DIY: Calligraphy

Happy Friday Budget Brides!

Here is a post that i found on "With this Ring.... Comes A Lot of Hard Work". Almost An Anderson is a 24 year old bride who is planning a wedding in Fort Worth, Texas. She came up with a brilliant idea on how to create custom almost handmade calligraphy without paying a whole lot of money. So Budget Brides, let's all give a big THANK YOU to "With this Ring.... Comes A Lot of Hard Work" by Almost An Anderson for helping us to save money.

Calligraphy: 101

• First, set up MS Word using the mailings feature to print addresses on the size envelope I was using.





• Then I entered the first recipient's address and set the font color to brown, just a few shades lighter than the envelope color. I adjusted the printer settings for my 5.25 x 7.25" envelope, and printed the address directly onto the envelope. This took a little more time and practice envelopes than I expected to get the position right, but I finally wiggled it around and got it centered.


• Then, I traced over the address using my white ink and calligraphy pen. You need very good lighting for this step, because the brown ink on brown paper was difficult to see. The brown-on-brown ensures nobody will be able to see if I don't cover the printed lines exactly (except you guys, of course). It actually took two coats of ink to get the right amount of coverage, since the white ink was a little bit opaque.


• While this shortcut was extremely helpful, it still required a bit of finesse while figuring out how to use the calligraphy pen and bottled ink. You need to position the pen at an angle to produce the thinner and thicker lines within the letters, and adjusting the pressure on the pen controls the amount of ink that's released from the nib. I would definitely suggest a few practice runs before you start on your envelopes.


• This technique would also work well with any other ink and paper color combination, and gives that fancy hand-written feeling without the worry of crooked lines or inconsistent lettering.

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