Glutton for Punishment?

Glutton for Punishment?

May 27th, 2010 @ 2:21 pm by Mrs. Jellyfish
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Save me from myself.

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been obsessed with beautiful writing. I knew I wanted to have calligraphy on our invitation envelopes, but I also knew that I wasn’t willing to shell out a whole bunch of money to have someone do it for me. Luckily, I have some very crafty friends, and bridesmaid Lauren assured me that I could learn calligraphy, just as she did for her wedding.

Now, when Lauren does something, she does it 100%.

So when she set out to do her wedding invitations, she didn’t just learn any ol’ calligraphy style – she learned Copperplate Script, the most beautiful, fancy-shchmancy type of all (in my opinion). Here is the envelope she addressed to President Obama:

Glutton for Punishment? : wedding calligraphy diy pleasanton 2 2

Um, can you say, awesome?!?! Photo courtesy of Lauren.

She gave me a few pointers, lent me some materials and this awesome book:

Glutton for Punishment? : wedding calligraphy diy pleasanton A a

Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy: A Step-by-Step Manual by Eleanor Winters, only $10 on Amazon.com

A few weeks ago, I found the appropriate pen holder and nibs at Paper Source, bought some ink and started practicing. After a couple hours, I had this:

Glutton for Punishment? : wedding calligraphy diy pleasanton 3 3

I was off to a good start! But then came finals. And graduation. And now, Bar studying. As our invitation deadline draws closer, I am beginning to panic about my ability to 1) fully learn calligraphy and 2) calligraph (is that the verb?) 90 envelopes (Lauren already offered to do the other half!).

Once again, Lauren to the rescue! She graciously offered to do all the calligraphy for me. I’m still going to try to do some myself, but I really appreciate her willingness to help me on this! So this weekend, I’m taking a little road trip to visit her, and hopefully we can do some of the calligraphy together!

Have you attempted to learn calligraphy? Did you find yourself in over your head?

Tags: calligraphy, diy, pleasanton |

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37 Responses to “Glutton for Punishment?”

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Member

Blue Moon (message) 16 posts, Newbee

Kudos on trying to take on such a challenging task! At least you have an AMAZING friend to step in and help

5/27/10 @ 2:34 pm (reply)

Member

Hola13 (message) 52 posts, Worker bee

My sister offered to learn and that didn’t work out so well. I should have atleast tried to learn but my regular hand writing is sooo bad to begin with. I asked my mom if she could address the invites because I think she has really beautiful handwriting, the type where she writes out everything in cursive, yet it’s still 100% ledgeable. We ordered our invites and I e-mailed my mom the proofs. She saw that she could pay to have it done so she decided to save herself a headache and just pay for it to be done. Part of me feels really bad because I’m not sure if I would have paid to have it done. I know people say that people just throw out the invites but I can honestly say that in the past 2 years I’ve been to atleast 15 weddings and I remember only getting two envelopes that had calligraphy. They still stick out in my mind because they looked amazing and I felt special that someone had taken the time to write out all that information. That’s just my opinion though. Your invites will look amazing and people WILL notice!!

5/27/10 @ 2:42 pm (reply)

Member

alivoo01 (message) 2,625 posts, Sugar bee

That is absolutely beautiful calligraphy! At least you were picking up on it! Yay for awesome friends to the rescue!

5/27/10 @ 2:45 pm (reply)

Member

sunnydebs (message) 784 posts, Busy bee

That is really generous of your friend. When she’s done, she should consider selling her services to other brides!

5/27/10 @ 2:46 pm (reply)

Guest

evalague

Yes, but I will begin to do it NOW 9-months out so I have plenty of time. I also bought LOTS of extra envelopes in case I made a mistake.

5/27/10 @ 2:49 pm (reply)

Member

chexmixDC (message) 365 posts, Helper bee

Your desk looks just like mine! I also got distracted by papers and finals… your post has reminded me that I need to get back to practicing!

