Creating a Spring Bird Greeting Card

Naïve Spring Bird Greeting Card - mix up food coloring diluted with water and paint the background allowing colors to merge allow to dry

Spring is a time for flowers, new growth, showers, blue skies, and a riot of happy birds. This cute handmade greeting card allows you to exercise your drawing skills, use of oil pastels, and food colors as a substitute of watercolors. This is a page about creating a spring bird greeting card.

Craft: Naïve Spring Bird Greeting Card

Benetta
Silver Post Medal for All Time! 408 Posts

May 25, 2018

Naïve Spring Bird Greeting Card - finished card with the bird painting affixed to the card For the past few years I have been making my own cards for different occasions. Homemade cards are much more personal, and it shows some extra love towards the recipient.

I needed a few greetings cards, so I had to come up with an idea that would be easy, but would still look beautiful.

This is a great card to make for spring. It can be used as either a birthday card or a greeting card.

Total Time: 15-20 minutes

Supplies:

A4 sheet of ordinary printer
8.2 x 6.1 in pink cardstock
oil pastels
uni-ball eye fine black pen
food coloring: red and blue
glue stick
standard scissors
paintbrush
pencil
ruler
eraser
two plastic bowls
Free Spring Bird Template

Steps:

Draw a 5.4" x 3.7" pencil frame on the paper. Using the pencil, draw a bird sitting on a branch, surrounded by a few small flowers and leaves, in the frame. Use the black pen and ruler to draw over the frame's pencil lines, and then draw over the design's pencil lines. Allow to dry and gently erase any remaining pencil lines. Note: Alternatively, you can print out a copy of the provided design found in the supply list.

Naïve Spring Bird Greeting Card - bird template

Use the oil pastels to color the bird. Color the wing in a different color than the body.

Naïve Spring Bird Greeting Card - color bird with oil pastels

Color the branch, flowers and leaves, again using the oil pastels.

Naïve Spring Bird Greeting Card - color branch, flowers, and leaves

Add blue food coloring to one bowl. In the second, mix blue and red food coloring, so that you will have purple food coloring. Dilute the blue and purple food coloring with water ~ the amount of water used will have an effect of the depth of color you will see when painting. Then, apply the food colorings to the piece of paper with the bird, allowing the colors to interflow. Allow to dry thoroughly before cutting out the design. Note: You can paint over the areas colored with the oil pastels.

Score the 8.2" x 6.1" pink cardstock to create a card sized 6.1" x 4.1". With the fold at the top, centre and glue the bird design to the front of the card. Tip: Add glue to all areas of the paper to glue it down completely, and to help stretch the paper again.

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