As the COVID-19 crisis rages on, many of the people in my life are struggling with anxiety. A couple of friends, in particular, have had a rough go of it — and I want to show them that I care and am thinking of them. I’m sure that you know a few people who need an emotional boost, too! In this article, you’ll find step-by-step instructions for making a comforting card to encourage the people in your life who are feeling down.
1. Gather Your Supplies
To create this tutorial, I used a straight pen + a Nikko G nib, an oblique pen + a Brause EF66 nib, Arabic gold watercolor, a white pencil, and a 10″ x 7″ piece of black cardstock. I folded the cardstock in half to make a 5″ x 7″ card.
Considering that many of us are staying home, it’s important to remember that you can customize the materials for this tutorial. No black cardstock? Use something else! No gold ink? Use another color instead! You can even use the faux calligraphy technique if you don’t have a dip pen. Now is a great time to call on your creativity with substitutions!
2. Draw a Circle
Center a round object on top of your card, then use your white pencil to trace around the object.
Once you’ve traced around the object, use your white pencil to sketch a smaller circle inside of the circle that you just drew. You can just freehand draw this new circle; there’s no need to be exact!
3. Add Calligraphy
Now, moisten your gold watercolor (per the creating gold calligraphy tutorial), and use it to write inside the smaller circle guidelines. What you write is completely up to you! I used any positive snippets that came to mind, including song lyrics and phrases.
Continue to write, curving your calligraphy to spiral within the circle.
4. Make a Wreath Border
Next, use the “Midcentury Wreath” concept from the Simple Illustrated Wreath Worksheet to surround half of the calligraphy circle. Make sure you don’t write between the outer circle and the inner circle!
Stop once you’ve made half of a wreath.
Now, finish off the wreath with some simple “telephone wire” calligraphy flourishes. These flourishes should all be various heights and echo the overall size of the line-based wreath half.
5. Erase
Once your gold watercolor has dried, use a good eraser to get rid of the white pencil lines. Just like that, your card is finished!
I want to encourage you to adapt this project to suit your situation! If you have a friend or family member who could benefit from receiving a comforting card like this one, by all means, make it. But, remember that you can also use this concept to create a sketchbook page, a birthday card, or mail art. The part line/part flourish wreath is fabulous, and it will add pizazz to just about any project!
Thanks very much for reading, and have a wonderful + creative weekend!
Warmly,
