Lettering! {where do I get my inspiration?}

I have been meaning to write this post for a looong time.

During my period of "blog silence" I took up creative lettering. It started off as an interest in being able to do nice lettering for my Bible Journalling, but it turned into a hobby along the way! I am now LOVING doing my lettering, and continually trying to improve on my new found love.

Some of my Bible Journalling

Journalling quotes from books I am reading.

What I have been meaning to share about is the resources I have used and the materials I use, as I have had so many people asking me on IG and Facebook!

I am no authority on these things. I share them with you on the basis that I am no expert and I can only tell you what I have learnt from others who are FAR more experienced and talented!

So, where to start?!?

I think I will do these as a series of posts, and begin with some of the inspiration for my lettering. First off, it is SUPER helpful to be on Instagram! That is THE visual place to watch and learn from others. It's where I found my first inspiration, and continue to be inspired on a daily basis.

My first ever "teacher" was a lady called Lisa, and you can find her at a few places.

IG: +Lisa Walters
Facebook: creativLEI
Pinterest: creativleimade
Periscope: +Lisa Walters
Website: www.creativlei.com

She is an extremely gracious and gifted lady, who has a great love for all sorts of crafty and creative things. She is regularly on Periscope, gladly sharing her tips and techniques, and Periscope (which I only recently discovered!!) is a fabulous place to ask questions, which she always tries to answer.

Lisa also offers a brilliant FREE course, "31 days to love your lettering", where you can watch videos and learn the various techniques involved in getting started with lettering.

She is really inspirational, and has helped me a whole lot! She has also recently dragged me kicking and screaming  lured me into the world of chalk lettering!

More of that at another time! Beware - letterers will lead you down bunny trails of all sorts of creative yumminess....

Another favourite of mine is Liss. I came across her on IG, and am currently signed up for her lettering class (not free, but it was my summer treat to myself!!), and you get to be part of a private FB group where she gives loads of advice and support, and where you get a stack load of inspiration from others who are learning, too.  Again, you can find her in several places.

IG: +liss letters
Facebook: Liss Smith
Website: www.liss.com.au/ 

Another favourite of mine from IG, is @handletteredtruth. Debbie produces beautiful lettering, and inspires me on so many levels.

There are loads more, but I will share them as they tie in with the various topics I share about to do with types of lettering, or materials used.

Another great way to "meet" other letterers is to do a month of writing prompts. Folks give all sorts of different prompts, and it inspires various contributions. I have just finished one about collective nouns for animals, in which I also started doing paintings of the animals using brush pens, which I previously had no idea I could do until I tried! Then there are ladies who run ones that are Bible verses for each day. It's always good to get scripture into our heart and mind, and what a nicer way of doing it than creatively?

#30daysofbiblelettering

#animalpartychallenge

My current one that I am following is #letterHISname (they all have hashtags, so you can find other people doing the same thing, for those who don't know these things, like I didn't until recently...) and it is run by two fab letterers - @coldsnowinharvest and @brittanyluiz. It's been precious and interesting to look at the verses where these different names are mentioned, and choose one to base my lettering on.

#letterHISname

#letterHISname

There are LOADS more lettering prompts out there.

I have one, myself, in the pipeline! I have created the graphic, but want to write a weekly blog post to accompany it. to help people out, due to the topic. I don't want to say much else JUST yet, but I plan to do it in August, and plan it all in July. Watch this space!!

I try and practice my lettering when I can. You can do it as doodles, or do it as something more creative. I like to do things with scripture and just pop it on the fridge!

This lettering was scripture from #scripturewriting with +Heidi St. John 

I am also trying to learn how to do watercolour painting - flowers, wreaths and writing. It's one of my favourite mediums, which I dabbled in as a teen.

I will tell you more about that in a post about materials and mediums.


So, there's a start for those of you interested in lettering. I will return with more helpful (hopefully!!!) info on the topic.  Check out my Pinterest board for places to find lettering inspiration, too. (See the link in my side bar!)

So GO! Have fun lettering! Learn something new, and get creative.

Fun with crochet {start of a regular post and link up}

In the last year or so, I have started to learn how to crochet. To begin with, I only made the odd little thing - hearts, snowflakes, stars. I had never made a proper "project".

This last year, it all changed.

I shared with  you about my first proper project - a baby blanket for my friend's baby - little Joash.

Doesn't he look cute?! I loved how this blanket turned out,and you can see more pictures of it in the original post about it. 

It totally inspired me to try more creations. Days after Tabitha was born, I began on a blanket for her. It's coming on, but I hooked up a few things as Christmas gifts, so it keeps getting put on hold!

I decided to do one big, enormous Granny Square. For those of you who do not know, a Granny Square is a basic square, which you join together to make a blanket. In fact, whatever else you can think of using squares!  It's very simple to make, and there are 100's of variations that you can create. The basic one is what I used for my rainbow blanket. 

On the way through, I decided to add in some variation. So, I added some rows of trebles, rather than the clusters of 3. Only trouble is, being an amateur, I have ended up with a wavy blanket! I think I managed to increase on those rows, by doing too many stitches in the corners? It's still perfectly "usable", I am sure - unique. Let's just call it unique. Sounds more intentional...

Here it is so far, but I still want to make it bigger. I hope to work on it today, and see how it goes. I MAY get it finished! 

I am thinking of attempting a bobble edging. 

(picture from the website above)

I may also add crocheted flowers in some of the corners, over the top of the blanket. We'll see how it evolves.

Last night, I also had some fun trying out some new squares - new to me, that is.  I just rummaged about in my yarn stash, and used some rather random, bright colours, to try the squares out. I am not entirely sure I would put these colours anywhere in my home - maybe a child's bedroom, where it wouldn't matter? I like them, in theory, but in practice they match NOTHING in my house! 

This one is called a "Sunshine Granny Square", for obvious reasons!!! It was very easy, and I love it! I would happily make a whole blanket in this design... just not these colours. You can find the pattern here.  

This one, I had seen popping up a lot in some online crochet groups that I am on. I loved it, too, so was determined to try and make one. Of course, this is not a "square"!! It's a hexagon. (There, maths lesson for the day - you now no longer need to do anything maths related, by permission of me...)

It's called an "African Flower Hexagon".  Isn't it lovely? It looks even better with a cotton yarn - they are more expensive, so I have less of that in my stash!  I was wondering what I could do with them, and was reminded that there is a GORGEOUS creation with shapes like this. I am now determined to make one, at some point. 

HOW CUTE IS THAT?!??!

It's definitely on my  hooky creations "to do" list!  I need to master "join as you go" technique, which joins blocks as you go, rather than afterwards. 

Who WOULDN'T love a Happy-potamus? 

There we have it. A little round up of how I have been spending some of my time in the evenings. It's a really relaxing hobby, with such quick and easy results to show for your efforts. If you have never tried, you should give it a go! 

I plan on regularly sharing my crochet creations and projects with you, even if it's just what I have found on Pinterest, or ideas from elsewhere. 

Also, check out my new "page" at the top of the blog. I am doing a whole compilation of pattern links and helpful hints and tips about crochet. I will update it regularly, and add patterns. I will particularly add them if I have done them myself, to give you a first-hand opinion about them.