your Great Aunts and I’m sure they will love them! I’m so happy to see the trend with watercolors on cards and love all the inspiration.

  17. lovely card and luv the watercoloring!

    C

  18. Fabulous card. Just love it.

  19. Your cards rock! And I love that you made a felt broche for your auntie’s 93rd birthday. :-)

  20. Love these cards, as I love all your watercolor cards… and the other ones too :).

Comments are closed.