Watercolor Valentines

Today we finished our Valentine's Day cards. I recently saw this tutorial for watercolor resist cards on Grow Creative that shows how to make homemade Valentine's Day cards. My kids loved it, even my little guy who isn't usually that interested in the creative projects I plan for him and his sister. Now we have another way to make homemade Valentines for my kids to give their friends, teachers, and loved ones!

I usually do involved projects like this in stages with my kids. So, on Friday the kids used white crayons and stencils to create a variety of designs. Today, Saturday, we pulled out the paints and they added beautiful colors to the cards.

After painting the first few Valentines, we started to wonder why the crayons weren't resisting the paint as much as they should. We could barely see the hearts on the one above...or the sun and kitten in the other. At first I thought our crayons weren't quality enough, but then we tried using the crayon on a new card and painting it right after.

This worked much better! So I strained to see the shapes and designs on the unpainted-but-already-designed-cards and traced over the work my children had done the day before.

I love the effect. I love that my kids didn't stick with only the traditional hearts for their Valentine's Day cards, but used a variety of shapes from our stencils...circles, stars, squiggles, even a Christmas holly leaf to make a shooting star!

They did some Valentine hearts, too. This one looks like a bleeding heart...unintentional, of course.

My kids really enjoyed watching the colors mix, watching the shapes emerge, and making the Valentines special for each person!

☼

I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!