Calligraphy Envelopes, Table Numbers and Place Cards

A couple of months ago I received two envelopes just a day or two apart. I thought I had posted them, but I found them in my 'to-blog' stash tonight, so here they are.

Kim Shenberger (The Constant Scribe) of the Chicago, IL area sent this envelope to me. I love her mix of casual capitals and script lettering - and of course the pretty flowers.

Debi Zeinert (The Blooming Quill) of the Milwaukee, WI area sent this one. Her free and easy script is always so 'inviting', and I love the little flourish!

Here is a set of table numbers I did for a recent wedding.

And here are a few place cards. These are my typical script lettering. I typically add a few extension flourishes such as on the K, R and the Ys in these, but can do more elaborate flourishing if desired.

These are a more casual script. The beautiful hot pink and gold cards were from Cartwheels in Louisville.

Though the casual script takes less training to do, they are actually more difficult for me. It's hard for me to break out of the more exacting flow of the traditional script lettering.

To see more wedding related calligraphy, please see my wedding blog.

Have a beautiful life!

Let the Bridal Shows Begin!

I made a few new small informational packets this week to hand out at a Louisville bridal show.

In the background is a piece of 'play' by Diana Hutchison (mine doesn't show much) from our play session a week ago when we tried out her new Inktense color blocks and many of my brushes. The colors were so intense! (InKtense, get it?) Here's a bit more of both pieces...these were definitely just playing around with no end result in mind.

Lettering on a Canvas Painting

A Christmas project began like this with a cute purchased painting printed on canvas. Wish I had painted the original - isn't it cute!

Though I do a lot of pointed pen calligraphy, I had never really done much with pointed brush lettering. After lots of study and practice I set brush to acrylic paint to canvas painting. To complement the cute painting, I wanted it to be looser than my usual pointed pen script style. I took the knowledge I gained from playing with the flat brush with calligrapher extraordinaire John Stevens at Cheerio in September and applied it to my pointed brush practice.

I was pretty well pleased with the lettering of the quote across the skirts, and with most of the names. Here is a close up of the first pass of the lettering across the skirts, with chalk pencil guidelines still in place.

But, phooey! I didn't like the second name. Looks a bit crowded upon itself, and too far from the first name. I was able to make the correction, totally removing that name and re-lettering it in a better position. Can you see the difference?

Here it is! "All done!" as my grandson says. The names and the quote on this painting represent two sisters and their daughters. When I was sure all the names were correctly spelled, I sprayed the canvas a couple of times with clear gloss acrylic to set the newly added lettering. What a fun project!

If you like this, check out my Keep This Ticket blog to see a painting I donated to help some talented young boys get to the NAMM show in California.

Nationwide Calligraphy Service

Don't you just love the internet, email, PayPal, free long distance, UPS, USPS and FedEx? All of these things make doing business nationwide a piece of cake! I have had clients in Texas, New York, Washington DC and various places in between, all facilitated by the services mentioned above. It truly is a small world now with all of these capabilities at our fingertips. Look at my website. See something you like? Email me or phone, and we can make it happen. Look at my wedding blog. See a style you like? Contact me and I can get you on my calendar. Truly, national service is just a phone call and a shipping service away. It's the way people used to do business via the Yellow Pages. Now they do a Google search. Or they get on any number of online shops and place an order. I do it all the time.

Our world is so much smaller now than it was just a few years ago.

Wedding Envelope Sample Packs!

I spent a lot of time this week lettering envelopes and making sample packs for a few places that do referrals for me. Love how they turned out! The cover is an envelope lettered in Spencerian with my price list inside. The back cover is an envelope loaded with my new business cards.

One of the pages in my sample packet. This one is not the best example of this style. It has a contemporary script name and relaxed caps for the address.

This sample is one of two sizes done on the diagonal.

This sample has titles above the names which are larger than the addresses. I like this option. I think it gives the recipients a bit more of a feeling of 'important guests'.

This page was lettered in mixed caps and lower case with pencil as a fun option.

See my website and my wedding blog for more event calligraphy.

(Not Limited to) Louisville Wedding Calligraphy

Calligraphy has been both a vocation and an avocation intermittently for all of my adult life. As I moved with the times into the computer era, I also took my art to the computer. (See the digital collage albums as well as wedding and calligraphy albums on my website.) I set up a website and a few blogs over the years, but until now I had not set up a completely separate blog for my wedding calligraphy. I stayed up very late last night/this morning rectifying that situation to make it easier for people to find what they're looking for. It will also be easier for me to refer potential clients to the appropriate link now.

I live in Jeffersonville, Indiana, just a mile-long bridge drive from Louisville, KY. I can look across the Ohio River (near flood stage now) and see Louisville as I drive down Utica Pike. Though I live in the Louisville area, thanks to the internet, FedEx, UPS and the good old USPS, I deliver my handlettered invitation and menu designs and calligraphy envelopes across the country.

Though I may pepper this blog with posts about special weddings once in awhile, I am going to try to be more specific with posts to the new Wedding Calligraphy Blog.

Thanks for visiting and sharing my blog with your friends!

Jan