For those of you who follow my Instagram (and if you don't, you really should...) you'll know I started my lettering journey back in January 2017. It's been a fun few months and I feel like I've learnt so much but I knew that attending a lettering course would help refine some of my skills and allow me some time to really focus on my development. I found a great local print place that was running a lettering course for a very reasonable price so I decided to sign up! Here's what my day consisted of...

The course started with an introduction to the fundamentals of typography. Having studied design at degree level and now being a practicing designer I was very familiar with these but appreciate that everyone is at very different stages in their journey so was happy to sit through this part. Because quite a few of us on this course were at similar levels this was only really brushed upon by the tutor, Bev, and we began to look at instances of where typography and lettering is used in day to day life. I thought this was a nice touch as although I constantly look out for and buy a lot of nicely designed typography pieces I sometimes miss ones that don't appeal to my personal taste. Bev made showed examples from packaging, book covers, prints and even graffiti!


Then we were on to basic strokes. Having partook in Becca Courtice's 'Show Me Your Drills' challenge I was rather familiar with these but there were some Bev showed I'd not considered before and they were good to practice.


We then wrote out own lettered alphabet and were encouraged to try and make our own style and circle any we liked but also evolve ones we weren't so keen on. I focused on minuscules because I feel more comfortable with them but also tried to do some majuscules (capitals) as I know they're an area I need to work on!



After this we worked on connecting our letters, just two at a time. This was a great exercise and one I haven't yet got to in my workbooks. Doing two at a time was so helpful as you're just focused on that one connection instead of worrying about a whole word. It also let me see which words were tricky to connect and then work out a solution for how best to do this.



Then we were on to guides! I'm guilty of not using guides... ever! I totally wing my work and that's probably why I look down at my wonky work and then die a little inside so this was definitely something I needed some help on! I've used guides in all the Becca Courtice workbooks but I never, ever draw them myself so I really liked this. I also had a play with some flourishes and interesting connective devices.



I tried this without the guide as well after and was really happy to see that largely my spacing and words looked a lot better but also had a slight 'bounce' to them once the guides weren't in place. At this point I also wrote my name because it's two words I feel confident doing and really liked the outcome!

Now onto majuscules... I'm going to prepare you, this isn't pretty.



I tried to so a serif 'PRACTICE' and I know that everyone doesn't like their own work but oh goodness. Just look at this. On the plus side I used some layout paper for the first time and my life has been revolutionised, farewell tracing paper! Bev also taught us a cool technique for adding drop shadows, which I always do by total guess work, so this is going to save me so much time!

At last, it was time to pull our big girl lettering pants up and move onto whole phrases. I am notoriously unconfident and unsure when it comes to these and usually stick to straight lines or short words. 

So, for some dumb reason my brain chose a really long quote to get started with (all my US Office fans, this is for you)...




I didn't like how this looked and wanted something shorter I could play around with so I went for a classic Parks and Rec' quote... TREAT YO' SELF!



I liked this a lot more and it gave me some freedom to play around more so. I also remembered a piece I did on Instagram a while back which I liked which was also from the US Office "mo' money, mo' problems". This feels so nice to write, I don't know why but just give it a go if you haven't... this was super fun to experiment with!



Now onto structuring type and layout, another weak spot for me! As I said previously, I never use guides or bounding boxes or measure anything out... mainly because I'm lazy and also because I wasn't too sure what to do. So I gave a little bounding box a go and for some ungodly reason chose to use majuscules and it was a bit of a train wreck. My poor, naive self even tried to use some layout paper to fix it, alas it was not meant to be... c'est la vie!

Thankfully, it's the little things that come and save us all sometimes... 




This was a much more impactful and nicer piece in my opinion and I got to use some 't' swooshes... my faves.



Finally, we moved onto what would be our final outcomes from this workshop: a set of postcards. Using all my new knowledge and skills I began plotting out some designs and quotes on to some paper within the dimensions the postcards were.

Here are my final postcard designs:








I should also mention that I had a minor boob incident; happens to the best of us. I went to write 'boss' for my 'girl boss' postcard and my brain decided 'boss' would look better with two o's... so I did what anyone would do and accepted 'BOOB' was coming out thus producing this lovely postcard.



Which brings me to my GIVEAWAY!  *NOW CLOSED*

I thought I'd give one lovely reader of my blog, or follower from Instagram, the chance to get two postcards; one from the set above and one with a quote/phrase/name of their choosing!

To enter all you have to do is follow me and comment on this blog post OR my Instagram post with what quote/phrase/name you would like on a postcard. It's that simple, and if you'd like an extra entry then repost my Instagram post with the hashtag #hanwinpostcard

Closing date is 12pm (GMT) 6th May 2017. 



