Doodle Holiday Cards

When I was a kid, opening the mailbox was something special. Back then besides bills and junk-mail, one might have found a personal letter or postcard from a loved one in the mail. When holidays would come around, I loved getting the decorative holidays cards, writing them and sending them.

Today, I am the only person in my circle who still sends holiday cards every year. It's a beautiful way to say to people I love you and you are important to me. Sometimes out of convince I buy pre-made cards but other times I make my own.

Using a black marker, watercolor and a little glitter, we'll create our holiday cards. Doodling, like zentangle, is a forgiving technique since it is easy to camouflage any mistakes. Also, it's a decorative way to make holiday cards with your kids. Depending on their age and skill level they can either draw their own or help color in the ones you draw.

Materials

• Card stock (coldpress watercolor paper card stock was used in this example)
• Permanent markers
• Pencil
• Compass or anything round (a cup was used for this example)
• Eraser
• Watercolors
• Glitter
• Glue

Holiday cards with tree ornaments are my favorite and easy to make. You can also draw any other holiday themed shape like a tree, santa, snowman, peace pigeon, etc.

The ornament themed cards are easy because they require less artistic skill then drawing figures or animals. Start by drawing 1-3 circles on the card using a compass, cup, saucer, or anything round. When you have placed your circles on the card, on top of each circle add a little hat to make it look like an ornament.

Using a pencil sketch some general patterns in the circles to make them look like ornaments. Once you are happy with your pencil designs, go over them with a permanent marker.

Using various doodle patterns fill in your ornaments. The Zentangle Doodling instructable has some examples to give you ideas and there are many online examples and in your imagination is a great resource too. It is better to use some of the lighter patterns with less black space then the darker patterns for the ornaments.

When you are done patterning the ornaments, it's time to color. When working with watercolor, use the lighter colors first like yellow, cyan, pink, and then the richer colors like reds, greens and dark blues. You can also leave ares white, this is where we will add glitter in the next step.

When you are done coloring, add your holiday message inside the card. You can use a marker or calligraphy pen for this or even a printer. If you decide to use a printer, do so before you add glitter to the card. I like simple holiday messages like "Happy Holidays" or "Happy New Year!" but the message can be anything you deem appropriate.

Putting glitter on can be a little messy, so this step can be optional. The cards will be attractive even without glitter but if we want to give them a little holiday shine here is how to apply glitter:

1. On a separate piece of paper, put a dab of glue
2. With a toothpick or skewer apply the glue to areas where you want to have glitter
3. Sprinkle the glitter & wait a couple of minutes for the glue to dry
4. Shake off excess glitter