Baby Elephant Card DIY

I made this elephant card for a baby shower.

Materials:

• Card stock
• Pencil, eraser, black sharpie, black ink pen
• Pink, gray and yellow watercolor paint
• scissors

I cut out the card stock to approximately 10" x 6" and folded the long side in half.

The card stock was glossy on one side, which is the side I drew on.

I drew in pencil first, drawing broad strokes, mimicking a picture I liked.  I erased the lines that were off until it resembled my inspiration drawing.

I traced over the finished pencil drawing in sharpie.

I erased the pencil and painted the star balloon, ears and stars in pink and yellow respectively.

For the inside of the card, I draw a ladder with lines in pencil to designate where each letter of my well wishes will go and keep it level:

I begin drawing in black ink pen:

I add an exclamation mark with a heart, outline in black, paint the heart:

And that's all!  I love making cards for milestone events.  There's a certain pleasure that comes with making it myself, like giving a work of art on top of the gift!  I've experimented with different card types in the past, but I find that what works is drawing an illustration with sharpie and coloring it in, keeping it simple.