How to Easily Hand Letter and Paint Greeting Cards
One of the beautiful aspects of hand lettering is that you can create some really fun designs, projects, gifts and even additions to your creative business!
Years ago I was busy lettering, digitizing, designing, printing, selling & shipping, greeting cards as part of my online shop! It was a very busy few years in my business that required a lot of time and effort from me but I did enjoy creating some fun and sassy greeting cards that quickly became popular in my shop!
Greeting cards are a great way to share a personal message with a friend, say thank you to a client or if you are a calligrapher or letterer, to create a gratifying income stream or two, in your business!
Since it’s been a few years that I’ve printed in my home studio (everything I do is digital these days), I find that I miss having unique cards to give on special occasions. So I went out to my local art store and picked up a pack of these pre-scored, deckle edged, watercolor cards.
Of course, I can’t do something without sharing a quick video and handy tips for you!!
To letter and paint your own thank you cards with me, the tools you need are as follows;
Pre-made cards & envelopes
or watercolor paper cut to size, envelopes
watercolor paints of your choice
round watercolor brush
the usual paper towels, clean water, pencil and eraser to lightly draw out your design!
Time and patience to let the paint dry before you attempt to erase the lines you sketched out is also important too! I can’t tell you how many smears I’ve created because I was impatient and wanted to erase the pencil lines before my paint was dry!
Watch this quick video to see how I demonstrate a simple script lettering option and how to paint a simple botanical stem.
Simple right!!?
For my fellow lettering/calligraphy business owners, if your goal is to letter and paint greeting cards to sell, I have a few tips for you!
Decide if you are selling hand painting, original greeting cards. If so, you should be charging a premium for those cards since they are all painting by hand.
If you are looking to digitize your designs and print copies, learning how to digitize your art is of course an important thing to do, but you also need to decide if you will print copies at home using card stock and a printer, or will you hire a local printer to print them for you.
Will you retail your greeting cards yourself via your website, etsy or even local markets? Or will you wholesale your designs to local retailers? I recommend a combination of both!
Will you license your designs to manufacturers or greeting cards companies?
I personally did all of those things! Why not?!! You’ve created the design already, you may as well enjoy both passive and active income from that single design. Doing so helps you to maximize your efforts while growing your business income! It’s one of the main things I teach in my new class How to Expand Your Calligraphy Business online class!
You can check out all my online classes here where you’ll learn everything from lettering to watercolor, to how to grow your creative business from home like I do!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you try your hand at lettering and painting your own greeting card designs!
x Nicki
