Watercolour and Gold Leaf Christmas Cards

Along with the usual bustle of December, I once again gave myself the task of making my own Christmas cards. This year’s design would turn up the complexity from previous years with a Christmas scene painted with watercolour and some gold leaf highlights since I had so much left over from last year.

Originally my plans were lot more ambitious. I wanted each card to have a different image that when put together would create one giant Christmas scene. Time constraints dampened that idea though and instead I chose one that would be easy enough to roll out. I mocked up the design digitally before printing it out to use as my main guideline for all the cards.

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - paper guide — You can just see the underlying image that I used as my guide

I wanted to give the background a slight tint while also keeping the ground area white as if it was covered in snow. This meant using watercolour masking fluid again despite the grief it gave me last time. After some googling, I found that a lot of people rub their brushes on soap to stop the fluid adhering and ruining the brushes. I found this solution worked out great and made the application so much easier than last time.

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - Masking fluid applied — Masking fluid applied

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - Soapy water for masking fluid brushes — Use soapy water for dipping brushes and to sit in after using masking fluid to avoid it adhering to the bristles

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - painting in the background — Painting in the background

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - Background completed with a faded cityscape — Background completed with a faded cityscape

After painting in the background I was ready to remove the masking fluid but no, it had decided it was going be very difficult nay almost impossible to remove. I spent for-EVER erasing over it again and again that I basically went through an entire eraser getting it off. I seriously thought that I had ruined all the cards, all due to including soap in the application. Thankfully after some rough erasing and no paper tears, the cards were ready for the next stage. Never again masking fluid, never again!

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - What was left of my eraser — What was left of my eraser

Painting on the rest of the details, I added each layer a set at a time in a sort of production line across all the cards so once I finished the last one, the first would be dry enough to paint on again.

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - Stages of painting — Stages of painting

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - Watercolour swatches — I don’t own actual watercolours, I use the pencil variety and just make swatches that I run a wet brush over

Watercolour and gold leaf christmas cards - Final details — Watercolour completed

After all of the watercolour work was complete and dried, it was time to add in the gold leaf and the final small touches. Compared to the masking fluid fiasco, gold leaf is particularly wonderful to use – just apply the special glue where you want your gold leaf, wait for it to get tacky and then start adding your gold leaves to it. Wait for it to completely dry, then just remove the excess (which can be saved and used in your next project ;)).