Artist/Letterer/Designer

I don’t know about you, but everyday feels like a Friday and I have been eating way too many snacks and drinking far more teas than usual. This social isolation isn’t a big deal for me since I work from home and am used to spending quite a bit of time at my desk and my studio, however, I’m on a mission to arm my readers, followers and subscribers with as much creative, fun, joy-filled distraction as possible!

Which means I’ve been busy filming videos, tutorials and classes to help you at whatever stage you are at in your explorative, creative journey. I’m hoping to give you a welcomed distraction from news, social media and Netflix!

If you are a member of Skillshare, I’ve just hit publish on my newest watercolor for beginners class; Watercolor Leaves: how to easily paint multiple styles & learn to layer leaves creating depth for an interesting piece of art that you can frame, digitize to use in your design work and enjoy painting over and over again!

When I am painting watercolor leaves, I fall into a meditative state that is both relaxing and joy filled. There’s just something gratifying about the brush strokes and movement of the paint that makes me want to layer, add movement and depths using watercolor and my favorite brush!

This class is perfect for beginners to intermediate watercolor enthusiasts! If you've had a little bit of watercolor instruction and have some experience with watercolor, this class is a great class to help get your confidence up and get painting right away!

This online watercolor class was designed to give you a taste of what painting with watercolors is like. If you are looking for a more in-depth watercolor course, have a look at this one that I release only a few times a year. It takes you from the very beginning, through various projects and strategically planned practice to help build your watercolor knowledge and experience.

I hope you check out the class on Skillshare if you are a member! If you’re not a member, you can get 2 months free with this special link.

If you are curious about watercolor and want to watch a few video tutorials that I’ve created, go ahead and subscribe to my youtube channel where I’m sharing weekly tutorials about watercolor, calligraphy, lettering and being creative!

Here’s a sample of a video that you can find on my channel…

As always, stay creative, but also stay healthy!

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 calligraphy 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!!

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.

Watch this quick video to see how I demonstrate a simple script lettering option and how to paint a simple botanical stem.

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? You can even do a combination of both!

Will you license your designs to manufacturers or greeting cards companies?

I recommend you do a combination of a few! Why not?!! You’ve created the design already, you may as well enjoy both passive and active income from that design. It’s one of the main things I teach in my new class How to Expand Your Calligraphy Business!

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 try your hand at lettering and painting your own greeting card designs!

I read recently that Megan Markle, as in Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex Megan Markle, had a little calligraphy side hustle going.

Before HRH got her big break working on the show Suits, she worked for a paper company and offered calligraphy for celebrity weddings and even taught a workshop! How cool is that?! She prides her self on being very disciplined as she learned and practiced the art of calligraphy!

Calligraphy is still as popular as ever, even with the influx of calligraphers and letters offering this beautiful service!

Let’s face it, more and more people rely heavily on technology, but handwriting is a form of expression that’s not going anywhere and a lot of people aren’t developing their skills in anymore.

If you have been studying the art of calligraphy and lettering, practicing to develop your own style, and have a passion to explore the idea of starting a calligraphy business of your own, I’m here to share with you my top tips for starting a calligraphy business just like HRH!

First thing I recommend is to think about what you want to sell!! What will be the basis of your calligraphy business as you start out on this new venture? When you’ve decided what you will offer, start building a portfolio that shows your style of calligraphy to promote those services and/or products. If you’re like me and love planning, sit down with a pen and paper and decide what the next 3 months look like. Then build out what the next 3 months after that look like, etc. etc. I’m a big believer of planning 90 days at a time. I even wrote a blog post about it here and made a fun printable for you to use!

Next, you need somewhere to direct people to so they can look at awesome photos of your beautiful work! Then you need somewhere they can go, to be able to hire you and pay you! A website is the best thing to direct your potential customers and followers to. You have complete control over your website, any other platform means you’re at the mercy of their algorithms. I have used everything from Wordpress sites to this one here which is a Squarespace site. There are a lot of options for you to explore, but I recommend deciding what you want your website to do for you before you invest the time and money. If you can’t afford to set aside time and money to invest into your website, put it on your 3-6 month plan, and start using Instagram as your visual portfolio, and Etsy to sell your services or products on. That way you can start building a following and earn money as you save for your website!

