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“Safari” Watercolor Mail Art Tutorial

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Watercolor "Safari" Mail Art Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

A friend recently gave me Last Chance to See, which is a book written by Douglas Adams. The novel details Adams’ adventures as he travels to various remote locations to find endangered species. I initially prepared myself for a dry, educational read. Instead, I’ve found adventure and comedy! In short, lush and exotic locations have been on my mind; and when I came across this motif by illustrator Viktoria on Pinterest, I was inspired to create some watercolor mail art! Today, I’ll show you how to whip up an envelope like this one. Of course, you can modify the concept to use it on bullet journals, sketchbooks, invitations, or whatever else you feel like making!
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Circular Watercolor Thank You Card Tutorial

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Circular Watercolor Thank You Card Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

If you want to enjoy a few minutes of zen, there is nothing like painting a watercolor wreath! The action of combining colors and shapes into a flowy border is relaxing and satisfying, the perfect way to hone your watercolor skills. In today’s tutorial, I’m going to walk you through how to make a floral watercolor thank you card using watercolors and hand-lettering!
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Free Brush Pen Calligraphy Worksheet

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Free Brush Pen Calligraphy Worksheet | The Postman's Knock

I first released this simple brush pen worksheet in 2015. Little did I know that it would become one of the most popular printables on TPK! With 131,500 downloads and counting, many a brush pen enthusiast has worked through the exercises in this worksheet. Today, I want to talk about what you can learn from filling out the Free Brush Pen worksheet, as well as other brush pen resources that you can take advantage of on the TPK site!Continue reading…

Typography Envelope Art Video Tutorial

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Typography Envelope Art Video Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

In 2014, I wrote the Typography Art Envelope Tutorial. The tutorial shows you how to make an incredibly cool piece of mail art with vintage flair! The envelope was inspired by antique advertisements, which were always hand-drawn and a bit more cluttered than the clean look we’ve become accustomed to in modern times.
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Announcing Summer 2019 TPK Modern Calligraphy Workshops – Boulder, Colorado

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TPK Beginner's Modern Calligraphy Workshop | The Postman's Knock

I started offering calligraphy workshops in 2015. As someone who isn’t a natural-born public speaker (even if it’s a tiny group of 12), I didn’t expect to like teaching! I quickly found, however, that workshops are just another platform by which to connect with creative people and get to “geek out” over a shared passion: calligraphy. This year, I’m pleased to offer six beginner’s modern calligraphy workshops on various dates sprinkled throughout the spring and summer!
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Calligraphy Art Tutorial: How to Make a Flourished … Well, Anything!

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Calligraphy Art Tutorial: How to Make a Flourished ... Well, Anything! | The Postman's Knock

For the past week, the focus of this blog has been on Lasso Lettering, which you can create with any pen. Today, I’d like to shift attention back to the dip pen! While any writing utensil is worth the time to get to know, I especially love the dip pen because of its stroke variation. A dip pen can seamlessly transition from making delicate, thin strokes into bold, heavy strokes — which leads to some serious visual appeal!
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Introducing the Lasso Lettering Exemplar!

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Envelope Art featuring Lasso Lettering
(I paired Lasso Lettering with the Vintage Roses printable envelope template to create this mail art!)

Sometimes, I think that hand-lettering is a little more approachable than calligraphy. Like calligraphy, hand-lettering celebrates the art of letters — but often with more familiar materials! That’s not to say that hand-lettering is easy; just that you can usually make it with any pen or pencil. Furthermore, if you can write in everyday life, you can hand-letter! You’ll just spend a little more time and concentration on each letter to do so.
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What’s the Difference Between Cursive and Calligraphy?

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Cursive Handwriting | The Postman's Knock

For me, “What’s the difference between cursive and calligraphy?” is one of those questions that I hear and I think I have a ready answer for. Then, the more I consider it, the more complicated the answer gets. I suppose that cursive can be calligraphy, and calligraphy can be cursive, which makes the differences between the two more interesting. I made a (very short) YouTube video for today’s post, but if you prefer text and photos, feel free to scroll past the video!
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Pachelbel’s Canon: Calligraphy Edition

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Pachelbel's Canon: Calligraphy Edition | The Postman's Knock

It’s February in the mountains, which means a lot of snow here in Boulder! Hernán recently gave in to the Echo Dot craze (you know, that little “Alexa” device), and, while I was dubious about Alexa at first, I have to admit that she can play a mean winter soundtrack. We’ve been listening to a lot of classical music while big, soft flakes swirl around outside. Pachelbel’s Canon came on the other day, which put it on my radar. It has always been one of my favorites — and I’m sure you love it, too! If you don’t know it by name, I promise that you’ll recognize the melody in today’s YouTube video.
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