Want to show your loved ones a little extra love this Valentine’s Day? A handmade card is one sure way to bring a smile to their face. Whether you prefer brush lettering calligraphy or faux calligraphy, you can easily get creative with help from Leslie Tieu’s step-by-step tutorial!

Supplies You’ll Need:

• Watercolors
• Round 4-6 watercolor brush
• Watercolor paper (8x10 sheet for wall art or smaller sheet for card making)
• Brush pen or monoline pen
• Optional: gel pen to put cute messages on the hearts

Total Project Time:

15 Minutes

Difficulty Level:

Easy

Step 1:

This project can be used to make some Valentine’s Day wall art or be adapted to make a Valentine’s Day card. Begin by painting a row of hearts. Plan your colors ahead of time. This tutorial is for a rainbow color theme but you can choose any colors you want. 

Paint the hearts touching to see watercolors bleed into each heart.

Step 2:

Continue painting in a ROYGBIV order. I start with a row of pink/red hearts, then orange/yellow hearts, green hearts, blue hearts, and then purple hearts. Make sure to vary the colors slightly in each row even though they are in the same group of colors.

Step 3:

Decide what you want to write and include a message at the bottom of your painting. You can choose from whatever phrase you want. I will be writing “Your heart inspires mine”. If you have a brush pen, you can use brush lettering calligraphy, otherwise, we can use a monoline pen to do some faux calligraphy. 

Step 4:

Optional – Now that your card is finished, you can frame and use it as wall art or make a watercolor card to send.

Meet The Creator: Leslie Tieu

Leslie Tieu, the creator of Leslie Writes It All, enjoys sharing helpful tutorials on hand-lettering, watercolor cards, and calligraphy! Here's what Leslie has to say about her favorite Valentine's Day moments:

What is your favorite tradition on Valentine’s Day?

I’ve been lucky enough to have been with my husband since we were in college so we have quite a few Valentine’s Days under our belts. We decide to skip the crowds at restaurants every year and instead opt to take turns making a meal (it’s his year to cook this year!).

I’m a little biased but I created a Valentine’s Day card for Papyrus. I don’t live near a Papyrus store but when we went on our babymoon to Honolulu, I saw it in a store when I walked by. Then I proceeded to run into the store and demanded (nicely) that my husband take my photo next to the display. It was a really exciting and memorable part of our trip.

We’d love to see your Valentine’s Day cards….

Make sure to show off your creation by tagging us @createroomco on Instagram!