…and other lessons learned through this series!

This, my friends is the final post in the #31Day to #LoveYourLettering series! We did it. Whether you started on October 1st with us, or just this past month, you’ve made it to this final post. Woohoo!

This is not the first 31-day series I’ve written… but it IS the first one I’m finishing!

Yes, I realize it’s December and the series was supposed to end on October 31st. I have no excuses, just a very real and crazy life.

Those of you that have followed along through our fun Periscope nightly chats understand that this series and its excitement caught me off guard. I’ve humbly admitted I was only partly prepared when I launched it, but you all showed so much anticipation, and instead of the handful of friends I was expecting, HUNDREDS of you joined us weekly!

These past two months have been an amazing blessing to me.

Can I share with you, candidly? For most of my adult life I have really struggled with my perception of my abilities. I’m not just talking about appropriate humility, but instead struggling with self-depreciating doubts. “Others are already doing this… better.” “I’m not original enough.” “I don’t have enough of my own style.” “I’m not an expert.”

…find the moments of creative beauty in your day-to-day.

Building your self-confidence, and embracing the amazing legacy you’re already creating.

As I sought to encourage you through this series, I ended up being encouraged myself. Many of you have reached out through Facebook, and Instagram. Sending me messages of appreciation, words of encouragement in the grief journey over my daughter, Miranda, and sharing excitement over the prospect of our #ForeverHome.

You all are truly joining me in this adventure of life.

This is a glimpse of the community that I always hoped was possible through blogging.

You’re teaching me to stay focused and be prepared.

When you trust me with your time, it isn’t okay for me to just wing it. I need to have a plan in place and room for needed changes. Trying to piece things together in the final hour, just doesn’t work and isn’t sustainable.

I am more creative than I’ve given myself credit for (and so are YOU).

There are tons of lettering artists out there, and their work is phenomenal… but I still have a unique perspective to share from, I just need to continue embracing it. It was only through the course of the #LoveYourLettering series that I actually started identifying with my full blog name of ‘creativ’ LEI. I’ve enjoyed becoming known as a #leftyletterer.

For many years I’ve held back from sharing art instruction or tips, afraid that too many would people would stop reading if they couldn’t do the same type of art as me. What if they weren’t into art or crafts at all? Why would they read this site.

Through this series I was better able to communicate to you all, that this, like many other art skills, is a discipline. Regular attention does bring growth and changes, but it’s more important to find the ways that help you improve your style and comfort, than it is to form letters (or art) exactly like mine.

Finding your creative outlet may have little to nothing to do with art… and that is absolutely okay!

A creative outlet is the type of thing that excites your mind and ignites your passions. For some it’s art, others it’s cooking, organizing, writing, decorating, or gardening.

We can find ways to relate and encourage one another while we grow our strengths and overcome our weaknesses. It’s that encouragement that spurs us on!

I want to thank you each for joining in during this series. It was so much fun!

Now it’s time to give me your ideas of what you’d like to study together next. I want to hear from you! 2016 is already looking very exciting to me. Expect to see some small changes around here that make it easier to find the info you’re looking for.

Share with us, what was your favorite thing to learn during #LoveYourLettering?

**You can find all of the previous assignments on the series index page here (or by clicking on the image above). A list of basic lettering supplies can be found in this post.**

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The post Finishing What You Started {#LoveYourLettering} appeared first on CreativLEI.

 
The past two weeks, you all have blessed me incredibly with your response and support since launching the lettering series. I created a free printable art gift for you. Actually, I was having so much fun I made two!

I wanted a chance to thank all of you who subscribe and follow along with our journey!

(Affiliate links follow, my full disclosure statement is available to read, here.) I created these two images with acrylic paint on watercolor paper. The lettering is done with a Tombow Mono Twin pen and two sizes of Montana acrylic paint pens.

Both are available to download for free and print, as a thank you for subscribing to my blog.

Instead of a giveaway that would only reward one of you, these printables are for you all. I appreciate you trusting me with your time while you visit me here.

[wp_eStore_free_download_squeeze_form id=8]

You will receive a link to your inbox. Please do not share these copyrighted files with others. Instead, please share the link to this post and encourage them to join us as well.

[wp_eStore_free_download_squeeze_form id=9]

You will receive a link to your inbox. Please do not share these copyrighted files with others. Instead, please share the link to this post and encourage them to join us as well.

Thank you for joining with me! I look forward to connecting with you more on here, Periscope, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!

Products used to create these pages:

The post A Thank You Gift for Your Support appeared first on CreativLEI.

Making small changes to the foundation of your handwriting to develop style.

In the basic shape assignment, I challenged you to isolate the different fragments that make up letters and practice them.

Each of those parts has a name. On the bottom portion of your page, it might be helpful to add in this diagram. It’s missing descenders, which are pieces of the letter that fall below the base line. See if you can pick out a different word to label and be sure to tag it (#LoveYourLettering) if you share it on Instagram!

For this exercise, I started with my natural print and placed one letter in each box, about halfway down the page I added a line for the remainder of the alphabet. How many letters you fit across will depend on which paper you’re using.

I made a line full of each variation I tried. Wide bowls, narrow bowls, slanted bowls, tiny bowls. We’ll add whimsy tomorrow, today I’m just focusing on altering the basic components of the letters.

They may not look very different, but if you start to mix these variations within words of lettered pieced, you’ll start to see personality develop… but more on that later in the week.

Let’s keep these assignments short and do-able!

Video demonstration for Altering Your Handwriting:

I don’t want this to be intimidating. Are you having fun with this?

For those of you joining us this week and wondering where the ‘supply list‘ is, you can find it in this post. However, you can get started with any pen (or pencil) you’re comfortable with using. Most of the techniques we’ll talk about this month can be practiced with tools you already have.

There is now a companion guide available for this portion of Love Your Lettering, if you feel more comfortable working through a printable guide:

The post Altering Your Handwriting {#LoveYourLettering} appeared first on CreativLEI.

Ready to write?

Yesterday we put together a practice notebook. Today we’re going to start writing.

Write alphabets in print and in cursive. Jot a few sentences. Create a grocery or shopping list. Write silly words!

Don’t over think it.

The idea behind this assignment is to get a good sample of your natural handwriting. What does your print look like? What about your cursive? Is your natural hand a blend of the two? Mine is!

We’ll go into deeper analysis later, today just get some letters and words on the page.

You don’t fill the page completely, just jot stuff down.

I start the page by dating it and adding the assignment name. I also like to note which pen(s) I’m using.

Leave a little space between the lines you write, because we’re going to come back to this page in a couple of days. Just be sure to get down a variety of words (hence the shopping list). Toss in some numbers, too. We want to have a good sample base.

This is a super short assignment that is simply meant to get natural samples of your regular handwriting. We’ll come back later in the month to observe some of the changes we’ve made.

What are some of the areas you’ve found that need some improvement?

Be sure to use the hashtag #LoveYourLettering when you post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram so we can see how you’re doing. See the index of the full series here:

The post Identify Your Natural Handwriting {#LoveYourLettering} appeared first on CreativLEI.