T&C's: One comment/repost per Instagram or Blogger account. Closing date is 12pm (GMT) 6th May 2017. Entries welcome from anywhere in the world. Because this is a free giveaway postcards and not exchangeable for other items or for money. The winner will be selected at random and posted on my Instagram account shortly after the closing date and I will reach out to contact them. In the instance that the winner isn't contactable or no longer wants their prize I will randomly select someone else. I reserve the right to stop this giveaway at any point. This giveaway is not affiliated or associated with Blogger or Instagram in any way and I am doing so of my own choice. Any questions please email: hannahwinter27@gmail.com

As someone who works full time I'm always looking for ideas for quick projects to do when I'm low on time (and energy..!). I'm also always looking for quirky places to get cheap craft supplies. Here are some pieces I've done recently that took me 4 minutes or less to put together and often used cheap or commonly used craft equipment!

1. Washi tape watercolour border

2. Rose gold gift tags

3. Watercolour florals and succulents

4. Birthday card

I've been wanting to do some lettering on ceramic for a while now, I love the idea of being able to make a beautifully lettered mug or decorative dish for someone. However, I had no prior experience and whilst I kept seeing people recommending great pens for the job I couldn't seem to find any I wanted in local craft stores or on UK sites. Purely by chance I found some reduced porcelain paint in Hobbycraft, I'm aware there's a difference between ceramic and porcelain but I went ahead and everything seems to have gone well! I did however learn some key tips so I thought I'd share them:

1. Practice before you go to the final piece

I found it very beneficial to do some swatches before going into my design and getting a feel for how the paint worked. It was much thicker than the watercolours I'm used to so getting a feel for how it went on to a surface was hugely beneficial before going to my ceramic mug.

2. Use a small brush

I think something I've come to learn through my lettering journey is that I always opt for brushes that are slightly too big, so I'd recommend that when painting with porcelain/ceramic paint to use a small brush because you'll always underestimate the chunky downstrokes you can get with a thinner brush! I have brushes ranging from 1-12 and I used my 1 for this piece which was perfect. It creates fine detail but when pressure is applied is perfect for making the thicker strokes you want.

3. Plan your design in pencil before hand

Now, I don't have a photo of this because it's something I didn't do, but in retrospect wish I had! Thankfully my design worked out okay but I'd suggest with any longer pieces you'll be lettering to do a plan of the hierarchy and layout you want. This is so beneficial to do and something I should do more. If anyone would like some examples of times when I've done this or other great examples then pop a comment down below saying so and I'll happily make a post of this process!

4. Do a rough version first, wipe off any mistakes etc

The above photo shows what it looked like after two coats of black paint, however to get to this point I found it incredibly helpful to do a faint thin coat (almost like a version of a pencil design I guess..!) and then any mistakes or pieces I wanted to re-do came off easily with a wet cloth. When I was happy with my faint version I took a lot more paint on my brush and just went over it and filled it in, something that would have been incredibly difficult to do with the small letters the first time round.

5. Follow the directions provided

I think everyone has those days where they lack the creative drive pushing them to make beautiful things. Some people find this can be random but I think for me this is often seasonal. As soon as the sun is out I feel energised, I want to create and paint but I also feel like I'm wasting the sunshine if I stay inside like a little hermit making away! 

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There are few things I love more than a night full of creativity and spending time with my gal pals so combining the two seemed like a truly brilliant idea. I invited my bestie over for a little evening of lettering (and to share some of the tips and trick I've been learning) with some wine and Chinese food!













To start with I printed off some freebie lettering sheets for them just so they could get the hang of some lettering styles and to show how different it is from normal handwriting. I know this is something I still struggle with so it's always useful to utilise the materials others provide! I also introduced them to the drills worksheets that The Happy Ever Crafter made but have just told them to sign up to that, click the link above to do the same! This is something I'd highly recommend to everyone starting their hand lettering journey, the tools that Becca has put together are nothing short of amazing and I've purchased every workbook she's published since. Anyway, I digress...

Lucie & Dawn were introduced to the wonderful world of heat embossing and finetec watercolours (be sure to read my review of them!). 


















Both of them commented on how much they loved working with both the finetec watercolours and the heat embossing tools. I always think that heat embossing is particularly magical the first couple of times you do it but the magic persists! Hence my unhealthy addiction to embossing on everything. As you can probably see from the background of these images, some of our boyfriends enjoyed a particularly intense night on FIFA...
So, I suggest to any of you lettering addicts or those curious about trying out something new to host a fun craft and catch up night with some friends! It's relaxing, fun and it could mean you share and learn some new skills which is always a great thing! 

I'll leave you with the final pieces my friends created, aren't they beautiful?!