Trying Hand Lettering With Tombow

We’re so excited to be TombowUSA Brand Ambassadors. Thanks to Tombow for providng the pencils for today’s post. All opinions belong to us!

 

I don’t think it’s any secret that out of the three of us I’m the least “design-y.” I have great aspirations, and my pin boards are full of beautiful things, but I just never thought that I had the skill or the eye for the creative stuff. I can write recipes all day long, and I have lots of ideas, but that’s sort of where it ended! However, living in Alaska has given me a little extra time to explore my interests. I’ve been reading a lot lately, and I discovered that maybe I just need to practice more. Candice and Amanda aren’t amazing photographers by chance; they work really hard at it. I don’t just happen to know baking ratios, it’s because I’m in the kitchen for hours every day. If I want to pick up a new skill I can’t expect to master it overnight.

As part of the TombowUSA Brand Ambassador team we receive a product to try out each month. For February, we received some of the Tombow Mono Pencils. In the beginning I was wondering what kind of creative project we could do with the pencils, but then I realized this was the perfect opportunity for me to practice something new!

I’m obsessed with lettering and calligraphy, and I have been since I was a little girl. I’ve been copying the M off Martha Stewart’s signature since I was in high school! I was very relieved to learn that hand lettering isn’t really about handwriting at all. It’s about drawing the letters. I’m not pretending to  be an expert, but I have learned a ton, and I am getting better.

The three books I’ve been reading are:

• The Complete Book of Chalk Lettering
• Creative Lettering and Beyond
• The No Fuss Calligraphy Starter Kit

Periscope is also a great way to learn technique. I especially love watching left handed letterers, because there is a difference depending on your dominant hand. Here are some of the accounts that I follow:

• PolkaDotsWishes
• JanTinkArt
• TombowUSA
• CraftyMeggy
• KreativeKymona
• OneArtsyMama
• KellyCreates (she has some amazing information!)
• LizCall
• Creativlei

Just a couple of words about Tombow: these pencils are amazing! It’s seriously like butter. My husband is an engineer, and kind of a pencil snob, and he stole one of these because he likes them so much! Also, and this is mostly for Alaska people, when I’ve made personal orders off the Tombow site, the shipping has been very fast, and unlike some retailers, when they say free shipping with a $25 purchase, it includes Alaska!!