• Festive Blown Watercolor Ornaments DIY Holiday Card Tutorial

    This DIY holiday card tutorial is quick, artistic, and renders perfectly imperfect results every time. Give it a go, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the coolness you end up creating!

    "Happy Holidays" card featuring a blown watercolor ornament motif

    It seems like no matter what phase of life you’re in, the holiday season is busy. You’re not only planning to gather with family and take time off, but you’re also wrapping up personal and professional affairs for the end of the year! For that reason, I’m a big fan of quick DIY holiday cards. Bonus points if the concept works in an assembly line. That’s why I love today’s festive blown watercolor ornaments motif! It’s beautiful, comes together quickly, and is a great project to make alone or with friends or family (kids, especially).

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    If you’re feeling creative, try drawing different shapes of ornaments and/or making a vertically-oriented card.

    1. Gather Your Supplies

    To make your Festive Blown Watercolor Ornaments DIY Holiday Cards, you’ll need:

    2. Make a Pencil Draft

    Begin by using your pencil to freehand draw 5-6 different sizes of circles on your watercolor card. Vary the size and positioning of each of the circles.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    You don’t have to draw circles for this step. If you prefer to draw assorted ornament shapes, that works, too.

    Next, draw a cap on top of each circle you drew. Try to center the cap the best you can, and try to vary the cap’s shape according to the size of the circle.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    Draw small caps for small circles and larger caps for large circles.

    Now, draw a small semicircle on top of each cap.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Once you’ve drawn the ornaments, draw a banner in the upper left part of the card. Use the calligraphy style of your choice to write “happy holidays” in the banner.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    I used Amy Style calligraphy to make my “happy holidays” pencil draft.

    Finish up by using a ruler or a straight edge to draw vertical lines that extend from the top center of the semicircles to the top of the card.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    3. Add Masking Fluid (Optional)

    This step is optional, depending on whether you have art masking fluid (affiliate link) in your supplies collection. If you do, go ahead and use a small (size 1-ish) paintbrush to apply two contoured lines of masking fluid to the right side of each ornament. If you don’t have art masking fluid, you can use Bleed Proof White ink further on in the tutorial to add highlights to your ornaments.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Since art masking fluid can be tough to see in photographs, I took the photo below to show you approximately where to apply the fluid.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    Notice that each circle features two lines (drawn in pencil) that are parallel to the right edge of the ornament. That’s where you’ll want to paint the fluid.

    4. Add Watercolor and Blow!

    Give your masking fluid a minute or two to dry, then use a medium paintbrush (size 3-ish) to paint over your first circle with watercolor. Be sure to paint a little bit outside the lines, and make it a point to get some paint on the cap as well! It’s important that you make sure there’s a fair amount of paint on there; the goal is to end up with excess paint in the circle.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, this is the fun part! Turn the card upside down, and blow on the watercolor paint until it streaks out the bottom and/or sides of the circle.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    For more controlled streaks, feel free to use a straw.

    Repeat the painting and blowing step one circle at a time until you’ve added color to all of the circles. You can use several different colors, as I did in the example below, or you may use one color. As a side note, I’d like to say that your card will probably end up looking only vaguely like mine at this point in the tutorial. No matter how your colors/splatters look, keep going! You’ll be very pleasantly surprised at the end result, regardless of what things are looking like at this step.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    If you opted to draw a banner, go ahead and paint that in with a nice, neutral color. For the banner, you will paint in the lines.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    Paint inside the lines for the banner. That nice, clean look offers a good contrast to the loose blown watercolor of the ornaments.

    5. Add Ink

    Give your paint a few minutes to completely dry, then trace over all of your pencil guidelines with black ink such as sumi. For thin, delicate lines, use a crowquill nib. If you don’t mind your lines being just a bit thicker, a Nikko G nib works well, too!

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    A crowquill nib will give you delicate lines. If you don’t have a crowquill nib, use whatever nib you have on hand.
    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Next, add in shadow lines on your banner (as per the banner tutorial).

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Then, draw several little vertical lines to the caps to suggest crimped metal.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    You’ll finish up the project by drawing bows on top of each semicircle. To make a bow, you’ll first draw two slightly shaky ovals on either side of the vertical line that intersects the semicircle. Each oval should come to a point at the intersection of the vertical line and the semicircle.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Next, draw two wavy, short lines coming from the bottom of the vertical line/semicircle intersection. The position of the lines doesn’t matter, and you can draw one or both over the painted part of the ornament.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Continue to draw bows until all of your ornaments have a nice little bow.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    6. Remove Masking Fluid (or Add White Ink)

    The only thing left to do is add your highlights. You can do this one of two ways. If you used masking fluid, rub an eraser over it; it will come right off. If you didn’t use masking fluid for this project, you’ll use a small paintbrush and Bleed Proof White ink to paint highlights directly onto the ornaments.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And voilà! A Festive Blown Watercolor Ornaments DIY Holiday Card that is artistic, thoughtful, and anything but ordinary.

    "Happy Holidays" card featuring a blown watercolor ornament motif

    Other Ways to Use the Blown Watercolor Ornaments Motif

    I love putting blown watercolor ornaments on a variety of projects. For example, it’s fun to incorporate them into a festive sketchbook spread!

    Blown watercolor ornaments aren’t just for cards. I drew these in my big Mahara watercolor journal [affiliate link].

    For quick and festive mail art, write diagonal Kaitlin Style calligraphy on an envelope. Then, add your ornaments and a festive postage stamp collage.

    "Artistic Ornaments"-Themed DIY Christmas Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    Small ornaments surrounded by a handful of stars make for fun holiday-themed mail.

    I hope that this tutorial comes in handy as the time window for sending out holiday cards gets narrower and narrower! This is a great project because it’s quick and you can make several at a time, provided you’ve got the lung power. 🙂

    Thanks so much for reading, and happy holidays!

    Warmly,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock