There are three absolute constants about life: taxes, death, and that I’ll make a handmade card for every family birthday. Today, I’m bringing you the card I made for my Dad’s birthday this year – a watercolour card featuring a chocolate cupcake with a birthday candle. I’m not the most confident watercolour painter, but I’m really pleased with how the card turned out!

Starting off – making a sketch

First of all, I looked up some reference pictures. I looked at photos of real cupcakes, and I checked out watercolour paintings and cartoon drawings as well. Based on those, I combined a lot of ideas and sketched a draft design with a pencil on a scrap piece of paper. I made several improvements, erasing bits that didn’t look good, trying to look at my design from different angles.

Once I was happy with my sketch, I used a LED pad to trace my draft and transfer it to my blank card (made from folded piece of watercolour paper). Instead of using a pencil for the sketch on the actual card, I used coloured watercolour pencils. I did that because when you paint over a regular pencil, the pencil remains visible.

I thought that using watercolour pencils (which had been sitting in a drawer collecting dust for ages) would make it easier to conceal the sketch with actual paint. I made sure to use minimal pressure, and I used the right colours for each part of the picture.

Starting with the background

This might sound a bit counter intuitive, but I actually started by making the background. I wanted to make a funfetti style sprayed background, and I’m always nervous with that technique. I’ve ruined a few pieces in the past, making huge blobs of paint instead of cute little dots! So this time, I decided to start with the background. In the event it didn’t go well, I could easily start from scratch.

I cut out a silhouette of the cupcake and secured it on top of the sketch on the card with small pieces of masking tape. I didn’t want the background to be on the cupcake – since watercolours aren’t opaque, I wouldn’t be able to paint over it. I sprayed a few colours of paint to make the background. In hindsight, I wish I had used slightly less saturated colours. But I still love how the background turned out!

Painting first areas with watercolours

It was then time to start painting the actual cupcake. I started by painting the paper case, and then moved to the icing and the candle. I made sure to paint areas that weren’t touching, to avoid paints bleeding into each other. You can’t see it in pictures, but I used metallic watercolour paints for the blue parts of the candle and the paper case of the muffin. They’re really shiny in real life.

Continuing with the painting

I left the card to fully dry. Next day, I continued painting the remaining areas. I painted the cake and the cherry, and added some final touches, like the wick of the candle. I also added some shadows underneath the cupcake. And soon, the watercolour cupcake was complete!

Final thoughts

I actually really like how this card turned out! I feel like it’s a really universal design. A cartoon-style cupcake will work for most people. I made it for my Dad, but it would be equally appropriate for a baby’s first birthday. My painting skills still aren’t perfect, but it doesn’t matter – the most important thing is that I make the cards myself, with love. It’s the thought and effort that counts!

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• DIY