How to make your own safari greeting cards using Life of Colour pens and stencils

Are you one of the people who makes their own cards or buys them from a newsagent? Personally I would rather spend more on the gift and less on the card, so I fall into the former category. With my Life of Colour Pens and stencils I feel like I can make all my own cards with confidence and pride. Nothing is more special and personal than giving a loved one a card that you took your time and effort to make. 

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a beautiful safari greeting card using watercolour pens, paint pens and stencils!

What you will need:

• Card or paper (for easy blending we recommend a thick and smooth marker or mixed media paper, or watercolour paper, but any paper will do!) 
• Life of Colour Watercolour Brush Pens 
• Tape (for the border, optional)
• Life of Colour 10 pack stencils
• Life of colour black fine tip paint pen (or any black pen or marker will do)
• Any Pencil

Step 1: 

Choose your colours: For this picture we used dark red, light red, pink, orange and yellow. Take our your stencil pack and find the animal one with all the cute little animals, including our giraffe and elephant.

Step 2:

Take out your paper and cut it to size. Put some washi tape around the borders to keep it white. (You will peel it off right at the end when everything is dry)

Lay down your colours in a gradient. Reds, yellows down to orange and pink.

Take your water brush which is included in the Watercolour Brush Pens set and blend the colours together. The idea is to get a sunset effect like you see below as we will be drawing in a silhouette of the animals in the end. 

If this is your first time blending, just play around, don't expect to get it right the first time you try. Different paper will also give different effects. I have used watercolour paper in this tutorial, mixed media paper will work just as well. Blending is incredibly fun and therapeutic and once you have done it once you will be hooked! We have hundreds of blending options in our pack of 20 watercolour pens, so make sure the colours work well together and blend away. Don't be shy with the water either.

Step 3:

Outline the stencil with pencil. I chose the giraffe and elephant for this but there are many other options to choose from. 

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Step 4:

Get your black fine tip acrylic paint pen and colour in the stencil drawings. Make sure the paint is all completely dry to get a good solid finish. Our black watercolour pen will also work very well here with a lighter black finish. If you want to use another texter or marker you can, as long as the water has dried.

Step 5:

Add some details. I used the plants stencil to add some fauna to the silhouette. You can add anything you want at this point.

Another great idea is to use the banners, borders or letters stencil sheets to add in your message or greeting. You can also turn the card around to do that on the other side. I love the look of combining the plants and animals to make it look like a real safari scene.

If you did use tape for your border, you can now slowly peel it off to reveal your clean white border. 

NO more steps! You are done. Now write your greeting and give it to someone you love. You can stick it in an envelope and post it to someone who lives far away. Everyone loves receiving a card in snail mail! 

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and will go give it a bash yourself. Anyone can do this as long as you have the right tools.