Last-Minute Watercolor Christmas Cards: Paint Two Simple Christmas Trees

1. INTRO: In this quick and easy Christmas card class, we'll be painting two simple Christmas tree, and each one takes less than 3 minutes to complete. These designs are perfect for last minute Christmas cards, small gifts, or just a fun relaxing painting session. Feel free to use any colors you like. These cards we work beautifully with any palette you choose. So when you're ready, let's start painting with our first Christmas card. 2. Supplies Needed For This Class: Before we get started, let's go over the materials you'll be using. For paper, I'll be using 100% cotton, co press watercolor paper. This is a local brand in my country, but feel free to use any brand you have. Any good quality watercolor paper will work. I've cut them into smaller sizes, which is roughly half of an A five size paper. For brushes, you can use any watercolor brushes you have. I'll be using a few different sizes and shapes. We'll use washi tape to create borders for our Christmas trees. This tape is gentle and won't damage our paper when we peel it off. We also need some clean water, some paper towels to remove excess paint from our brush. For the Christmas greeting, I'll be using a gold pen, but any pen you have, will work just fine. We also need some cotton buds for some gold details. And for the gold details, I'll be using metallic gold paint from Kurataki. But if you don't have metallic paint, you can also use a metallic gel pat. Either option works beautifully. And finally, a basic set of watercolor paints. Now, feel free to choose whichever colors you like for your Christmas cards projects. 3. Simple Christmas Tree Card : Gold Swirls : Alright, so for our first class project, we are going to create a simple Christmas tree with beautiful golden swirls. So first, decide how big you want your tree to be. Then grab some washi tape and form a triangle shape. Now, make sure the tape is pressed down nicely so the paint doesn't bleed underneath. You can choose any colors you like for your tree. I'm using a cool winter palette today. I'll start painting at the very top of the triangle using royal blue. And while the paint is still wet, I'll load my brush with some cobalt blue and apply it to the middle section of the tree, gently blending it into the royal blue to create a smooth color transition. Next, I'll switch to violet, gently blending it into the but blue and continuing to fill in the lower part of the tree. So now we've created a smooth transition of colors, shifting beautifully from royal blue at the top into cobalt blue, and finally into violet at the bottom. Now, once you're happy with the gradient, let everything completely dry. When the paint is fully dry, carefully peel off the tape to reveal a clean, crisp edge. Alright, next, I'll add a little gold star at the top, and then I'll paint a simple tree trunk at the bottom. Now, for the fun part, let's add some golden swirls to decorate our tree. Feel free to use any metallic gel pen if you don't have any metallic paint. All right, so I'll start at the top of the tree and slowly work my way down. Okay, once you're done, you can finish the card with a Christmas greeting of your choice. And that's our first Christmas card design. I hope you enjoyed painting this simple festive tree with me. 4. Wet on Wet Christmas Tree Card : Gold Baubles: Okay, so for our second Christmas card, we are going to create a Christmas tree using the wet-on-wet technique. I'll start by forming a triangle shape using my washi tape. So once the triangle is in place, I'll fill it in with some shell pink. As always, feel free to choose whichever colors you like for this design. I'll go over the triangle a few times to make sure the paper stays wet and we have an even layer of paint with no puddles of water. Next, I'll cover the outer sides of the triangle with some scrap paper to protect these areas when we add paint splatters. Now for some fun splattering, I'll load my brush with some opera pink and add splatters inside the triangle. Now, if you want smaller paint splatters, you can use a thicker consistency of paint, so it won't spread much on the wet paper. Okay. Now I'll grab a darker red. Here I'm using medal ik, and I'll add more splatters while the paper is still wet. I'll also use my brush to add small depths of paint to fill in any areas. Now, we can continue layering colors as long as the paper is still wet. Okay, so once you're happy with the effect, let everything completely dry before peeling off the tape. Next, I'll add a pink star at the top and a simple trunk at the base of the tree. Now, for some fun details, I'll use a cotton bud to pick up some wet gold paint and add golden baubles to the tree. If you prefer, you can use a small brush for this step instead. Finally, just add a Christmas greeting of your choice to the card. And that's it. Our wet-on-wet Christmas tree card is all done. I hope you had fun creating these cards. Don't forget to share your project in the gallery. I would love to see your creations. And here's wishing you a merry Christmas and lots of happy painting.