Advent Gifts Day 17 - Paint with Water Cards

11/29/2012

Advent Gifts Day 17 - Paint with Water Cards

I was in love with the "Paint with Water" books when I was a kid. These were books that had coloring book style images the had little faint dots of color on the black and white image. As soon as you touch water to them the page turns to water color paints. It was amazing and fun. I haven't seen many of these books for my little one so I thought I could make my own.

First I designed and made drawings of a couple of woodland creatures. Just basic line drawings. Black and white clip art would also work from this project.

Next take the images to a copy shop and make black and white copies on a laser or toner copier. An ink jet print will bleed when water is added to it.

I made 2 images on a sheet of 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper with the images shifted to the right. This way when the page is cut in half, they can be folded into note cards.

Once the copies have been made I used Water Color Pencils to color in the image. I tried to add a little shading so when the water is added it looks really nice.

After they are colored, cut the page in half and fold. The gift is done at this point. Pack the cards in a box or tie them with a ribbon.

I have added water to one of the cards so you can see what's in store for your little ones when they paint with water.

See how the pencil lines start to bleed together and the shading blends into one color. The little ones will have an entire box of watercolored notecards to send to friends and family.