“Deck the Halls” Christmas Card Tutorial

Now that we’ve had our Thanksgiving feasts, it’s time to move on to Christmas. This card encompasses the season with its snow-like white ink, twinkling gold lettering, and a well-known song. Below, you’ll find instructions over how you can go about making it.

1. Learn How to Make Horizontal Flourishes

First, you’ll need a quick rundown of how to make the calligraphy flourishes for this Christmas card. Feel free to do a “test run” with me! Start by making five guidelines that are spaced 3/16″ (4.75 mm) apart.

Next, draw a guideline in the center of your page. This marks where your tallest loop will appear.

Add two more vertical guidelines. Both of these new guidelines should be 1/2″ (12.7 mm) from the center guideline. These center guidelines signal where the second-tallest loops will appear.

Now, draw two more vertical guidelines. These new guidelines should also maintain a 1/2″distance from the previous guidelines that you drew.

Finally, draw guidelines 1″ from the edges of both sides of the paper. These guidelines denote where your calligraphy flourish will start and end.

From this point on, the directions are simple … but a bit difficult to show in photographs! To help explain how to make the rest of the flourish, I created a quick video tutorial:

When you are finished, you’ll end up with something like this:

And when you erase your guidelines, this will be the lovely result!

2. Add Gold Flourishes to a Card

Okay, now that you know how to create your flourishes, it’s time to add them to a card! Use a white mechanical pencil to draw your five guidelines on a black A7 card. Then, create an Arabic gold flourish using the technique that we went over in the first part of this tutorial.

Once the gold ink has dried, rotate the card 180 degrees, and draw a second flourish on the opposite end of the card.

Now, use Roman Style hand lettering to center “HALLS” in the card. Outline the letters with your Arabic gold, then use red gouache or red metallic ink and small Kaitlin Style calligraphy to write the lyrics to “Deck the Halls” within the letters.

Now, use white ink and Sans Serif lettering to write “DECK THE” between “HALLS” and your top calligraphy flourish. Then, write “FA·LA·LA·LA·LA” between “HALLS” and the bottom calligraphy flourish. Once you’ve done that, your card is finished!

I hope that today’s tutorial inspires you to make your own “Deck the Halls” Christmas card (or two). As a bonus, the calligraphy flourishes that you learned how to create today aren’t season-specific. Use them year-round to add embellishments to cards, mail art, and whatever else you can imagine! Happy holidays, and thanks so much for reading!

Warmly,