Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Embossing Follow Up

Posting a follow up image of the piece I started in THIS Embossing Tutorial.

The original, Italic lettering of John 16:33 was done with a 1.5mm Pilot Parallel Pen. I loaded the barrel of the pen with Higgins Eternal ink.

Have a great weekend and....

Go forth and Flourish!

xo

Jane

200th Flourish Friday and Embossing Tutorial

This is A Place to Flourish's 200th blogpost! That's a wholelotta Fridays, and I appreciate your visits and support these past few years.  To celebrate, I am going to give away the "Put On Love" piece pictured above. As promised, here is a step-by-step of how I did the embossing for this piece originally posted HERE.

The Calligraphy Guild of Indiana hosted Sharon Hanse in 2009 for her Dimensional Calligraphy workshop, which is where I learned this process.  First, you start with a piece of Bristol board.  Pictured above is the brand and style I use.

Sharon had us do our layout on tracing paper, but because I am lazy, I rough out my designs directly onto the Bristol board.  I use a standard #2 pencil.  I didn't happen to take any pictures of the "Love" design when I did these steps, so this morning I did the word "Peace" as an example for this tutorial. As I design, I keep in mind that my stylus will need to fit into the letterforms.  Thins cannot be too thin.

Once I am happy with the design, I use a technical pen and trace over the lines that I will be cutting.  I write "save" or "s" in the areas that will drop out of the design, because I don't want to accidentally throw them away.  I clean up some of the pencil marks with an eraser.

Next, I use an Exacto knife and  cut along the black lines.  I put the "saved" pieces aside for later. (If you think of the word "Peace" written in black ink, it's the black ink that I will NOT be saving. I am saving the white space of the design.) I don't have the time this morning to do all the cutting on this piece, so I am going to switch back to the "Love" design to show you the next steps.

Next, I run glue over the FRONT SIDE (important!) of the stencil/design and then turn the design UPSIDE DOWN onto a piece of fairly transparent layout paper.  I believe I used Canson Pro-Marker layout paper.   I press the Bristol board onto the layout paper, making sure the lettering keeps a nice form.  Then I repeat this same step with the "saved" drop-out pieces.  Once the design is how I want it, I put it under some heavy books until dry.

Once the stencil is firmly adhered to the layout paper, I'm ready to emboss.  I like using Arches Text Wove, Rives BFK, and Canson Mi-Teintes papers when embossing.  If there will be other lettering on the piece, then I may do it first. (or I may not!) :)

IMPORTANT: Turn your paper upside down before you begin embossing.

The embossing will be easier if you put a piece of waxed paper between your good paper and your stylus.  I use these glassine envelopes from the USPS.

Then using the large end of the stylus, I trace along the inside edge of the stencil a few times with medium pressure. If you use too much pressure, especially on the first pass, you  may tear your good paper.  Once I have gone over the stencil a few times with the large end of the stylus, I will switch to the smaller end and repeat.

Finished!

I hope I have clearly explained the process.  If not, and you have questions, just let me know.

To celebrate my 200th post here at A Place To Flourish, I am giving away this "Put On Love" piece. It is a piece based on Colossians 3: 12-14.  

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment in the comments section of this "200th Flourish Friday and Embossing Tutorial" post. (No emails, please. Those of you that subscribe via email will need to go to the actual post at Blogger.)  Be sure to include your first name and at least your last initial in your comment. You have until Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 5pm Eastern Time to enter.  I will use Random.org to choose a winner and announce the winner's name in next Friday's post.

**Update: The "Put On Love" giveaway is now closed. Thank you!**

Thank you for helping me celebrate this milestone!!

Have a great weekend.

Go forth and flourish.

xo

Jane

  

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Merry Christmas!

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Peace be with you Dear Friends.

I tried a little bit of gilding for my calligraphy guild's holiday card exchange.

I used Instacoll and patent gold leaf.

I sketched a dove and cut it out of bristol board and then embossed the shape onto Stonehenge paper.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I used Finetec gold and a Zebra G nib for addressing the envelope.

