Today’s tutorial features rose-themed mail art with a vintage flair! Simply trace a printable template, add calligraphy or lettering, and infuse your work with color. Your recipient will love the result. 🌹
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:
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.
Tip: fold the envelope’s top flap up so you can see the graphics better!
It’s important to use waterproof ink, like Ziller Soot Black, for this project. You’ll be painting over this ink with watercolor later!
Once you’re finished, your envelope will look like the one below.
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.
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.
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.
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