DIY Watercolor Cards With Cricut – 9 Free Designs!

Instructions

STEP 1: GET MY FREE DIY WATERCOLOR CARDS DESIGNS

You can download my free DIY watercolor design SVG/PDF/DXF files from my free resource library. Look for Design #457. You can trace the printable PDFs or use the other files with cutting machines. I'll show you how to prepare the SVGs in Cricut Design Space to make on a Maker or Explore series machine.

The SVG folder contains five files:

Hello warm up design

Cardinal

Hummingbird

Lovebirds

Peacock

I suggest starting with the warm up design, so upload the file you want to your software and Add it to the Canvas.

If you’re not sure how to upload an SVG file to Cricut Design Space, watch this helpful video SVGs Made Simple training series I made. It will help you SO much!

If you're on an iPhone or iPad, here's how to download and upload SVG files to the Cricut Design Space app.

STEP 2: PREPARE AND DRAW YOUR PRACTICE DESIGN

This is what the warm up design looks like on my Canvas. You can zoom in to see the details by clicking on the plus (+) sign on the lower left.

We need to adjust a few things to make the design draw out correctly. Practicing on this file will prepare you to work on the animal designs.

Notice the list of colors to the right of "Hello" on the Canvas? Each color is grouped with part of the main design. These will help you define which color you need to assign to the different layers of the image.

Select the image and under the "Operation" menu, select "Pen".

Next click "Ungroup" in the Layers Panel.

Select the first group in the Layers. You will see in this grouping that the color you need to select is purple.

Click on the color box under the "Operation" menu. Select "M-Marker (1mm)" and then "Purple (Watercolor)"

Now that this color has been defined, delete the layer that shows the word "purple" in the Layers.

Repeat this for the rest of the groups in the Layers menu.

Your design should now look like this.

Select all the layers and click "Attach" found at the bottom right of your screen.

Make sure the correct machine is selected and then click "Make it".

If prompted, select "On Mat" and "12" x 12" in the pop up.

We're using smaller paper, but leave the Material Size at "12" x 12". We'll just place it strategically on the mat.

We'll use the Prepare screen to correctly place the watercolor card on a 12" x 12" Green StandardGrip Machine Mat. Since the design is wider than it is tall, we'll make the card in landscape orientation and add the colors to the front.

Open the card and hold it face up with the crease running horizontally and the front panel at the bottom.

To make lining things up easier, match the crease to a horizontal line on the mat and line up the left edge with a vertical mat guide. I place the crease at the 5" mark and the left edge at 1". That means the front panel is between 1" and 7.5" horizontally and 5" to 9.75" vertically. We'll need to remember that!

Press it down with the brayer.

Back in Design Space, click and drag the image to the mat area where you put your card's front. Roughly center it if you like in the card's horizontal area, just make sure it's below the horizontal 5” line but above 9.75" so it won't draw on the crease and will all be on the paper. Always double check your measurements and text placements.

Click Continue.

Set your base material to "Heavy Watercolor Paper - 140lbs (300 gsm)".

Load the first watercolor marker into clamp A following the prompt on the screen.

Load you mat, making sure the card orientation and placement matches the screen. Press the flashing button to begin drawing. The Cricut will pause and prompt you to swap the colors of the markers when it's ready.

When image is complete, unload the mat, flip it over, and roll it back to release the notecard without curling.

STEP 3: PAINT YOUR DESIGN

Now it's time to paint! This may seem daunting, but it's not. No two watercolor paintings will look the same, even when a Cricut is involved!

First let's prepare your brushes. While the brush included with your watercolor markers works for all of these designs, you may find it easier to use a smaller brush tip for some. Remove the brush cap. Unscrew the brush tip from the water chamber.

Fill the chamber with water, leaving about a thumb's width unfilled, and put the brush tip back on.

Hold the brush over a paper towel and gently squeeze the water chamber until water starts coming through to the bristles. If this is the first time you are using the brush, it may take a couple of squeezes.

You want your brush to be wet, but not dripping with water. Blot the brush on the paper towel to remove excess water.

With a damp brush, drag it along the inside of the line on the letter H. Coax the red and orange colors away from the drawn lines and into the center of the letter.

Continue to brush along the inside lines of the H. If your brush seems dry, gently squeeze it to draw more water to the tip.