Promote the heck out of your work and build relationships!! Referrals for your business is something that you are going to rely on, especially when you first start out. You’ll find that your first clients and hires will be from people who know you already. From people who want to support your new business. From people who are most likely your friends, or friends of friends. Nurture those first few jobs, over deliver and you will see more referrals come your way! This is also an opportunity to learn how to work from other people’s ideas and also what your strengths and weaknesses are so you can hone in on your skills and what you want to offer in your business. For instance, I personally don’t like to work on a deadline and spend my time standing in line at a post office. So I closed my print shop a few years ago when I decided I wanted more flexibility and control over my schedule. You can only make those decisions once you’ve experienced them! Join Facebook groups and learn, share, network and grow! Here’s a link to my new Facebook group of other fellow creatives!

Grow! Work at your skill and your business! Keep practicing calligraphy. Keep taking classes, read blogs, learn from as many people as you can! Learn from other calligraphers who style you admire and who’s businesses you want to emulate. Share your practice, your finished designs and keep growing! Also learn about business, working from home, marketing and even photography! Skills that any creative entrepreneur should develop and grow. To this day, I take multiple classes a year to help develop my artistic skills as well as business skills. There are no excuses for not learning. There are ebooks, in-person classes, online classes and even coaching. Find ones that speak to you, that inspire you and that offer solutions to challenges or opportunities for you to grow.

Network off-line! Yup! I’m encouraging you to step away from your computer and phone and meet people in-person. Book a table at a craft show, speak to people, get feedback on what they are looking for and feedback on your calligraphy work! Doing this allows you to get insight into your market and research what people want! Step out of your comfort zone and find people to connect with and even partner with. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn and how it will help your calligraphy business grow!

There you have it! Start your side hustle like HRH The Dutchess of Sussex and enjoy this beautiful business of calligraphy and celebrate the art of hand lettering.

As always, have a question about starting or growing your calligraphy business?! I’m all ears. In fact, I’m happy to spend 15 minutes on the phone with you chatting about your questions!

Send me a direct email [email protected] and let’s chat!

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ll know that I balance being a creative and being an entrepreneur, wearing many hats in-between. Becoming a creative entrepreneur can be an interesting clash of two worlds. On the one hand, you have a creative skill that you want to market, whether it's decorating people's homes, producing music or making jewelry. On the other hand, you need to put your business hat on, and get to work promoting your creative skills or products. Growing a business while also carrying on with your creative work can be tough, and require a lot of work. So how can you balance your creativity with your need to grow your business? Take a look at some of these tips.

Delegate Work to Someone Else

Turning your creativity into a business usually means spending less time being creative and more time taking care of the business side of things. It's important to consider that this is the reality of starting a business, but you don't have to completely give up being creative. One thing that you can do is hand some of the work you're not so keen on to someone else. If you don't want to spend all of your time doing admin, you can start outsourcing or looking into hiring people who can help you. Virtual assistants may be a good way to start and can offer you flexible hours while being budget friendly.

Work on Marketing and Sales

Even if you want to spend all of your time being creative, starting a business means you need to concentrate on sales. Whether you're selling a service or physical products, you need to put time and money into marketing and sales. The right management of your sales and creation of sales content should help you to streamline your sales process and build your brand. If sales and marketing aren't for you, it's an easy thing to outsource. Alternatively, maybe it's time to start building your own sales and marketing team so you have people who you know you can rely on.

Have Separate Business and Creative Spaces

If you're trying to get down to business but can't help responding to the call of creativity, you might end up neglecting some of the important stuff. One trick that you can try is to have separate spaces for being creative and for doing business. While not everyone can do this, it's a good way to keep your two roles more distinct. You might have a creative workspace and a separate desk so one thing doesn't distract you from the other. If you work from home, you might consider finding a desk, office or studio elsewhere.

Apply Creative Thinking to Business

Even when you're taking care of all the business stuff, you can still be creative. Being able to think creatively can help you to solve problems and take an interesting approach to your work. It might not be exactly the same type of creativity that you use when you're doing other creative things, but it still gives you an opportunity to use your creativity to your advantage. Creative people can make great business people too.

Balance your creativity and business skills to run your business and you can have success without giving up on being creative. The balance won’t always be even, but can be a refreshing break when you feel like you need to change your focus.

Confession time! I’m really bad at flourished modern calligraphy style lettering. Yup! I’m not a natural at it. I need at least 15 minutes of warm-up drills to really get my hand and brain to sync up before I even can wrap my head around creating finished work!

Being really bad at flourish style calligraphy doesn’t mean I should avoid it completely or using it in my design work. It just means I need to practice more and give my muscle memory a workout!

