Make a Mother’s Day Card for Mom!

Supplies

Mix green and yellow acrylic paint on your mixing plate with enough water to give it a milky consistency. With a saturated—but not dripping—brush, paint an upward stroke, starting with low pressure to create a thin point, then pressing down to create the fullness of the leaf, decreasing pressure to create another point. Using the same techniques you practiced above, you can combine multiple leaves into lush branches. Start with a curving stem and single leaf, adding additional leaves along the stem, staggering placement and angles. Imperfect, flowing, and organic are the goals! Fill a couple of sheets of paper with beautiful leaf motifs in a variety of shapes.

Start by drawing the pistils and stamen with a black (preferably waterproof) pen. Then, using your medium round brush, grab some red, yellow, and white paint and paint organic blobs around the center.

While the blobs are drying, paint over the center in gold or silver, allowing the colors to slightly cover the black ink.

After the paint has dried, pick up the black pen again and draw five curved spokes coming out from the center of the flower. Next, outline the shape of the petals. Stay loose and organic; don’t worry about trying to trace the acrylic shapes exactly. Fill in the petals with additional lines to suggest detail and form.

Paint two vibrant anemones. To create the card as shown in my example, you’ll need 2 good-sized blossoms.

Choose your favorite flowers and leaves from the pages you painted and cut them out.

Using a flower blossom and an assortment of leaves, glue an arrangement onto the front of the card. Make sure to sign your card.