Simple Flower Border Tutorial

If you want to spruce up an otherwise plain piece of paper or envelope, look no further than this simple flower border! It’s quick, fuss-free, and artistic: the perfect element to add to everything from mail art to framable quotes. Follow the steps below, and you’ll love the creative piece that you end up with!

How to Make a Flower Border

To make a flower border like this one, begin with a blank white rectangular piece of paper or an envelope. (In the photo below, I am using an 8″ x 10″ [203 mm x 254 mm] piece of 80 lb. drawing paper.) Use a pencil and a ruler to draw four lines that are parallel to each edge of the paper; the lines should be approximately 1″ (25.4 mm) away from their respective edges. Next, use a dip pen and ink (or a Micron pen) to draw two vertical parallel lines near the upper right corner, as shown below. The lines should be around 1.5″ (38 mm) long.

Next, use a pencil to sketch an oval on top of the two lines. Use your pen to draw a little flower shape within that oval.

Continue to draw overlapping flower shapes until you have filled the oval with them.

Next, use your pencil to draw a line that curves slightly to the left, then draw a slanted oval on top of that line.

Draw a few petals like the ones pictured below around the oval. Then, make a couple of long, narrow leaves near the base of the stem.

Draw over the pencil lines with your pen. Make sure you include some thin, densely-spaced lines within the flower petals and leaves to denote shadows!

Now, take your pencil and draw a vertical wavy line that starts at the bottom left of the second flower you drew. The line should end at the top right of the first flower. Once you have created the line, draw several little lines that stem from it.

Outline the pencil lines with your pen; the result should look something like the photo below:

At this point, you’ll want to rotate your paper and draw an identical bunch of flowers in the adjacent corner.

To finish up, use your pen to trace over the pencil rectangle you made earlier. Add a few little flowers, then erase any pencil lines. Your flower border is now finished!

Adding Content and Color to Your Flower Border

You can put any content you wish inside your flower border! For this piece, I wrote a little reminder list for myself using Kaitlin Style calligraphy. I like the way that the curves of Kaitlin Style complement the wavy lines in the flower illustrations!

You can absolutely leave the flower border as-is, but it looks even better with a little bit of color added to it! I like to saturate a paintbrush with watercolor and give it a couple of firm shakes over the flower illustrations to make paint droplets.

Once the paint dries, the piece is finished and ready for display!

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I hope that you enjoyed this little tutorial! Sometimes it’s nice to take a break to make a short and sweet artistic project. 🙂 Remember, you can adapt this concept to a number of different applications like decorated envelopes or business materials. You could also use this border for wedding invitation design; the Digitizing Artwork and Calligraphy eCourse will show you how! No matter what you use your border for, feel free to switch up the concept with different flower types and varying color combinations. You really can’t go wrong with florals and watercolor, so don’t be afraid to experiment! Of course, if you have any questions, you are always invited to ask in the comments.

Thanks so much for reading TPK; I really appreciate you being here!

Warmly,