I like to think that I’m an appreciative person, but I often don’t have the time to show my thanks with a beautiful handmade card. That gets fixed today! For this article, I made a gorgeous printable thank you card, which I plan to use often in the future — and I hope that you…
Before my toddler was born, I always had the time to sit down and make a really cool thank you card. Now … not so much! Anytime someone does something nice for me, I feel bad that I don’t have a beautiful card to send them. I decided to fix that problem today with a fabulous printable! In today’s article, I’m giving you the printable and showing you how to make the design on it if you want to hand-draw your own cards.
First things first: you can find the printable thank you card PDF by clicking here. Just download the PDF, then print it out on cardstock or — if you’re feeling fancy — fine art velvet paper. Then, cut around the outside guideline and fold the card in half. After folding, you’ll have a fabulous 5″ x 7″ (12.7 cm x 17.75 cm) thank you card!
If you’re interested in the “how to” behind the design, I’m glad to show you! First, you make a pencil draft of block letters. Then, make them 3D by displacing parallel lines to the right and connecting the lines to the original letters.
Next, draw a banner, and use Sans Serif lettering inside that banner.
Finish up by using a straight pen, a Nikko G nib, and sumi or Ziller ink to trace over your pencil draft. You can add some dimension with tiny dots and lines.
In the name of saving time, I chose not to draft out my entire floral design in pencil. Instead, I drew flowers at random, starting with this one. To make one like it, use your pencil to draw a small circle (around 1/2″ in diameter). Then, draw several petals that taper toward the center. Finish up this step by drawing several small marks inside the pencil circle.
Now, add some shading where the petals meet the center of the flower.
Finish the flower with plenty of thin lines and shading where the flower makes contact with your lettering.
Next, try adding a few daisies throughout your piece. To do that, start with a circle and draw a dark, smaller circle inside.
Next, add lots of long, narrow petals, and fill them in with thin lines and shading just like you did with your large flowers. Fill in any small, enclosed spaces with black.
Once you’ve drawn your flowers, try punctuating your piece with some simple leaves like the ones shown below.
After you’re happy with your leaves and your flowers, try adding a few berries and branches to fill in negative space. Once you’ve drawn these elements, fill in the rest of the space with black.
Finish your piece by making a subtle floral border around your lettering. All of the floral elements in the border should touch one another, which facilitates you getting to fill the negative space inside with black.
Finish adding flowers, berries, leaves, and black until you feel happy with how the design looks.
Once you finish your design, erase any pencil guidelines and give yourself a pat on the back! This project requires patience, so you have every right to be proud of what you’ve created.
Remember, you can modify this project to communicate anything you want! Whether you use it on a card, mail art, or a sketchbook page, this concept will always render a beautiful visual experience.
If you don’t have time to try making this floral lettering, don’t worry about it! A lot of people don’t, which is why I made the thank you card printable. To be honest, this project took me a good five hours to create. That’s definitely not time that I could piece together on a regular basis!
If you do make this project, I recommend using waterproof ink. I think that this could look really cool with some Arabic Gold watercolor highlights, and you don’t want your black ink to run if you end up going the watercolor route! In my opinion, a motif like this looks best when made with a dip pen because it’s easy to make thick, dramatic strokes and wispy, thin strokes. If you’re not comfortable using a dip pen, though, a gel pen such as Muji would be a great substitute!
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial, and that you enjoy using the printable thank you card! Have a wonderful, creative weekend, and thanks very much for reading TPK.
Warmly,
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