TIP: When refreshing your brush with water, test the wetness on a paper towel to make sure your don't have too much water on it.

When you have completed the first letter, clean your brush by squeezing and blotting on a paper towel until no color shows. It's important when changing colors to clean your brush so that you don't transfer unwanted colors into other areas of your painting.

Continue the same method with the other letters. Feel free to experiment with different amounts of water on your brush.

You can lighten dark areas by applying a clean, dry cotton swab to an area of paint. When the swab touches this part of the painting, it will lift some of the colored water off of the paper. You can continue lifting color off until you are satisfied.

Let the painting dry for about 30 minutes to an hour. It should be dry to the touch. This is what my warm up card looks like when finished.

The animal images work just the same as the warm up image. They look much more complex, but I promise they use the same techniques!

If you want to experiment with blending and saturating or lightening colors before tackling an animal, draw more copies of the Hello design to practice on. Line them up in chronological order and you'll see how your technique changes! Watercolor is fun because it's controlled uncertainty. You can place paint and water in the same exact way and never get the same results, and that's totally ok!

I will show you the steps on how I painted each of the animals. I drew them on the 5.8" x 8.3" watercolor paper to make framable artwork.

CARDINAL

This is what the cardinal looks like right after it's drawn.

With a damp brush, start with the black area around the eye. Outline the area by connecting the outside marks like a dot-to-dot pattern. Try not to get the black on any of the other colored lines. Don't drag the black all the way inside the eye. Leaving a bit of white creates a highlight!

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Next, fill in the black around the claws with a brush that is more dry than wet.

Clean your brush and start blending the colors on the branch with a damp brush. Try not to touch the black from the claws to avoid bleeding. If you end up with a little bit of white space, you can go back in and touch it up when it has dried. Watercolor is fun that way!

Make sure your brush is clean and blend the beak colors, making sure not to touch the black lines. Leave some white space in between them if possible.

Now we are going to paint the main part of the body. Your brush can be more on the wet side but not dripping with water. Starting at the head near the eye, pull the colors toward the top of the head. You can also add small strokes to show more feathers at the crown of the head.

Continue with the rest of the body by saturating the paint lines and drawing the colors away to the center of the body.

Work on the outer wings and legs the same way.

And then the tail feathers.

I purposely left some white space around the black area on the cardinal's face. This is so the black pigment didn't bleed into the other colored area. Let the painting dry for about 30 minutes to an hour. It should be dry to the touch. Using your black watercolor marker, touch up the white spaces.

Now it is complete!

LOVEBIRDS

This is what the lovebirds look like right after they're drawn.

Start at the eyes. You don't want a lot of water on your brush. Just enough to push a little bit of paint into the center. Leave a white dot to highlight the eyes again. Fill in the claws with black as well.

Clean your brush, and with a damp brush, paint the red beaks.

Next is the fun part! Using a wet brush we are going to start with the orange part on the left bird. Cover the orange lines with water and start dragging the water around the eye and down towards the yellow marks but don't touch any of the yellow yet.

Clean your brush and give it a squeeze to get water into it. Put your brush in the yellow marks near the orange. Get the yellow marks wet and then slowly let the yellow area touch the orange. Look at how the colors blend for you - magic! Continue along the yellow/orange border.

Clean your brush, then do the same for the yellow and green border.

For the tail, use a damp brush and at the top there is a black line on the green. Start your brush at that black line and drag down. This gives the tail a slight shadow.

For the second bird, we will work the same way for the body. Leave the outer wing alone until you have completed the body.

Paint the tail and the right leg.

For the outer wing, just like what we did for the tail, drag the black pigment away and onto the wing taking care not to touch the yellow paint.

Clean your brush and using a damp brush, paint the branch.

When the paint has dried slightly - meaning it's not soaking and there aren't any puddles of water on the paper, you can touch up the white areas with a damp/dry brush. You don't need a lot of water, you're just pulling some of the damp colors into the white spaces.

HUMMINGBIRD

This is what the hummingbird looks like right after its drawn.

Use a clean, damp brush and fill in the beak and eye. Leave a white highlight in the eye.

Clean your brush. Next, the wings! Use a damp brush and gently glide it along the top wing section. Pull the color off the line and fill in the wing leaving just a little bit of white along the edge of the next section. You can mix the red in by pushing the color towards the tip of the wing.