I’m really bad at flourished lettering & how I practice

So I created these Flourish Calligraphy Worksheets a while back and didn’t do anything with them other than use them for reference when I had a client ask for a flourished, modern calligraphy style for a piece. As much as I love looking at flourished examples, they seem a little too formal for my laid-back style but it doesn’t mean that I stay away from it completely.

Here’s a quick video that I made showing you how I practice each letter over and over to get the right line weight and consistency in stroke! Trust me! Repetition is key with lettering and I even work my muscle memory myself still!!

What I did recently is made a digital version of the flourish alphabet and turned it into calligraphy practice worksheets that you can use too!

You’ll notice that you can use these worksheets with a pointed pen and ink or a small brush pen! Fab right?!!

You can also use your favorite tracing paper to trace, practice and trace some more until you are confident enough to try free-handing your letters!

I feel like the line work on this one is still too rough for my liking, but that’s why warm-up and practice is key!!

I hope you are encouraged to practice and build your hand lettering skills and are reminded that just because it doesn’t come easy, it doesn’t mean we should avoid it! If you’ve used the flourish guide to practice too, let me know by commenting or tagging me in a post!!

To have a look at my modern calligraphy workbooks and courses, click here.

Happy Practicing!!

When I decided to pursue a life of creating art and sharing that art, I had to make a number of adjustment and allowances.  I needed to believe that the time I spent sketching or painting randomness was actually time spent nurturing my creativity.  After all, if I didn't spend time being creative, how was I to make art and build a business around it. 

Perhaps your goal isn't to be creative as part of a business, perhaps you are looking to be creative to explore a new hobby or a craft or just to do something for you and only you.  Maybe you're looking for a few tips to help you be more creative or even productive ...

whatever your goal is, I am going to share with you my top 5 tips to help you be more creative (and productive!)

I believe that being creative helps with problem solving, self expression and personal growth.  The problem is, our modern day lives which are filled with technology, means we spend most of our free time watching, liking and scrolling rather than doing, exploring and creating.

I'm also a firm believer of balance.  Balancing our time, our energy and our focus. Our time won't always be balanced, however, we can make an effort to find a better balance.  We will have weeks when we find little time to ourselves, or energy for that matter.  With small tweaks and a few things to implement from my top 5 tips, you will slowly carve out more time to be creative and help balance all the scrolling, clicking and watching.

1. Make sure you schedule it!  Just like you do with your kid's appointments, your trips to the gym, grocery shopping etc.  Make time for explorative play-time and commit to doing it! Put it in your calendar, your spouse's calendar, and even create a reminder! Schedule the time to learn a new craft, take a workshop or read a guide book.  Whatever is on your creative bucket list, dedicate yourself to it and schedule the time to it.  You will be amazed at how much more time you will spend on being creative when you schedule it! 

2. Create the physical space for you to be creative in.  If you don't have a lot of room in your house, condo, apartment, don't worry.  Put everything you need in a drawer, a container or even a tote.  That way, everything is handy and ready to go when you are too!  When I teach any of my workshops, I make sure that the kit for the class is simple and portable.  If you want to practice your lettering at your kitchen table, dining room or local coffee shop, you don't need a lot of space to do it in!  If you require more room, perhaps explore your local area and see if you can book space to work in, like a shared workshop or co-operative work hub.  More on that in tip 4!

3. Let the people you live with know that you need, scratch that, you are, taking some time to yourself.  Showing them that you are putting yourself first for that time-frame, will make them understand that what you are doing is important, and you need the time and space to be creative in.  When we show ourselves that respect and express how important it is to us, those around us will have no choice but to honour your request and help you create that time and space.  Let them know that you can't be interrupted unless it's an emergency and make sure you stick to it!

4. Go somewhere inspiring. Hit your local coffee shop, co-working hub or local library.  There are so many new co-operative work environments popping up everywhere, a simple google search will help you find one in your area. A new setting can be both inspiring and a way to be productive.  I often find that I do my most productive editing and writing when I'm at my local Starbucks.  I'm forced to put my head down and work knowing that I only have as much time as it takes to sip a grande latte!

5. Wake up 30 minutes earlier or go to bed 30 minutes later.  For those of us who are busy moms with kids who have a more exciting social calendar than we do, it may be challenging to carve out the time during "regular" hours.  So why not try waking up earlier a few days a week,  or go to bed later one night a week.  I'm an early bird, so I often wake up 30 minutes early, pack the kids lunches and sit at my computer to get through emails or finish up editing.  You may be a night owl and find your inspiration when the house is dark and quiet.  Whatever speaks to you, find that time and use it!

Here's a bonus tip! 

