Painting own cards

Years ago, I painted some Christmas cards and everybody liked the effect. I skipped a couple years, and then started painting them again. I have found that the hand painted cards are thought of as a gift in and of themselves.

I find I have to paint two, sometimes three batches, depending on how many people I am giving cards to. My first batch is usually mailed out and given to friends. My second batch is usually for family.

The way I paint these cards is to apply one color, doing one thing, at a time on the whole set. Then do the second color and one thing. I keep doing this, building up colors and design until the card is finished. It can take several days to do cards this way, though, with a simple design, I have done them in one day. The drying of the paint is the slowest part of it.

I am using bottles of craft paint such as JO ANN ESSENTIALS, FOLK ART, CRAFTER’S EDITION, CERAMICOAT to name a few of the brands I have in my paint box. The brand never matters to me.

The hardest part is coming up with a design. It cannot be complex as I don’t have too much time and a dozen cards is a lot of work. My skills and my tools are not up to the level of master artist either.

Presents are generally easy to paint as they are basically squares with Xs on them. Trees are very easy to paint also. This year, though, I decided to go with something a little different. I decided on a cornucopia. I did not want to paint fruit as that would take a bit more skill than I have, and getting the right blend was going to also be a bit tough, so what I did was to use presents instead.

My first batch of nine cards were spray painted to hide a charity design on them. I then started my painting and quickly realized I had forgotten a bunch of steps as I worked. I worked through them, not satisfied with the results but was getting results. They did not live up to my desires when they were done. It was when I was handing them out, that I learned how good they were. I then started seeing the quality in them. Still not up to my intention, but they were not bad.

My first batch of cards this year

I just finished my second batch of cards. I planned a bit farther ahead. These were on some card stock I purchased at the store. I painted the decorative edge first, then the background. When I started on the cornucopia, I thought I messed up horribly. I corrected it somewhat, and decided I did not have time to do it right, but quickly saw that I did not have to worry. The results were acceptable.

I planned farther ahead on this batch. I made design changes too. I recently did a three dimensional drawing at work and did not like the two dimensional presents I did in the first batch of cards. I used brush strokes to make the sides and top of the first presents in the right relationship, then it dawned on me I could emulate the same thing in what amounted to one brush stroke, though it required more than just one. After the paint dried, I would use a pen to define the edges of the packages. That hid or reduced several minor errors in the process.


I still did not do the painting properly, but given the time I had to work, what I did was pretty good. I would have had to layer the colors a lot more and it would take weeks rather than a couple days to paint these.

The message inside the card says “MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!” and then “May your blessing from last year be fruitful and multiply.” I did misspell fruitful but was able to put in the I on them, some look right too.


My second batch of cards

I will say that making my own cards is far more satisfying than picking one out on the store rack. They are limited edition and all mine.