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  • Welcome to TPK! This is your first of 2 free articles. For unlimited access to tutorials and articles, join TPK Premium for less than the cost of a latte.

    Five Banner Tutorials – Free Printable

    February 2, 2018

    by

    Lindsey Bugbee

    Dip Pen Calligraphy, Free Printables, Hand-Lettering, Inspiration, Printable Goodies, Tutorials

    Banners can help you to emphasize a word or phrase in a tasteful way! In today’s post, you’ll find a printable that will teach you how to draw five different types of banners. You can use those banners for mail art projects, logo design, general artwork, or whatever else you’re working on!

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    Five Banner Tutorials | The Postman's Knock

    If you like calligraphy and/or hand-lettering, knowing how to draw a banner is bound to come in handy eventually. In this post, you’ll find some tips for drawing banners, plus you can download the free Five Banner Tutorials printable!

    Tip #1 – Write Your Lettering First

    Banners are often used to emphasize text or lettering. If you plan on having lettering in your banner, write the lettering first. That way, you can center the banner to fit the lettering.

    Watercolor Hexagons Mail Art Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    I free-hand sketched some pencil guidelines here, then wrote the name using Flourish Formal Style calligraphy.

    Tip #2 – Always Make a Banner Pencil Draft

    No matter how diligently you follow the examples in the Five Banner Tutorials printable, there’s always a possibility for error. If you have the time, you should use a pencil to make a draft of your banner around the lettering or calligraphy.

    Watercolor Hexagons Mail Art Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    Make sure you use light pressure to draw your pencil draft! You never know what parts of the banner you’ll need to erase.

    Tip #3 – Include Breaks in the Banner for Ascenders or Descenders

    If some of the letters in your word have particularly tall ascenders or low-hanging descenders, include breaks in the outline of your banner to accommodate them. Doing so will prevent your banner from being too large.

    Watercolor Hexagons Mail Art Tutorial | The Postman's Knock
    Notice that I left breaks in this banner to accommodate the letters “N” and the “A”. To see how this envelope turned out, you can check out the Watercolor Hexagons Mail Art Tutorial!

    Tip #4 – Don’t Skip the Shading

    All of the banners in your Five Banners Tutorial printable include some sort of shading. Adding lines, dots, or a blended shadow helps to distinguish the back of the banner from the front and give it some dimension.

    How to Draw a Banner | The Postman's Knock
    The densely spaced, curved horizontal lines in this banner help to give the illusion of dimension.

    Tip #5 – Add a Touch of Color

    Banners look even more vibrant if you give them a little bit of color! I like to add fairly dark watercolor to the back ribbons in my banners, then use light watercolor around the edges on the front ribbon(s).

    Flourish Formal Style Calligraphy Mail Art | The Postman's Knock
    You can use watercolors, colored pencils, crayons, or other media to add shading to your banner. This will help the banner to stand out even more!

    6. Enjoy the Free Printable!

    I suggest printing the Five Banners Tutorial off on any paper you have handy. Since you don’t have to write on this printable, the paper quality really doesn’t matter. Use the printable as a reference next time you want to make some mail art, a banner for a cake, a bullet journal page — whatever!

    Five Banner Tutorials | The Postman's Knock
    No need to print this off on fancy paper — whatever you have on your printer right now will work!

    You can find the printable for free by clicking here. Try giving each of the banners a go, and don’t be afraid to make your own modifications! Some experimentation and confidence go a long way in creating striking and artistic banners.

    Thanks very much for reading TPK, and enjoy your weekend!

    Warmly,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock

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About the author

Hi, I’m Lindsey Bugbee, the illustrator, calligrapher, and author behind The Postman’s Knock (TPK). Since 2012, the TPK Blog has been a vibrant creative space filled with tutorials and lessons on modern calligraphy, hand lettering, and illustration. After publishing The Calligraphy Book, I wanted to elevate the quality of content even further—so I launched TPK Premium. You can join here to receive access to some of the internet’s best creative inspiration and project tutorials.

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108 responses

  1. Rene Avatar
    Rene
    February 2, 2018

    These are great!Thank you so much for sharing. The double wavy banner is fantastic, but I really like the announcement banner too. 🙂

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  2. Andrea Avatar
    Andrea
    February 2, 2018

    Banners are just so helpful when doing lettering > classic ornament, can’t go wrong. Thank you!

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  3. Allison Avatar
    Allison
    February 2, 2018

    I love the double wavy banner!

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  4. Deb Bonogofsky Avatar
    Deb Bonogofsky
    February 2, 2018

    I love the wavy banner. Can’t wait to try the shading. Thanks so much for all the information you share.

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  5. Jennifer Avatar
    Jennifer
    February 2, 2018

    I like the banners on the top right!! 😙

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  6. Ana Maria Selvaggio Avatar
    Ana Maria Selvaggio
    February 2, 2018

    Banners are a favorite of mine. As I’ve delved more into lettering, I’ve been exploring new techniques. My favorite of the banners is the fun flag-style one at bottom right. The lettering first approach really helped, thank you for sharing your process!

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  7. karen d Avatar
    karen d
    February 2, 2018

    I enjoyed making the wavy one the most. It suited the envelope art I was making. Thanks, Lindsey!

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  8. Emily A Avatar
    Emily A
    February 2, 2018

    I like the double way banner the best!