Find a friend who is looking to be more creative and invite them to join you, share space with you or to take a class with you! Make it social, productive, creative time.  You'll have more fun and will take it more seriously since you won't want to let your friend down!  Hold each other accountable and make the reward be whatever you are hoping to create or achieve! 

I hope you've been inspired by this post and have a few tips to take away with you.  My personal goal is to carve out an extra hour a week to create blog posts around lettering, being creative how to start a creative business and creating inspiring spaces around you!

I'd love your feedback on what you're curious about and would love to curate content just for you! I'm always available via email at [email protected].  I will most likely reply at 6:30 in the morning with coffee in hand!

Christmas is the time of year when most people are in the mood to celebrate, decorate and try a few DIYs too!  This simple how to make a Christmas gift tag post, is inspired by my calligraphy workshop students as I wanted to demonstrate how to incorporate lettering into your Christmas decorating!

Here's a little inspiration for those of you who are enjoying learning how to incorporate modern calligraphy and lettering into everyday life.  I've put together a really simple way to practice lettering and showing off your new skills 

First off, the materials can be very simple.  I used some scraps of watercolor paper and watercolors to create the base of the tags.  I had no idea really of what I wanted in terms of background, I just played with splotches of color, loose shapes and lettered the word merry too!

I then cut the shapes out and thought about a few sayings that I wanted to letter.

I chose a variety of lettering tools for this quick and easy Christmas gift tag project.  A dip pen and ink, a brush pen, a gold gel pen and a watercolor brush are all that I needed for a variety of lettering styles.

Even if you aren't familiar with calligraphy lettering, use a gold pen and write as fancy as you can.  If you are curious about learning modern calligraphy, have a look at these simple downloadable workbooks too!

Play around with font styles and have fun adding your own personal charm and touch!

Voila! You now have a variety of hand lettered Christmas gift tags that you can use!

I have a confession to make here.  I'm really hopeless at wrapping gifts (add ironing to that list too) so I normally choose gift bags and tissue for quick and easy gifts.  

But here are a few ways I wrapped gifts with these tags, including drawing on kraft paper too!!

I also started planning how I wanted to set the table for our very special family Christmas dinner and used a few tags as place cards.  I'm quite pleased as to how they turned out and am excited to set a full table on Christmas.

I'm also obsessed with fairy lights this year.  They are everywhere in my Christmas decorating.  Why not use them on the dinner table too!!?

I hope you're inspired to try your hand at lettering your own Christmas gift tags or even place settings for your special meal.  The materials are simple, the tools can be basic, but the touch is always special, as it is your own way of adding your charm and character to any occassion!

There is an amazing amount of resources these days to help with learning how to do just about anything!! You can read blog posts, read books and even watch videos.  I taught myself how to knit watching YouTube videos!

I have been busy working away on a number of resources to help you learn Modern Calligraphy!

Over this last year I've had the pleasure of teaching a number of in-person Modern Calligraphy workshops in my local are.  These workshops pretty much sell-out, and I am always pleasantly surprised at how easily the attendees pick up the very traditional method of pen and ink, but in the modern style that I teach and use myself in my lettering!

These workshop have inspired me to create a few workbooks for all of you who may want to learn Modern Calligraphy from me as well!

There are a lot of resources online about lettering, calligraphy, brushes, pens etc.   I have read many myself!   My workbooks are a little bit different. First of all, I've written, lettered and published them all myself.  Big high fives!! 

The first one is Introduction to Modern Calligraphy 101 .  This is the exact workbook that I use to teach all of my beginner students.  If you need to learn how to put your pen and nib together, simple, beginning strokes and basic calligraphy knowledge with practice, then this workbook is for you! 24 pages with photos, practice sheets and tips!

If you have some experience and really want to learn how to properly write the lower case alphabet with a dip pen or even a small brush pen, then Learn Modern Calligraphy Handwriting - lower case letters is the one for you! 38 pages of tips and the exact strokes and swells needed to really master the lower case alphabet in calligraphy!

Whichever book you choose, it is as simple as downloading it, printing your practice sheets and start practicing!  As with anything, practice is the key.  Really spending time, getting to know your tools and how to control the ink flow, is my biggest tip that I can offer anyone.  Forming letters comes after we've mastered our dip pen and ink!

I really hope to inspire more people to pick up a new craft, hobby or skill and have fun learning how to write in Modern Calligraphy.  We type and text so much these days that I feel like the next generation may never have the chance to fall in love with the sound a pen makes as it scratches words onto paper in a newly opened journal.