Shortcut Vintage Roses Mail Art Tutorial

Tracing is a great shortcut if you don’t have the time and/or the energy to freehand draw. It’s a technique that can help you to make some beautiful projects (like illuminated letters and flourished ampersands). Today, I’m adding another fun project to the tracing roster: this vintage roses mail art. Set aside 45 minutes or so to put on some good music or a podcast, enjoy your favorite fall beverage, and create a beautiful envelope for a loved one!

1. Gather Your Supplies

To make this vintage roses mail art, you’ll need a few supplies:

Mail Art Roses Template from the Illustrated Roses Templates for Tracing/Collage collection
White envelope – You need one that’s high-quality, otherwise your ink will feather. Cards and Pockets “White” is a safe bet.
Ziller Soot Black ink – I have a whole bunch of ink spill specials available right now.
Watercolor palette
Straight pen fitted with a Nikko G nib
Light Box – Optional but highly recommended. To read more about light boxes and learn if you’d use one enough to justify the purchase, see this article.

2. Trace the Roses

Turn on your light box, then, place the Mail Art Roses Template on top of the light box. Center your A7 white envelope over the template.

The Mail Art Roses Template for Tracing (on top of a light box) — Tip: fold the envelope’s top flap up so you can see the graphics better!

Now, use your straight pen + Nikko G nib and Ziller ink to trace over the roses and leaves.

Once you’re finished, your envelope will look like the one below.

Vintage Roses Mail Art — If you don’t have an A7 envelope, you can still make mail art like this! Instead of using the Mail Art Roses Template, use graphics from the Large Roses Template. Feel free to mix and match roses and leaves to make the spacing work!

3. Write the Address

Now, draw a few wavy pencil guidelines in the space between the roses and leaves on the left and the rose in the lower right corner. Then, use Kaitlin Style calligraphy to write your recipient’s address on those wavy pencil guidelines. Once the ink dries, erase your pencil guidelines.

Shortcut Vintage Roses Mail Art Tutorial — I like to use Kaitlin Style calligraphy for this mail art, but you can use any calligraphy/lettering style that appeals to you.

4. Add Watercolor

Next, use your favorite watercolor palette to add color to the roses and leaves.

Black Calligraphy Inks Comparison Part I: Ziller, Sumi, and Higgins | The Postman's Knock — For this mail art, I painted the roses red and the leaves green. Use the colors that look the best to you! Yellow, pink, or beige roses would also be very pretty.

5. Enjoy!

When you finish adding watercolor, you’re ready to send this vintage roses mail art! If you want to, you can waterproof the roses with some MicroGlaze, but doing that is not a “must”. You can either add a postage stamp collage or just one elegant stamp to the upper right corner, whatever feels best to you.

I hope that you liked today’s mail art project! For more projects that you can make using the Illustrated Roses Templates for Tracing/Collage, see: