I love this calligraphy birthday card tutorial because it requires very few supplies. You can make it with black cardstock and white ink — as I’ve done here — or you can switch it up with a lighter paper and a dark ink! No matter what color scheme you choose, the swirls and stars are key. The more you include, the more festive your card will be! Here are the steps:
1. Prepare Your Card Stock
First, cut a piece of black card stock to 7″ (178 mm) tall by 10 inches (254 mm) wide. Fold the cardstock in half.
You can use a bone folder to ensure a nice, crisp fold.
Next, use a white mechanical pencil to free-hand draw an oval to represent a balloon. Don’t worry if the oval isn’t perfect! Once you’ve drawn the oval, make a little shape at its base to represent the tie at the bottom of a balloon. Finish up by drawing a wavy line that extends to the bottom of the card.
Don’t fret if your oval isn’t symmetrical — imperfection adds to the artistic nature of this piece!
Finally, use a ruler to make several randomly spaced diagonal guidelines within the balloon.
The spacing of the guidelines here is arbitrary.
At this point, you can dilute some white ink for water to prepare it for use. (Learn more about diluting white ink in this blog post.) Once your ink is ready, move on to the next set of steps!
2. Fill the Balloon Outline with Calligraphy
The defining element of this calligraphy birthday card is, of course, the calligraphy. Begin by writing “Happy” in the upper left corner using Janet Style calligraphy. End the “y” with a tail that turns up and ends in several curls to fill out the top of the balloon.
I like using elegant Janet Style calligraphy and lots of flourishes to make these cards!
Continue to write the words to the “Happy Birthday” song. Use the guidelines to make words of different sizes, and add flourishes and curls wherever you can within the balloon outline!
Your curls and flourishes don’t have to be connected to letters. You can draw them in to any blank spaces that need to be filled!
Once you’ve written all of the calligraphy, add in stars and additional flourishes to fill out the space. The more elements that are inside the balloon outline, the more the card will look like a balloon from afar!
Different sizes of stars enhance the celebratory nature of this calligraphy birthday card.
3. Add the Balloon’s Tail
To finish up your calligraphy birthday card, use a fine-tipped nib to write “and many more” along the wavy line at the bottom of the card.
While I used a Brause EF66 nib to write the calligraphy in the balloon, I reverted to a Nikko G to make the balloon’s tail.
Give the ink an hour or two to completely dry, then gently erase the pencil guidelines.
Don’t be too hasty with erasing! If your ink isn’t completely dry, it will smudge. (Tip: If the ink smudges despite your precautions, you can disguise the smudges by painting over them with sumi or India ink.)
Make a cool envelope to accompany your calligraphy birthday card, and send!
Of course, you can customize this concept however you see fit. Use a different font style, a different ink (or faux calligraphy), or even a different shape (like a birthday cake)! No matter how you choose to modify, your recipient will love the result and will be happy that you thought of him/her. 🙂
I hope that you give this tutorial a try — it’s a fun one! If you have any questions or suggestions about it, please feel free to contribute in the comments. In the meantime, have a great weekend, and thanks for reading TPK!
Warmly,
Really lovely! I’ll try to make one! Thank you for your tutorials.
Carina, from Barcelona (Catalonia)
I’m having so much fun with this tutorial! I’ve done it 3x in two days because, yes I smeared the ink accidentally and then I wasn’t happy with the shape of my balloon (sigh). I love how the white ink (using the bleed proof stuff) is so forgiving of my novice strokes and even using an EF Brause! Great practice with new ink and new nib! All the flourishes camouflages the “artistic imperfections”. I did “cheat” a bit and used a white gel pen to make the stars. I kept chewing up the card stock with the pointed nib. Also, major learning curve on how to dilute the white ink. Glad you had several past posts to help me with that. Great tutorial to practice something other than letters, and rewarded with a unique card! Thanks, Lindsey
Thank you for this beautiful design and clear tutorial. I just made my first one using Kaitlyn calligraphy, as that’s what I’ve learned at this point. It was fun and came together just right! This is perfect for so many people; I know I’ll make it again.
Thanks for sharing! 😊😊
-Abi
My pleasure! 🙂
I love this! I’m always looking for new birthday card ideas, and this is great because it works for men or women. I have a friend who’s turning 50 soon, so I’ll modify this to add a big “50” in the center of the balloon. Thanks, Lindsey!
That modification will work perfectly! 🙂
Hey Lindsey,
Another lovely idea from you! Thanks!
Chrissie
I’m glad that you like it! Hopefully my mother-in-law, who I made this for, will as well!
Another great card idea!
A high compliment coming from a card connoisseur! 😉
Lindsey I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!!!!!!
I love hearing that!! I hope you give it a try! 🙂
With the release of the movie “IT” you could easily convert this to a Halloween card with some red Sumi ink. The balloon string could be the phrase “we all float down here”.
Love that creative thinking! I’m too much of a scaredy cat to watch the movie, but I read the book a few years ago (somehow books are less scary/real to me), and that would make for a delightfully chilling card theme! Great idea!
Hey, Lindsey! Love this post!😊
I had a question for you. Did you go to a college/university? If so, where? What did you study? Did you take any type of calligraphy courses?
Thanks.
-Abi
Hi Abi! I went to university at the University of Kansas, where I studied English. I didn’t study calligraphy specifically, but studied lettering indirectly through lots of art history and medieval literature classes. I would say, however, that the vast majority of my inspiration for dip pen came after college. At that point, I saw lots of beautiful calligraphy on Pinterest, and was motivated to learn how to achieve that myself!
Thanks for sharing. 😊😊
-Abi