Shhhhh... DIY Watercolor Cards With a Secret Message
Sometimes we like to mix it up around here. We love hand-lettering and we love watercolor, so we decided to combine the two and make text-resist watercolor cards that turn you into a top secret DIY spy. Kinda. Writing with a crayon adds a layer of wax that the watercolor will avoid, leaving your font in white surrounded by beautiful paint. Read ahead to learn this cool technique.
Materials:
– watercolor paints
– watercolor paper and cards
Tools:
– paint brushes
– various pens
– pencil
– eraser
– white crayon
Instructions:
1. Write your text lightly in pencil so you can erase any mistakes.
2. Trace your text with a black pen.
3. Hold your paper up to a window with the watercolor paper on top. You should be able to see the text through the paper. Trace the text with a white crayon.
4. Paint over your text and watch it magically appear.
First come up with a clever or inspirational phrase for your card or wall art. We made one for all the math lovers out there, one for your favorite sparkly person and one to remind you to keep on keeping on. Quite the motivator seeing this on your wall every day!
After you have your text written in black pen, hold it up to a window with a piece of watercolor paper on top. With enough light, you should be able to see the text through the watercolor paper. Trace the text with a white crayon. We recommend that you go over the lines a few times. Since it’s white and you can’t see it, you don’t want to skip any important lines because you can’t fix your mistake once you start painting.
Put some water on your brush and add your paint. When watercoloring, you don’t want your brush to be dripping wet, but you do want a moderate amount of water on the brush. Paint over your text and watch it magically appear!
These would be so fun as secret messages. You could send someone a “blank” card, a paint brush and a small tube of watercolor paint. Don’t tell them what to do, just let them figure it out.
Such a fun card!
Stick one on a gift.
Or hang one on your wall.
How do you like to send secret messages to people? Steam on the bathroom mirror, anyone?
