Hello stampers! Today I want to show you just how easy it is to make this gorgeous watercolor autumn birthday card using the new White Christmas stamp set! I was inspired after seeing a few autumn cards on Pinterest. This one I made is for my mother’s birthday, which is on the 18th. I’m actually prepared ahead of time this year! That totally never happens!
It’s pretty easy to make this watercolor autumn birthday card and I’m going to walk you through it step by step so you can follow along.
Supplies needed to recreate this Watercolor Autumn Birthday Card
Cut List for the Watercolor Autumn Birthday Card
Crumb Cake: 8 1/2” x 5 1/2” and scored at 4 1/4″
Crumb Cake: 1/2” x 2 3/8″
Chocolate Chip: 4” x 5 1/4”
Watercolor Paper: 3 1/2” x 4 3/4”
Cherry Cobbler Cardstock: 3 1/2” x 4 7/8″
Here’s an animated GIF with step by step painting instructions. Also be sure to read the rest of the steps so you don’t miss some tips!
- The first thing you’re going to need to do is stamp a deer on a post it note or separate sheet of paper and cut him out. We need the mask specifically for his legs in this sample but if you plan on overlapping the deer onto the tree, you’re going to need to make sure the trimming is tight to the tail or head. You can probably get away with cutting off his antlers. Once you have your mask, you’re ready to start!
- Ink the deer in black Staz On and stamp it in the lower third around the center of the card.
- Position the mask over the stamped deer and secure with a bit of washi tape if needed.
- Next, stamp the trees over the deer using black Staz On ink. Remove the mask and you have the beginnings of your scene!
- After you have removed the deer mask, you’ll want to prep your canvas! This is a simple step. All you need to do is take your aqua painter and moisten the entire sheet with some water. This will allow the ink to spread a little more naturally onto the paper achieving that signature water color look.
- The first ink you’re going to add to the page is a bit of Lost Lagoon for the sky. Lost Lagoon is a pretty dark shade of blue. When you pickup the color with the aqua painter, dab it once on a piece of scratch paper or a paper towel to remove just a bit of ink. Do this each time you ink your aqua painter. Color the entire sky with Lost Lagoon. It’s okay if a bit of blue gets onto the trees because you’re going to be covering that with a bunch of colors. Try to avoid coloring over the deer because the blue will peek out from behind the brown for sure.
- Once you’re satisfied with the sky, grab some Old Olive and start coloring the grass area — remember to dab some of that color onto a paper towel first! Again, try to avoid coloring the deer. After you’re satisfied with the grass, dry your brush and grab more Old Olive. Color the ridge line of the hills to give it some depth. You should now have a blue sky and some green grass on your masterpiece.
Are you ready to channel your inner Bob Ross and create those happy little trees?
- We’re going to be working from lightest to darkest from now on, saving the browns for last. Ink up your grunge stamp with some of the Hello Honey ink. If you don’t have a small grunge texture stamp, you can also achieve this effect by grabbing the color with the aqua painter and dabbing it randomly on the tree. Stamp in Hello Honey 1-2 times per tree.
- Repeat with Tangelo Twist
- Repeat with Real Red.
- Repeat with Old Olive.
- Repeat with Mossy Meadow.
- We now want to add the colors that appear petty sparingly in nature during this season. For the Blackberry Bliss you’ll want to stamp just once per tree cluster.
- Once your trees are alive with color, it’s time to fill in some of those gaps! Using a clean aqua painter that’s got a good amount of water on the brush, start blending the stamped colors together. Try to avoid over blending. Your goal is to soften the edges of those grunge spots.
- After each grunge spot is softened, you can start coloring with the browns. Start by adding some Crumb Cake to your aqua painter. Paint the body of the deer.
- Next move to the Chocolate chip color and add some darker spots to the deer.
- Remove most of the water from your brush and dab it into the Chocolate Chip ink. This time, don’t dab off. Instead, use small motions to outline those antlers in Chocolate Chip. You’ll want a saturated brush for that.
- Add a little more of Chocolate Chip ink to your aqua painter this time dab off some of the excess ink so you’re not adding too much color. Start filling in the gaps where you see the white paper through the trees. Do this until you’re satisfied with your trees.
- Last, we’re going to work on the ground. Randomly paint in splotches of color in the following order: Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, Real Red and Chocolate Chip.
- Voila! Gorgeous autumn scene in only about 15 minutes!
To finish off this card, I tore about 1/8” off the right edge of the finished painting and the Cherry Cobbler card stock. These will be layered on top of each other so only the right edge is matted.
I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop the painting off of the panel. I then used SNAIL to apply this to the Chocolate Chip matte and more SNAIL to adhere that to the card base.
The greeting is stamped onto the smaller strip of Crumb Cake card stock and a banner was cut on the right side. Before adding this to the card, I laid down a small strip of Gold Sequin Trim. The banner was layered over the top of the sequins. Both are positioned slightly off of the right side of the card. The sequins were secured with Glue Dots but the greeting was popped up with some dimensionals.
To hide the ugly left edges of the greeting, I used a colored Autumn Wooden Accent. To color this, I used the darkest shade of the Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities markers. This was held on with some Sticky strip and a Stampin’ Dimensional to lift it up to the height of the greeting.
I hope you enjoyed this gorgeous watercolor autumn birthday card! I sure enjoyed making it!
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Stacey
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Hello! My name is Stacey. I am a wife to Robert and mother of 2. I am also a Stampin' UP Demonstrator. This website is a way to share my love and passion for stamping and to inspire others to enjoy what they do best.
What a lovely card and I love your instruction image! Your mom will adore it I’m sure! :)
Thanks Lindsey!