Make these easy Watercolor Holiday Cards with a plaid pattern. Each card is special, colorful, vibrant, and fun to make and gift to friends and family! Come paint with me today!
I love the holiday season, the weather cools down, and it’s time to pull out all of those Christmas Crafts. I particularly enjoy making Christmas Cards to gift to the close people in my life. These cards are super simple to make and painting with watercolor markers could not be easier!
Here are a few more card tutorials for you- Watercolor Christmas cards tutorial video, Watercolor Poinsettia Tutorial with EASY VIDEO! and 25+ Creative Christmas Cards Ideas
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how to paint plaid VIDEO TUTORIAL:
New YouTube video upload! Watch this Watercolor Holiday Card Tutorial on YouTube or click the video box below. In the video, I show you how to paint plaid step by step using masking tape, and how to paint buffalo plaid using just red and black markers.
Supplies that you’ll need:
- Watercolor Cards: These pre-scored and pre-folded A2 cards come with matching envelopes. These are great to watercolor on! The paper is heavy enough to withstand the water and not warp. You can also use any kind of watercolor paper you have.
- Watercolors: Pull out your watercolor cakes or pens!
- Paintbrushes: A chisel tip paintbrush or water brush is great to use here! You can also use any round paintbrush you might have on hand.
- Masking tape: I highly recommend this brand, it has the perfect amount of tackiness and peels off easily and neatly every time!
- A pair of Scissors
- Tape Runner
How to Paint plaid watercolor patterns
I used four different methods to paint each of these backgrounds to make Easy watercolor holiday cards! I tried a simple diagonal plaid (green and white), Gingham (red and white), Buffalo Plaid (red and black) and Shepards Check (black and white). Make sure to watch the video to see them all!
- The simplest way to paint this plaid/ check/ gingham pattern is to use a square paintbrush and paint your lines downwards first, and then paint lines perpendicularly. For this method, make sure that your paintbrush has very little water and is kinda of dry to avoid bleeds.
- To add a little more interest, try painting this pattern on an angle (like in the green) and use 2 or 3 different shades of green!
- To create precise sharp lines, use a masking tape to space out the grid pattern (like in the black and white example) and brush pens that can be reactivate on the paper. This method will have a longer set up time, but the result makes it worth the time! This was my favorite of them all with a super satisfying reveal.
- To create a Buffalo plaid pattern, first paint the card with red and let dry. Then repeat any of the above methods to create a great color contrast.
READ MORE: Find all my previous watercoloring posts here!
Easy watercolor holiday cards:
To finish off these easy Watercolor Holiday cards I printed this sheet of sentiments onto white cardstock. Download these from my Printable Holiday Gift Tags post. Cut out the labels to use and adhere to the cards using an adhesive.
Free Printable Sentiments!
I hope you are all staying safe and keeping busy. Let me know in the comments below if you enjoyed today’s “How to Paint Plaid” tutorial friends!
Making these watercolor holiday cards has definitely added a bit of cheer to 2024. Let the Holiday Card making commence!
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Smitha, these cards are fun! I love the plaid and your downloadable sentiments are perfect! Thanks for joining in the Creative Crafts FUN!
This was a great tutorial! I’m planning to make some of these this weekend! 🙂
Yay! Have a great weekend!
These are beautiful and what a fun twist! Thank you so much for sharing!