In this blog post, I share with you my biggest tips for helping you find your artistic style as a beginner.

What an interesting few weeks. Our daily lives have been turned upside down with this virus and I can’t imagine a single person who hasn’t been impacted by what’s happening right now. I’m navigating what’s happening as best as I can and am happy that I have a business that is online based and that I already run from my home office. It’s a little more challenging for my husband and kids who are not as accustomed to being home 24/7.

These last few days especially, I feel very fortunate to have my creative practice where I get a reprieve from the news, social media posts and tv reports. The time I spend at my desk in the studio portion of my office, is a welcomed distraction, but it also fills me up with hope and joy and creative energy that spills into other parts of my life.

Fun, and creative ways to pass the time during our quarantine at home using free practice calligraphy sheets, YouTube videos, and 50% off sale on all online classes! Read the post for more information!

If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ll know that I’m a big believer of learning and growing. Courage is what helped me start life i design all those years ago. Courage is what pushes me to try something new and allows me to make mistakes so I can grow. Courage is something that I push myself to have more of and is what I encourage my kids to find within themselves.

Each day, for five days, you will get access to a video where I teach and demonstrate the stroke and technique for the day. You will also have access to a free printable practice worksheet, which you will be able to trace, and practice from. I have also added a bonus alphabet video demonstration for you to use to help give you a taste of what you can expect when you start learning more techniques and build your muscle memory to write in modern calligraphy style lettering!

In five days you will have a good starting foundation for dip pen and ink modern calligraphy and a taste for whether this new creative skill is a good fit for you!

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 calligraphy or letterer, to create a gratifying income stream or two in your business!

Not having enough time in the day seems like a common problem all around. I’m not sure if it’s because we are glued to social media, watching endless cute animal videos or perhaps it’s all the binge watching on Netflix, to which I am guilty of myself!

These time sucking activities are all inactive, non-participatory, and time wasting activities that we are all guilty of! This fall I set a few goals for myself and one of them being; to make more time actually make art!I have set in place a few tips and strategies that I want to share with you, to help you find more time to make art too!

This practice sheet and more, is now available in the Free Creative Library that I have built for my awesome subscribers here on life i design!

Perfect to use with your dip pen, small brush pen or even a pencil! Creating consistent practice is the only way to improve your strokes, your confidence and muscle memory.

Everyone’s journey is always so different and inspiring. I thought I’d share this lengthy post about how I got started with lettering and calligraphy as a hobby and a love for writing, and how I turned it into a home based business. Sit back, pour yourself your favorite bevvie and allow me to share with you my journey along with some practical advice!

Back to falling into routine and getting ready to learn!

It’s the perfect time to offer you 50% off all of my online classes!

Now is the perfect time to learn a new creative skill or take an entrepreneurial leap with classes ranging from…

This World Calligraphy Day is going to be a little bit more special. I have the pleasure of teaming up with Manuscript Pen Co to offer some inspiration to practice your calligraphy, lettering, or even handwriting for a special cause for World Calligraphy Day this year. Along with participating, we have a great giveaway to share!

Teaching others how to start a home-based creative business has been something that I’ve wanted to do for years. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work from home while my kids were growing up. Working from home allowed me to have independence, to keep a part of who I was, and it gave me a break from being a Mom along with all the other jobs that go along with staying home.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of watercolor and waterbrush pens. I teach workshops and online classes that feature a waterbrush pen to easily paint stems and leaves as well as create a variety of brush pen lettering.

As a designer and artist, I find that having a variety of mediums and tools to create with keeps my art interesting and fresh so that I stay inspired and creative.

I thought I’d share with you a few quick videos that I recorded using the Timelapse feature on my iPhone - I have to say, it’s quite an addictive feature to be able to record these timelapse videos!

I was browsing a few hand lettering groups on Facebook last week and discovered that quite a few people aren’t quite sure what Modern Calligraphy is and what the difference is between more traditional forms of calligraphy. I thought I’d create an easy cheat sheet to help explain what Modern Calligraphy is for us visual people! First, here’s a quick video that I created while making and digitizing the lettering for the cheat sheet!

Tracing is one of the best ways to help you build muscle memory and grow your lettering practice! So I thought I’d make it available for anyone who is looking for a fun and easy way to help with learning how to write “Happy Birthday” in modern calligraphy with these tracing sheets!

The best part is, I’ve designed this practice sheet to be used with both a pointed pen and ink, or a small brush pen! I’m all about convenience and multi-purpose tools!

National Handwriting Day is January 23rd and I’ve been busy thinking of ways we can build our hand writing muscles and celebrate it! First let’s start with a few reasons why it’s important to practice our hand writing and why we should make it a daily practice. Hand writing is brain food!! It is even argued that cursive writing offers more benefits to the brain giving it an opportunity to train, and trigger different parts within the brain. I’m no scientist, but what I know for sure is that I remember things more when I’ve written them down. I also notice that I commit to things more seriously if I’ve written them down.

For hand lettering and calligraphy fans, it’s such an exciting time to explore this skill and craft. There are many different lettering tools available on the market now to help you with your lettering projects. Far more than when I first started out for sure!!

Calligraphy and lettering is a large part of what makes up the design end of my business. I’ve even started teaching other the craft through workshops and classes.

I often get questions about which class to start with, or which tool to use, so I thought I’d share with you a quick video that I made demonstrating my top hand lettering tools for beginners!

To help you get a better understanding for all the lettering tools available, I’ve narrowed down my top hand lettering tools for beginners

Simply click here, to download your calligraphy practice sheet to help you write “best wishes”. Save it to your computer and print as many copies you need to help you practice!! The best part is, you can use a brush pen or a dip pen and nib to practice with!

If you missed my other practice sheets that I created for you, have a look at this post here.

Oh, and check out the free Christmas Gift Tags that I shared a little while ago!! They’ll help add style and will make a statement with your gift wrapping this year!!

Lastly, if you are curious about learning calligraphy or brush lettering with me, then check out these new online classes that I just created! They are at a low, introductory price for the next little while, so enjoy the savings while it lasts!

There is a difference between hand lettering and calligraphy. Some would argue that there’s a big difference. I personally feel that any form of lettering, is simply letters that are “drawn” vs. “written”. In both cases, we draw strokes that are very purposeful and consistent. The difference between hand lettering and calligraphy is that the elements of those strokes vary. I recorded this video to help with explaining the difference between hand lettering and calligraphy in the hopes of helping to show how the elements of each art form vary.

Click play to watch the video.

Learning calligraphy is like learning any new skill, the more you practice, the better you become. You can take classes, read blog posts, watch videos and hear about all the important tools to use or paper to practice on, but the only thing that will help you improve, grow confidence and want to continue to fine tune your calligraphy style is by practice! This free calligraphy worksheet to practice more give you an option to use a dip pen and ink or a small brush pen to help you trace words and grow your calligraphy skills.