© 2025 by Bryn Hofmann, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

YOU WILL NEED:

• 7x10" black watercolor paper OR 7x10 white watercolor paper plus a jar of black watercolor grounds and a wide brush for applying the grounds. The best source in the US is Blick Art Materials unless you have an indie art supply store near you; Legion and Blick are my preferred brands for paper and Daniel Smith is my preferred brand for watercolor grounds. You'll need 1 sheet per 8 cards in your deck and 4oz of watercolor grounds will be more than enough..

• A size 5 or so round watercolor brush (you can adjust size based on your preferences).

• Metallic watercolor paints in several colors - I used purple and gold from both the Gainsai Tambi Opal Colors and Gansai Tambi Gem Colors 6 packs, which US shoppers can find at Michaels. Finetec is another good commercial brand (online order through Michaels or shop in-store at Blick), or you can try Etsy. Iuile is my favorite seller for metallic watercolors on Etsy.

• A small spray bottle to mist your paper.

• A paper guillotine or ruler, pencil, and scissors to cut your paper down into 2.5" by 3.5" cards (AFTER painting the backs).

• A corner rounder punch.

• One or two colors of coordinating paint markers that are about 2mm to 2.5mm in tip size - Posca, Molotow, Montana, Pebeo, and DecoColor are all good brands. Posca has a variety of metallics in a single pack that US shoppers can find at Michaels; the other brands can be found at Blick.

• Golden brand Archival Varnish Gloss - I'm hesitant to recommend other varnishes because I know this one works okay with watercolors...

• Optional: Baby wipes to tidy up streaks of paint.

• Optional: Sticky tack and a large board or piece of cardboard to aid in varnishing if you cut your paper first, or if you're applying varnish over the marker.

• Optional: One tealight candle and a heat gun.

I advise reading all the way through the instructions, including the optional sections at the end, before starting. 

You can skip this if you bought black paper.

Follow the instructions on the jar of watercolor grounds. Mine says to let it sit for 24-48 hours before painting and I wanted to call that out for the folx who don't read the label. :) Don't worry about blackening the edges because you'll be applying a marker to them later.

I didn't do this at this point, and I ruined a marker trying to color over the watercolors. 

If you haven't used spray varnish before, practice first!

In a well ventilated area, varnish the watercolor side of your papers. You'll want to prop them up and spray sideways rather than laying them on the ground/floor and spraying down, for best results. Allow the varnish to dry for the length of time recommended on the can.

This will be easier to do before cutting them up into cards, but if for any reason you need to varnish after cutting, get some removable sticky tack and a board or large piece of cardboard that you can tack the pieces to and prop against something so you're spraying sideways, not down. 

Cut your paper as evenly as possible into 2.5" by 3.5" rectangles - cut in half along the 7" side, then into quarters along the 10" side. I don't trust the markings on my guillotine since I often seem to get sizes that are slightly off, so I mark with a pencil and then cut with big scissors. Any pencil marks will be covered up later, so don't worry about them unless your pencil veered way off course.

Next, use the corner rounder punch to round your card edges. If you have one with more than one angle of curve, test them out on scrap paper first and see which angle you prefer - it doesn't really matter except that you like it!

Draw a border around the edge of both sides of each card using one of your markers. Once complete, you can run the marker over the edges of the card so that they're the same color.

Write a keyword on each card. You can use the same color marker or a different one. You can make the letters bigger/smaller depending on the length of the word if you want.

If there's extra space on some or all cards, you can doodle there if you like; this is one way to make things more uniform if you have some words that are really short and others that are longer.

The first coat of varnish will keep your watercolors from rubbing off, and acrylic marker shouldn't do that. I'm not sure if a coat of varnish over the marker is necessary, but when I'm making art to display I generally varnish to help preserve it. And this is something you're going to be handling a lot.

As I advised above: Get some removable sticky tack and a board or large piece of cardboard that you can tack the pieces to and prop against something so you're spraying sideways, not down. 

Whether you chose to varnish again or not, you have an acrylic product on the top layer of your cards - either varnish or acrylic marker. This can stick together with adjacent cards and the solution is to put a fine coat of wax on the cards.

Rub the tealight candle firmly, all over one side of each card. Use your heat gun to melt the wax that has rubbed off on the card and let it cool down completely. Repeat with the other side of the cards.

I would love to see your cards - tag @alleywitch.cards on Bluesky or send me photos at alleywitch17@gmail.com

I won't use your photos without your consent (aside from quote-reposting your Bluesky post), but if you consent, your photos may appear on this site with credit.