If you’re looking for a calligraphy-centered project, you’ll enjoy the seven suggestions in this post! It’s totally worth it to set aside a few creative minutes to try one of them out.
There’s a fair amount of information on the internet about how to learn calligraphy. However, many blogs and websites don’t delve into what you can do with the calligraphy skills that you work so hard to develop! In this post, I want to highlight seven projects that will utilize your dip pen calligraphy skills in a fun and engaging way. If you’re a beginner, I hope that this post will motivate you to learn calligraphy. If you’re a dip pen veteran, my goal is to give you some project ideas for the weekend!
Calligraphy automatically adds intrigue to any envelope! The Flourish Formal style piece above, for example, features gorgeous stroke contrast and fun flourishes. As a calligrapher, you’ll enjoy making this kind of envelope because you know that whoever receives it will feel incredibly special! You can find artistic envelope inspiration and several tutorials in this blog post.
Calligraphy-based artwork makes a statement in more than one way. It’s extremely personalized, and its intricacy is eye-catching! Calligraphy ampersands make fantastic gifts for family members … in fact, I created the piece above for my brother. It incorporates the names of his daughters and wife, and highlights some of the places and activities that his family loves. If ampersands aren’t your thing, you can always use your calligraphy skills to make simple letter silhouette art.
Calligraphed logos grab attention and convey the “vibe” of a company. This all-lowercase Kaitlin Style logo, for example, echoes the subdued elegance of photographer Charlie Campey‘s work. If you want your company to stand out, a calligraphed logo is an excellent choice! To create logos, I write out the company’s name, scan the calligraphy, then play with it in Adobe Illustrator until it’s just right.
One glance at Pinterest will tell you what you already know: calligraphed invitations are incredibly popular. We all love the idea of sending out a unique prelude to an equally unique event! I often use Photoshop to design digitally printed* invitations. If you’re curious about how to work with your calligraphy in that program, you can check out the Digitizing Artwork and Calligraphy eCourse.
*The gold portion of the invitation suite pictured above was made using a foil stamping technique (versus digital printing). Foil stamping requires knowledge of Adobe Illustrator. The map and information card, however, were created with Photoshop! All the calligraphy shown is Kaitlin Style.
Gifts are great anyway, and adding a neat, artistically-written gift tag helps to make them even better! If you don’t have the patience or illustration skills to embellish your lettering, that’s no big deal. There are plenty of printable gift tag templates available online (including the one pictured above, which you can find by clicking here).
Calligraphed place cards can elevate any event to elegant heights! You can learn how to make place cards like these in this blog post.
I always try to incorporate personalized calligraphy into greeting cards! You can add your calligraphy in the form of a sash, as shown in the Mother’s Day card pictured above; or you can make it an integral part of the card (like the Quick Balloon-Themed Birthday Card). No matter how you decide to incorporate calligraphy into your card, you’ll be proud of the result!
Whether you’re a calligraphy pro or just learning, I hope that this post gave you some ideas for what to do with your skills! If none of the project suggestions in this post quite suit you, you can find many other TPK tutorials by clicking here. I’m wishing you a fantastic, creative weekend, and want to thank you very much for reading the TPK blog!
Warmly,
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