5/27/10 @ 2:51 pm (reply)

Member

ktisthatbees (message) 2,742 posts, Sugar bee

wow, this is something that I wouldn’t even attempt so kudos to you for at least trying. Isn’t having talented friends just too freakin sweet?

5/27/10 @ 2:52 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Spaniel (message) 6,792 posts, Bee Keeper

Wow, your friend is really good! And how sweet of her to do them for you!

5/27/10 @ 2:53 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Pug (message) 3,753 posts, Honey bee

wow she’s so talented! definitely take her up on her offer! and when i saw that first picture, i totally thought it was a picture of your bar materials, then realized that it couldn’t be unless you were studying in code or something.

5/27/10 @ 2:58 pm (reply)

10.

Member

Beesgf (message) 249 posts, Helper bee

I dug out my mom’s old calligraphy set and did a little practicing. I wrote one envelope.
It was to my parents (a good place to start/practice), it was beautiful, it took forever.
I’m addressing them with a ball point pen and my own hand writing/printing.
Your lucky to have a friend, things like this are fun when you do them together.

5/27/10 @ 2:58 pm (reply)

11.

Member

farmersdaughter (message) 1,675 posts, Bumble bee

I could never do that!

5/27/10 @ 3:05 pm (reply)

12.

Bee

Miss Trail Mix (message) 6,329 posts, Bee Keeper

Wow, that’s so impressive!! It looks great!

5/27/10 @ 3:11 pm (reply)

13.

Member

trishisadish (message) 433 posts, Helper bee

Oh wow! That is the most perfect calligraphy ever

5/27/10 @ 3:14 pm (reply)

14.

Member

dookie32 (message) 176 posts, Blushing bee

OMG wow that is really impressive. Copperplate is so beautiful and SO HARD! I took some calligraphy classes and bought all the books and pens, but being a lefty, it has been extremely frustrating to try and learn. Everything is 1,000 times more difficult! I had dreams of learning copperplate, but at this point I’m just trying to get the regular italic down so I can try that.

5/27/10 @ 3:20 pm (reply)

15.

Member

Miss Stargazer (message) 170 posts, Blushing bee

Thank you for the book rec! I have been wanting to learn to calligraph (?) but wasn’t sure what books were good

5/27/10 @ 3:23 pm (reply)

16.

Member

dookie32 (message) 176 posts, Blushing bee

@Miss Stargazer: There is a Copperplate starter set on the Paper & Ink Arts online store that includes the book and a pen and some nibs. This is a good place to start if you are really interested!

5/27/10 @ 3:28 pm (reply)

17.

Member

LittlestBirds (message) 2,626 posts, Sugar bee

Holy crap, that looks fantastic. I was obsessed with beautiful writing and proudly owned a calligraphy kit when I was in elementary school, but alas, I haven’t seen it since I shoved it under my bed some time in middle school. (My friends and I used to practice together on the bus… Yeah now there is a challenge.) What a talented friend!

5/27/10 @ 3:31 pm (reply)

18.

Bee

Miss Seashell (message) 1,713 posts, Bumble bee

I tried to learn once upon a time! It’s so gratifying when it looks great, but completely frustrating when it’s imperfect. If you can go with the flow (I can’t) then I’m sure you’ll be thrilled with the result! Good luck! And yay for Lauren!

5/27/10 @ 3:42 pm (reply)

19.

Member

lairdea (message) 275 posts, Helper bee

SO AMAZING and awesome!! Really really really impressive. I wish I had the time/patience/steady hand to learn calligraphy! Instead I just paid someone way too much to do a 1/2way decent job.

5/27/10 @ 4:26 pm (reply)

20.

Guest

Vanessa

@dookie32 I am a lefty too! How do you not smudge the ink??? I have resigned to paying someone for their calligraphy skills!

5/27/10 @ 4:35 pm (reply)

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