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  9. Ann Avatar
    Ann
    February 2, 2018

    They are all wonderful, but I love banner #5 – flags are such a great accent element! And fun!

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  10. Andrea Goo Avatar
    Andrea Goo
    February 2, 2018

    Awesome! I love banners. What a great tutorial and freebie! You’re the best Lindsey!

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Beautiful autumn leaves outside 🍂 inspire beaut Beautiful autumn leaves outside 🍂 inspire beautiful leaves inside ✨. You can find a tutorial over how to make this stunning bookmark in “The Calligraphy Book”. (Confession time: I don’t actually use this bookmark as a bookmark. It ended up being too pretty to be hiding inside a book! 🙈 Instead, I display it on my bulletin board.)

#bookmark #decoratedbookmark #autumnleaves #pointedpen #finetec #colirofinetec #metallicwatercolor
Which is your favorite? 👻 🍬 ✋ 🎃 Good Which is your favorite? 👻 🍬 ✋ 🎃 

Good news: whichever one you like best, you can learn how to create it in “Spellbound Strokes”, TPK’s Halloween 2025 worksheet set! The worksheet is available on the TPK site as of an hour ago. In it, you’ll learn how to create these fabulous Halloween-themed motifs ... and get plenty of calligraphy practice under your belt in the process. ✍️

For the worksheet link, see my stories today (10/9), or shoot me a DM. Happy Halloween, and enjoy!

#halloweencalligraphy #pointedpenpractice #pointedpen #dippen #halloweenart #macbeth
This is just as relaxing to watch as it is to wri This is just as relaxing to watch as it is to write. 🧘‍♀️ DM me for a link to a (free!) worksheet that teaches you how to write this loopy, modern quote. ✍️

#moderncalligraphy #learncalligraphy #calligraphy #handwritten #writingcalligraphy #pointedpencalligraphy #calligraphyvideo #tseliotquote
🎃 Halloween, TPK-style. ✍️ You can find ins 🎃 Halloween, TPK-style. ✍️ You can find instructions for making all of these project (and more!) on the TPK Blog and in TPK’s Halloween-themed worksheets. 🔗 Link in bio, then search for “Halloween” or just browse the Blog and Catalog!

#halloweencalligraphy #halloweenart #calligraphyprojects #halloweencraft #eleganthalloween
🤭 We’re ridiculous. Here’s the story: every 🤭 We’re ridiculous. Here’s the story: every month, @greenleafblue and I host a live creative coffee chat over Zoom for TPK Premium and G&B Patreon members — and we always include a giveaway. This time, we switched it up and picked the winner with a trivia question we made up on the fly. You can see how that went here!

✨ Watch the full chat on the TPK Blog (link in bio → “Blog”).

✨ Join us for the next coffee chat on October 17th by signing up for TPK Premium! I’m thrilled to announce that @sdionbakerdesign will be our special guest. (Her Patreon members can join, too!) And yes, there will be a giveaway. 🎁

👯‍♀️ Fun fact: Jess and I met as roommates studying art history in Paris + Florence way before The Postman’s Knock or Greenleaf & Blueberry existed. Over the years, we’ve nicknamed ourselves Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, Lucy and Ethel… you get the idea. That familiarity definitely comes through in our chats.

#artistchat #artists #artsupplies #zoomchat #creativity #thepostmansknock #greenleafandblueberry
After eight years (and plenty of smudges), my chal After eight years (and plenty of smudges), my chalkboard finally got a makeover! This time, sketching out the design was so much easier thanks to my iPad + Procreate. Once the draft felt right, I used a grid method to bring it to life on the chalkboard. 🖊️✨ Curious how it all came together and find instructions for making your own chalkboard quote art? Check out the TPK Blog to see the process! (Link in bio, then navigate to the “Blog” tab.)

#chalkboard #chalkart #austenquote #janeausten #hyggequote #hyggeart #homeart #artforhome #artprocess #chalk
The iPad + the Procreate app = a total game change The iPad + the Procreate app = a total game changer for chalkboard design! ✨ Today I sketched out this chalkboard layout digitally, which is something I used to spend hours drafting with pencil and paper (with tons of erasing!). Obviously, there were a lot of elements that weren’t working here as I navigated the draft process; but it’s so easy to erase, re-size, or move elements within Procreate. The best part? Procreate gives me a sneak peek of how the chalk will actually look on the board. 😍

Now that the design is ready, I’m excited to bring it to life on the chalkboard itself. Stay tuned for Thursday’s tutorial on the TPK Blog! ✍️

#chalkboardart #chalkart #procreateart #procreateartist #janeaustenquote #artprocess #artdraft
✍️ Lesson 2 of the brand-new Beginner’s Mode ✍️ Lesson 2 of the brand-new Beginner’s Modern Calligraphy Online Course just dropped! In it, we’ll take a deep dive into supplies and workspace setup. Then, we’ll do a little preliminary assignment. This clip was taken from the workspace video. In it, I’ll show you how I store my supplies and give you a tour of my workspace and how I set myself up for calligraphy creation success. (Literally: I show you everything, right down to where I put my iPad to keep a movie on in the background while I work.)

Link in bio to enroll in the course! If you’re not taking it, **do**!! It’s already got 3+ hours of video instruction in just two lessons.

#calligraphyadvice #moderncalligraphy #pointedpencalligraphy #artcreation #calligrapher #artstudio
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