I love adding arrows to just about anything … decorated envelopes, planners, and notebooks all benefit from them. They’re simple to draw, yet they enhance a page so much! Effectively, I am very excited to offer you this “Eight Hand-Drawn Arrow Designs” printable, which you can find for free by clicking here. The printable includes eight mini-tutorials for different arrow concepts that you can include on any project!
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In this abstract art tutorial, you’ll learn how to make a gallery-worthy piece of watercolor art! It may not look like the piece above, and it shouldn’t: abstract art is all about randomness and feeling. In the end, you’re left with a piece that conveys artistic energy rather than depicts a subject!
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Faux calligraphy — calligraphy created with any standard writing instrument like a ballpoint pen, chalk, or marker — offers a fantastic introduction to dip pen calligraphy! Additionally, faux calligraphy is a beautiful lettering art form in its own rite. In the first half of this blog post, I’ll teach you how to create this fun, accessible form of calligraphy. In the second half, you’ll find inspiration for using it to add beauty to everything from chalkboards to mail art!
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Artistic corner designs can elevate a paper project from ordinary to eye-catching. If you’re ever working on a project that lacks “oomph”, try putting a design in all four corners and see what happens! More often than not, corner designs direct the eye to the spotlight center element while adding artistic value to the piece.
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If you have never experimented with inventing a hand lettering style, I hope you’ll give it a try after reading this blog post! Hand lettering is a lot of fun because you get creative freedom, but you also have some guidelines to follow. Namely, all letters in your alphabet must be easily identifiable — you can’t get too “out there” with your concept. It’s a clear-cut project that gives you plenty of room to flex your artistic muscle! The steps outlined in this blog post will give you the information and inspiration you need to get started developing your own hand lettered alphabet today.
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There’s so much to love about fabric invitations: they’re novel, interactive, and incredibly cost-effective if you DIY them! In today’s blog post, I want to walk you through a batch of fabric invitations that I recently designed as a gift for a friend’s wedding. It is my hope that seeing the process will inspire you to design and compile your own fabric/paper pieces for your next event!
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I first started toying with the idea of starting a creative business in 2012, but one huge obstacle stood in my way: I didn’t have the first clue about digitizing artwork and calligraphy. I knew there was no way I could sell my designs if I didn’t know how to use the computer, so I crossed my fingers, bought Photoshop, and agreed to design a BabyQ invitation pro-bono for a friend.
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All pointed pen creations are beautiful, but add calligraphy swirls to the mix, and your work becomes extraordinary! Paired with casual modern calligraphy, swirls are fun and ironic; and when they appear with more formal calligraphy, they immediately add a regal/important vibe. Part of the reason people love them so much is they look intricate and complicated. After reading the two parts of this series, though, you’ll know the truth: while swirls look amazing, they’re far from impossible to make if you break it down! Today, you’ll learn two techniques for creating swirls, and next week, you’ll learn two more.
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In Design Motif Tutorials Part I, you learned how to make a lovely roses and swirls design. For Part II, I wanted to go a bit less feminine, and step up the playfulness factor! In today’s tutorial, you’ll learn how to make some colorful and simple citrus fruits that will add some zest (ha) to your paper creations!
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When I want to make an impactful piece of mail art, I add a design motif. In my opinion, the best sort of design motifs are subtle but lovely, and often soothingly repetitive. The “Roses and Swirls” motif that I am going to show you how to make today is one of my favorite designs, and surprisingly simple to make when you deconstruct the process! In the steps that follow, I am going to focus on the Roses and Swirls design motif in a mail art context. You should remember, though, that there’s no reason to relegate this motif to mail art: you can add it to anything — bookmarks, gift tags, notebooks, etc. — and you’ll be rewarded with a “wow!” factor!
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