DIY Watercolor Birthday Candle Cards

Today is my grandfather’s birthday! I’m starting with this because I miss him and wish I was in Portugal celebrating his 85th year with him, but he was one of the reasons for today’s post. The other came in the mail for birthday last month from Anthropologie. Are you guys members and receive their monthly catalogs, and special birthday discounts? Well I do, and this year they sent the loveliest birthday card. In true Anthropologie style, it was the prettiest little card with watercolor birthday candles. A birthday card so simple that I fell in love with, and was inspired to create my own.I’m a stationery lover, I’ve got stamps galore, pens in every color of the rainbow, thank you cards and blank cards just because, and envelopes in all sizes. Yet amongst my stationery collection I’ve got no birthday cards. In turn, you’ll often find me heading to the store last minute to pick one up, you know one of those generic cards that will cost you an arm and a leg! Seriously, how and why did greeting cards become so expensive.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some beautiful occasion cards out there, and online shops specializing in the prettiest creations, but they obviously don’t come in handy when you need a special card unexpectedly. I definitey learned my lesson after being convinced I had a card for a baby shower and didn’t, then wound up buying the wrong gender card in a rush. So now my collection is stocked with an array of beautiful occasion cards I purchased from Etsy…

But these watercolor birthday candle cards, aren’t they the cutest? I love that they’re simple and minimalist, yet fun and pretty, which makes them work well for both genders, of any age. I went with green since that’s my grandfather’s favorite color, and wrote happy birthday in Portuguese. Write whatever fun sayings you’d like on yours, or leave them blank. I used three different shades of each color to create the candles in different ombre effects and patterns. If you’re new to watercolor painting, this is an easy design to work on your skills. For an in-depth how to on watercolor see this informative video from Wonder Forest.

All you need to make these watercolor birthday cards…Heavy Duty Cardstock in white {the kind too thick to run through a normal printer}, Watercolor Paints and Paint Brush, and a Pen.

I loved this simple project so much, that I have so many more ideas for watercolor birthday cards!

This this inspire you to make your own birthday and occasion cards?