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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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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Did you know that you can make your own envelope? Really, if you think about it, an envelope is just a folded piece of paper that’s designed to hold another piece of paper. You’re more than capable of making folds and gluing! In today’s YouTube tutorial, I’ll show you how to make an envelope out of pretty much any piece of paper that catches your eye. All you’ll need is a commercial envelope (or a template out of the LWCR), a piece of decorative paper, glue, a pencil, and scissors!
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Calligraphy is eye-catching enough by itself, but present your word or phrase in an illustrated banner, and it suddenly POPS! Banners only take a couple of minutes to draw, so I decided to walk you through how to make one in today’s TPK YouTube tutorial.
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When I started the TPK blog in 2012, I tried to focus on long and complicated project tutorials. I always skipped the simple stuff because I thought it would bore people! The older I get, though, the more I realize that sometimes simple projects are all we need to wind down after a long day because they don’t require a lot of energy. It’s a bonus if a project can be used in a “real world” context — like sending snail mail! With that in mind, today I’m going to show you how to address an envelope.
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For several months now, I have intended to make a short video tutorial over how to learn and create modern calligraphy. There were plenty of days when I should have filmed the tutorial, but I kept putting it off. I mean, I wanted the video to be perfect: engaging, inspirational, and informative! I knew it should include a worksheet, and I hoped to spend a lot of time editing the video. Calligraphy is my thing, the activity I love to do, and I needed to reflect that with the quality and thoughtfulness of the How to Learn and Create Modern Calligraphy video!
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When I want to learn something, I’m always thrilled when I can find a video over how to do it. It’s easier to catch on to a concept when you can observe a demonstration! With that in mind, I filmed a tutorial to show you how to wrap a gift with artistic flair this holiday season. You can watch that video below (or on YouTube):
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Want to make an envelope into instant holiday mail art? Draw a snowflake. Feel like giving your sketchbook page a dose of festivity? Draw a snowflake. Want to practice using your dip pen in a fun and seasonally appropriate way? Yep — you can draw a snowflake. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make three simple but impressive snowflakes that will add holiday cheer to any project!
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Have you ever heard of calligraphy medallions? I hadn’t until early last year, when I came across a mesmerizing video on Instagram. In it, a calligrapher used a series of strokes to create an impressive circular work of art. I immediately had to make one myself! One medallion evolved into several, which culminated in a calligraphy medallions worksheet!
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Halloween has always been my favorite holiday because … candy. It also offers the opportunity to make some playfully macabre creative projects (while you eat the candy)! Today’s blog post outlines my seven favorite Halloween paper projects on the TPK site. You can start making them now so the holiday doesn’t sneak up on you!