Wishing you peace, joy and merry making a plenty this Christmas!

xo

Jane

Flourish Friday - Pointed Pen Lettering

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

This lettering was done with an Esterbrook 355 nib and Winsor & Newton Indigo Designer Gouache.  I made the background paper during Artiscape 2010 in Jacqueline Sullivan's "Experimental Water Media" workshop. (Read about that here.)  This is the last verse from the old hymn "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" by James M. Black.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

The lettering on this baby card was done with the same nib and gouache.  I made the "J" template from my own lettering.  The little drop out piece at the very top of the J was sure tricky to get glued down at the correct angle.

I appreciate all the kind comments and emails this past week.
Thanks everyone. :)

Happy weekend!!

Go forth and flourish.

Graduation - Calligraphy Flourish Friday

Graduation season is upon us!  

Like many people, Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite verses from scripture.  I like to include it in the graduation cards I make for family and friends.

This quote is another I like to use for graduation cards. (2014 update: Unfortunately, this is not an accurate quotation from Thoreau's "Walden" and needs to be redone.)

...and another favorite! :)

My sweet, iFriend, Marilyn, sent me a bunch of templates after this post I did about embossing our Christmas cards. After reading my post, she decided to try embossing and cut a bunch of templates on a die cutting machine. Great idea! She made a set for herself and made a set to send to me. What a treat! Thank you Marilyn!! I used the graduation boy and girl templates Marilyn sent to emboss the fronts of these cards. Inside each card is one of the quotes from above.  I'm trying to stay on top of making these cards each day as the grad announcements and open house invites arrive. 

Here is the front and back of Matt's open house invite.  I'm pretty sure I will be an absolute mess with the first few notes of Pomp and Circumstance. (sigh) 

A friend and I were recently discussing how as young mothers, whenever our little "darlings" were pitching a fit in public and getting on our last nerve, inevitably some well meaning woman would happen along and say, "Oh, enjoy it. It goes so fast." Part of me knew it to be true (and part of me wanted to doink them in the eyes!)  Now, all of me knows it to be true.  It went so fast....

Go Forth and Flourish (and that includes the Class of 2010!!)

Trust in the Lord

I always get myself into trouble when I only rule a baseline for italic lettering. I need a waistline too (what girl doesn't want a nice waistline?!). I started off just the size I wanted, but by the end I had slowly but surely increased the lettering....

height. sigh....

UPDATE: I did the embossing by cutting out my lettering from a piece of bristol board, and then blind embossing. Check out my April 29, 2009 post about it here.

Dimensional Calligraphy with Sharon Hanse

My calligraphy guild, CGI, just held a wonderful, two day workshop with Sharon Hanse.  It was titled "Dimensional Calligraphy."  We learned to make stencils and cutouts from our lettering and artwork.  Here is my cutout.  Sharon had us rough out our lettering on tracing paper first. Then once we had our design, we cut it out of Bristol Board.  I will definitely be on the prowl for a soft grip Exacto knife with my next 40% off coupon!  I placed my cutout on various backgrounds.  You can see more on my Flickr page, but I love this background.  It was made by Sandy Wagner.  I think it's FABULOUS, and it's in my colors too.  I thought about sticking it in my bag, but I'm pretty sure she would have missed it.

Another project Sharon had us complete was an embossing of our lettering on a piece of copper.  (Chillax is a blend of "chill out" and "relax.")  I discovered the wider the letterforms the better.  I got too thin in a few places.  I added the handle and beads at home.  I want to find a little hanger for it, so I can put it on the back deck. (Since that's where we do most of our chillaxing in the summer.)

The thing I liked the most was creating a stencil of our lettering.  Additionally, Sharon had us save and mount the "drop out" pieces onto drafting vellum.   This way, using a light table, I'll be able to emboss and deboss the letters on the same piece of paper.  It will give the illusion that some letters are in front of the others.  I haven't had time to play with it yet, but I'm looking forward to doing it.  I'll also be able to use the stencil for pastels, chalk, etc.

Using the stencil from above, I did a blind embossing on a piece of Canson Mi-Teintes.  I plan on lettering Proverbs 3:5-6 on it, which is one of my favorite verses from the Bible.

It was a great workshop, and you can see more photos from the workshop here.  Please check back on Friday for this week's flourish!