Valentine's day handmade cards

Valentine's day handmade cards

Ever since 2015 I've participated in the Handmade Valentine Exchange (at least every year it was offered). The idea is to spread joy and creativity in the world by exchanging handmade valentine's cards with people from around the world!

This year I decided to do a block print. I wanted to try a reductive block print, but got a little intimidated with trying a new process on a deadline. Instead, I went for a detailed block print design. Here's a few of my sketches that led to the final design. 

pencil sketch of a girl and boy gnome sitting on top of a mushroom cottage     cleaned up pencil sketch of a girl and boy gnome sitting on top of a mushroom cottage     pink eraser block with the gnome drawing beginning to be carved

If you'd like to see the full process, check out my instagram! I posted a reel of my process from start to finish. 

See how it's made

I used a couple different methods to color the print. I did a gradient with stamps, and I also used black ink and water colors like a coloring book. I was really happy with the results. 

gnome block print inked with a light blue color next to the resulting print     gnome block print colored with water color pencils  gnome print with a three color gradient     

I mostly send these cards out to the participants of the Exchange as well as friends or family, but as a Valentine's gift to you, here's a digital wallpaper for you to use! Just save the image to use for your phone wall paper. 

downloadable wallpaper of the gnome couple mushroom cottage print in digital form
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