With a clean brush we are going to start at the top of the head near the beak. Your brush should be wet but not dripping. Pull the blue near the beak up towards the top black marks and then down through the yellow and green lines to the base of the wings. Continue applying a wet brush around the eye and through all the green marks stopping near the blue marks.

Next, using a clean damp to wet brush, start dabbing the blue marks near the green. After you have saturated the blue a bit, you can start pushing the blue towards the green area.

Continue to brush over the blue marks and the belly, stopping near the green marks. Work the blue up into the wing.

Now start working the color into the green area under the wing.

When you get to the black outermost tail, pull your brush all the way down to the end.

Fill in the smaller blue feathers and the rest of the black and green area.

Clean your brush. Now we'll paint the tail feathers starting with the green. Using a damp brush, pull the brush downward toward the black marks. Try connecting the outer parts of the marks like a dot-to-dot to form a solid line. After you have brushed this area, pull the color over half of that feather. Continue to do this with all the black colored areas.

With a clean brush do the same to the blue tail marks.

PEACOCK

This is what the peacock looks like right after its drawn.

Start with a damp/dry brush and lightly dab the crest feathers on top of its head.

Clean your brush and paint the beak.

Next, using a clean brush, do the top, front part of the head. Be careful and don't let the blue paint touch the beak. Blue will start bleeding into the beak area if you do. If you would like to do a little bit of shading, you can use a clean, dry cotton swab near the top of the head. The dry cotton swab will lift color off of the paper and create a lighter area. Dab your brush on the paper towel and repeat until there is a lighter area.

With a wet brush, work on the neck and underside of the peacock. Run your brush over the blue marks and then pull the color to the center of the body stopping at the wing and green marks.

Next paint the wing.

For the rest of the body start by using a damp brush on the blue scallop marks. Clean your brush and then with a damp brush start painting the green and yellow marks. Dab the blue area to join the two sections together.

Next, we will paint the first set of scalloped tail feathers. These are the blue and green "u" shapes. With a clean damp brush mix the two colors together and push the colors up toward the layer above it. Be sure not to touch the lines above it right away, give it a minute or two to dry just a little bit and then go back in to touch up the white space.

The next set of scallops have a green oval with a blue dot and yellow mark outlined in blue. Using a damp brush, start with the blue dot and drag the brush with the blue color over the green oval to mix the colors. Fill in the feather being careful not to touch the yellow. We will paint the yellow later.

For the larger tail feathers we will start the same way as the previous step with the blue dot. Drag the blue green mixture towards the other scallops and then down towards the blue "U" shape. Leave the yellow and orange marks alone for now.

The extra green lines are flourishes, drag a damp/dry brush over the line and extend the color, you can add other flourishes that come off of these lines as well.

Lastly, using a clean, damp/dry brush lightly brush over the yellow and the yellow/orange marks.

SEA TURTLE

This is what the sea turtle looks like after it’s drawn

Start with the inside of the eye. 

Then paint the spots on the flippers.

While those dry, fill in the flipper without the spots, and the bumps on the shell.

Next, do the head. Leave some white space around the eye so the black doesn’t bleed into the rest of the head

Go back and paint around the spots on the flipper and the spaces in between the shell bumps.

When the paint has dried, fill in the white space around the eye with the black marker.

WHALE

This is what the whale looks like after it’s drawn

Start with the eye and leave a little highlight in it.

Then work on the underside. Drag a damp brush along the black lines, connecting any broken lines and leaving some white space between that and the black line next to it. 

Then with a wet brush fill in the body of the whale, starting at the tail and working towards the head. Leave a little white space around the eye.

Last, fill in the flipper.

When the paint has dried, fill in the white space around the eye with the black marker.

OCTOPUS

This is what the octopus looks like drawn.

Start with the eyes. Don’t go beyond the lines because we’ll leave the surrounding white ring this time when we paint the body.

Working from left to right, paint each of the tentacles.

Then paint the head.

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SEAHORSE

This is what the seahorse looks like drawn

Fill in the eye.

Starting at the end of the tail, paint the body of the sea horse.

Continue with the head, leaving white space around the eye.

Then work on the fins. If you’d like, you can leave a thin white highlight line between each section.

Fill in the coral.

When the paint has dried, fill in the white space around the eye with the black marker.

STEP 4: SHOW IT OFF!

Gift your notecards and prints!