Original Watercolor Christmas Cards 2022

Wishing all my friends, family and blog readers a very Merry Christmas!

One of my 2022 New Year's Resolutions was to grow my skill in watercolor.  I definitely accomplished that goal.  As evidenced here by a painting done early on (right side) and then the same painting later in the year (left side).

At some point, I decided I wanted to create a painting to become my Christmas cards - the perfect culmination of the year of work.  For all the rest of the year, I followed lessons in a book (The Joy of Watercolor) which really helped compose my drawings, as well as guided me on colors and techniques.  For my cards, I was starting from scratch.  I'm going to walk through my process, in case it's interesting to anyone!

1: The Idea

Probably from watching one of my favorite movies - The Holiday and one of my favorite TV shows - Ted Lasso - I came up with the idea of  "Christmas shops" or "storefronts".  Super charming and Christmasy!

2. Inspiration

I started gathering inspiration storefronts by following @shopfrontspoetry on Instagram and saving them to a collection.  Here is my general inspiration:

3. Drawing

Once I had my inspiration, I needed to lightly sketch it out.  Maybe the hardest step for me.  Drawing does NOT come naturally to me and I've found drawing architecture to be less forgiving than other subjects like flowers!  I ended up choosing these specific shops as inspiration - see if you can match them up to what I drew!

4. Color Mixing

I did a lot of mixing and testing before finally choosing a color and painting my drawing.

5. Watercolor Painting

Definitely a multi step, multi day project. 

6. Scan and Digital Design

I scanned it on a copier at work, using the highest resolution possible.  Then I cleaned up several things and added several things, using Canva.  Finally adding some meaningful "Easter eggs" for my family.  I named the far left store Kringle's Book Shop, as a nod to my Dad, who went home to heaven a few years ago, because he loved books, loved to read, played Santa in our small town and kept Christmas in his heart everyday.  Also to honor my Dad, a red cardinal perched on a windowsill of the building on the left.  The book shop door's kick plate says Schnelle, my family's last name.  The center shop is called The Shop Around the Corner, a favorite movie of my mom and I and the name we always talked about "if we ever got the chance to open a shop."  The image below is before any digital edits were made.

7. Have your cards printed!  I used VistaPrint - a horizontal folded card and chose "Upload Your Own."

Final Result:

To everyone seeing this - Merry Christmas and thank you!

XOXO 

Lyndi

Painting with Milk Paint

I found these two things at Goodwill last weekend - I took a picture of them together because the bracelet was the color inspiration for the box.

Here are two other "before" pictures.

Step 1 was to remove the handle.

I went to Hobby Lobby and I thought that I would get chalk paint, but right next to the chalk paint was milk paint - which I had never used and really knew nothing about.  I googled it right there in the aisle and decided I'd give it a try.  I learned it would paint flat and a little bit lighter and then you also buy milk paint oil and that will finish, smooth and darken the paint and give it a smooth luster finish.

Here are the paints I bought and if you want to try them, you can buy them here:

I did two coats of paint.  Here is the box painted with the milk paint. The darker patch in the bottom is the beginning of the finishing oil.

Here is how it looks when adding the oil - which you rub on with a soft cloth.

I really love the color and how it turned out - it is exactly what I envisioned!  I added plaid paper in the top and I'm crazy about how Christmas-y that makes it!!!  The cute gift tags in the picture below were handmade by my mom!

Next week - I'll blog about how I added the graphic to the top of the box!