Mother’s Day is just around the corner… do you have your card ready? Not to fear, we’ve got you covered! Using Sakura’s awesomely vibrant Koi Water Colors and some oil pastels, you can whip up a beautiful and unique card that will make your mom, grandma, or the motherly friend in your life swoon. Better yet, it will make the fridge where it will likely be magnet-ed shine with beauty.

Watercolor-resist techniques involve putting a layer of oily pigment or tape onto your surface first, so when you apply the watercolor, it resists, or avoids, the oil or tape. It’s an awesome trick to try when you want to reveal a hidden message with color, or when you’re hitting an art-block and want to experiment with materials to spark a new idea.

Materials:

Koi Water Colors
Watercolor paper
oil pastel (Sakura’s Cray-Pas pastels work great!) or china marker

Step 1: Draw your Mother’s Day message on your watercolor paper with an oil pastel or china marker. Be sure to make your letters nice and thick with lots of layer of pigment.

Your message will start off invisible… just wait ‘til we add color!

Step 2: Reveal your invisible message by painting on top of it with Sakura’s Koi Watercolors! We love the day-glo colors of this watercolor set. It even comes with a little mixing tray and refillable watercolor brush, making it portable and perfect for travel. Just fill up the bottom half of the brush with water and screw on the top. Squeeze the brush for water to fill the brush tip, and then mix it with your watercolors to create your shade!

Sakura’s Koi Watercolor set even has two side sponges for you to clean your brush. So compact!

Step 3: Once you’ve painted to your heart’s content, leave out the cards to dry. Your unique Mother’s Day card is complete! Now all it needs is a sweet message on the back. :-)

If you loved this DIY, you won’t want to miss our special Mother’s Day giveaway of a copy of ILLUSTORIA’s Issue #8: Home and your very own Sakura Koi Watercolor set! It’s the perfect gift to self or the creative mom in your life. Check out our instagram post for entry.

Huge thanks to Sakura of America for their continued support and sponsorship of our publication. They help to bring artfulness into our magazine and into your home with every issue.

WHERE:
Heath Newsstand, located in Heath Ceramics
2900 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

WHEN:
Saturday, May 12th
10:00 am - 12:00 pm

WHY:
Decorate loving, refrigerator-worthy Mother's Day cards at the SF-based wonderland that is Heath Newsstand, a gorgeous space dedicated to quality print publications from around the globe. We'll be on hand making pop-up cards, string-art cards with colorful embroidery floss, and good 'ol paper, markers, and scissors. Come craft with us and enjoy a beautiful afternoon at the lovely Heath Newsstand. PLUS! Receive a free gift of Sakura Gelly Roll White or Gelly Roll Metallic pen + Illustoria stickers and bookmarks with every Illustoria magazine purchase! (Good for the first 30 customers. Limit 2 per customer.)

No time for the kiddos (or you!) to make a Mother's Day card? No sweat, ILLUSTORIA's got your back. Join us May 12th at our happy place, Heath Newsstand, to make and customize a card or two or three. See you there!

Heath Ceramics has been a champion of quality dining and house wares in the Bay Area since 1948. The company was founded by Edith and Brian Heath in Sausalito, CA and today you can find the kiln fired pieces in museums and shops around the country. Not only are heath ceramics, tiling, and furniture made to last--they are art objects that push boundaries and embody the down-to-earth, California spirit. On an average weekend, you can find the ILLUSTORIA staff wandering the Heath Ceramic showroom or perusing their newly opened Newsstand. We're honored to be stocked at Heath, and hope you can join us on Saturday, May 12th, to celebrate the strongest women in our lives — our moms.