• Simple Flower Border Tutorial

    This flower border is the elegant secret to sprucing up any paper good! You’ll find that it comes in handy for a variety of applications: it can visually frame calligraphy, make for a wonderful wedding invitation suite, or add pizazz to mail art! Feel free to modify the concept to fit your needs. 🙂

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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!

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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.

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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.

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

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

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

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

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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.

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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!

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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.

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

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

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

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

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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!

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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!

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    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.

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

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

    Simple Flower Border Tutorial | The Postman's Knock


    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,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock