How to Make Botanical Watercolor Wedding Placecards

Want to know how to make
your own Botanical Watercolor Wedding Placecards?
It’s an easy and economical way to up the elegance
for your nature themed special occasion.

 

Some brides like to make things for their own weddings.

Either because they enjoy making,

or because they want high end but have to pick and choose the items they want to spend for.

Making your own seating cards can save you some cash,

especially if your pick is hand lettered, hand drawn botanical watercolor place cards!

We’ll show you several ways to accomplish this look,

from hand done all the way, to cheating a little and creating a printable design.

 

 

How to make Botanical Watercolor Placecards

 

What you need:

1. Choose a watercolor paper in the weight you prefer. We’re using 140#, which is very stiff.
2. Ruler, scissors, x-acto knife, pencil, extra fine tip permanent ink pen, green and coral watercolor paints, brushes.
3. Go to this post or this one for more watercolor painting information.

 

 

How we did it:

1. Decide on a size for your cards. We made ours 3.5″ wide x 3″ high. The height is divided in half for the fold, so the actual face of the card is 3.5″ wide by 1.5″ high.
2. Mark the watercolor paper at 3″ the length of the page. Place your ruler on the mark and lightly score the mark with the X-acto knife. Without moving the ruler, run the knife over the same score one more time, a little deeper. Now score the length of paper at 1.5″ which will be the fold. Score lightly only one time.
3. Lay aside the knife and ruler. Begin to tear the 3″ score at the edge. Hold the placecard side steady, and tear the extra off. Pull slowly and firmly to get a good hand torn edge.
4. Now score the length of placecard at 3.5″ intervals. Fold to the back, and use the scissors to cut the cards to size. Scoring first helps get your cut straight.
5. Your cards are ready to be lettered and painted.

 

For hand made, hand drawn, lettered and painted cards:

1. Draw your botanical elements on the cards with the super fine point permanent marker pen.
2. Do the lettering with the same pen.
3. Ombre the torn edge of your card with watercolor. We used shimmer watercolor in persimmon.
4. Add a splash of green onto the botanical elements. Keep it very light, not worrying about painting in the lines.
5. Let the cards dry. Fold and put away for the big day.

 

 

Create a cheat design sheet:

Option One:

1. Print the botanical element onto tracing paper, then use graphite transfer paper to trace the design onto each placecard.
2. Print a sheet of tracing paper with the names and font you wish to use on the cards. Trace the names onto the cards with the graphite transfer paper.
3. Go over the traced designs with the fine tip permanent marker pen.
4. Now go back and complete steps 3 to 5 above.

 

 

Option Two:

1. Design a table (see detailed directions below) with the botanical element and the names in your font choice, making the cells of the table the size you want your placecards.
2. Print the table directly onto your watercolor paper. Cut and tear the cards.
3. Trace over the elements and lettering with the fine tip permanent marker pen.
4. Go back to the first steps 3 to 5 to complete the cards.

 

Create a Table

1. Use an app or program that allows you to create tables, such as Microsoft Word, Power Point or Publisher. Google Docs could work also, but I don’t know how to make that program behave when I want to add an object to the table.
2. Make the cells of the table 1.5″ x 3.5″. Use very light lines so they won’t show after scoring. Create your table with two rows. Then copy and paste this table below it, with space between. You’ll understand why, when you cut and tear the cards.
3. Choose the bottom rows of your tables to add the botanical element and the names in the font of your choice. You can have this printing as your final design on the cards, or you can print it lightly and trace over with the black permanent fine tip marker pen for a more hand drawn and lettered look.

 

 

Print the Table on the watercolor paper:

1. You will need to create a Jpeg or PDF file to take it to a commercial printer. Unless you use lighter weight paper that your home printer can handle. I use an Epson photo printer that has rear feed capabilities to print on heavy watercolor paper. I can print directly from Google Docs, or Publisher, which I prefer for designing.
2. Remember to score the bottom lines of the cells so you can tear for the hand deckled edge. Score and fold the center lines. Score and cut the outer lines.

 

 

 

We hope you try to make
Botanical Watercolor Wedding Placecards.

Please tell us how it goes.