Yippee for Yana: Monogram Calligraphy Cards

Hi friends! Happy Tuesday! Welcome to the latest edition of Yippee for Yana with the always amazing and creative Yana Smakula! Be sure to read on and watch the video for more info and enjoy!

Hi everyone, this is Yana Smakula, welcome back for another Yippee For Yana video!
In this episode, I will show you how to do some basic calligraphy to create personalized monogram cards.
I am not a pro when it comes to calligraphy, it fascinates me, but I don’t really have any special skills to be able to do calligraphy beautifully. Still, this doesn’t mean I cannot try.
I am using two pens to do my calligraphy today, these are designed to be used as accent pets and not as calligraphy pens, but I wanted to try and see if I could use them to create custom monogrammed cards.

These pens are by Jane Davenport for Spellbinders. They have glitter in them and they are waterproof brush pens. Jane combined a fine and flexible brush tip with intense waterproof color to make the Ultimate Pen for creating smooth, detailed finishing touches to your artwork. These are available in eight colors, including two metallic glitter tones that I am showing in this blog post & video.
I first used a pencil to sketch out a letter on my paper. Next, used a silver or gold pen and followed the pencil line to create the letter on my card. I was using a very light hand and took my time to have the best result. I went back and thickened some of the lines of the letter while keeping others pretty thin.

The result wasn’t exactly perfect, you can tell that this was hand drawn, but it was the look I was going for and the look I was happy with. Where I had the pencil lines show I used a pencil eraser and gently erased them.
Next, to dress up this monogram and turn it into a card I used one of my longtime favorite floral stamps from Simon Says Stamp -the Bold Flowers. I picked several and stamped them in various light colors of ink. I used Hollyhock, Twirling Tutu and Sunshine for the flowers. To make my stamping easier I used the mini MISTI stamping tool and of course double and even triple stamped some of these to have nice solid impressions. To stamp the greenery, I used Laurel Green ink and also Willow.

Using coordinating dies I cut these images out and arranged them over the letter to create a beautiful floral cluster. This also helped me to hide any imperfections in my calligraphy. Once the floral cluster was arranged the way I liked it I used foam adhesive and also glue to adhere everything in place. I added many extra tiny flowers stamped in yellow and pink scattering them around the cluster to make it look a bit fuller.
Finally, I stamped a simple sentiment that reads “You Are Beautiful”. I trimmed my background pane to 4 x 5 1/4”, adhered it toA2 white side folding card base and embellished this card using several sequins from SSS from the Girl’s Best Friend mix.
Have fun stamping!

SUPPLIES:
|
Thanks so much for stopping by today, and thanks to Yana for being our guest!

Blog Candy Alert!! Follow our blog via email and comment on this post for a chance to win special blog candy!
Beautiful cards!
Beautiful cards. Thank you for the great tips.
love the stacking of the flower- beautiful work!
These are very beautiful! I wish I could do calligraphy and am envious of others who can. Maybe this technique would satisfy my wishes! Thanks!
Beautiful work!
Beautiful cards!
Thanks for sharing…
These cards are lovely! How wonderful to personalise them with calligraphy!
Yana, you have beautiful handwriting. With your handwriting you don’t even need stamps! The cards are so pretty with the silver and gold and the pastel flowers. I love these cards. You need to have stamp line with these large letters!
I want to make some monogram cards as end-of-year teacher gifts … definitely a timely post! Beautiful work!
Oh wow, these are just gorgeous
These are so beautiful Yana! Great idea!
These are beautiful cards. :)
These Cards are so pretty. I love your penmanship.
Beautiful card! My hand writing is terrible so I will try this.
These flowers are so pretty. I really like them.
So pretty! Love the layering and details!
Beautiful work on
your cards, so pretty.
Carla from Utah
Oh my goodness – those are lovely!
I’ve always wanted to try calligraphy and your video has given me the confidence to give it a try. Beautiful cards. Thank you!
Great and elegant both cards!
So beautiful! Sad the pens are sold out at the moment as I wanted to give this design a try!
BEAUTIFUL cards!!!
These are so beautiful, I love how they are personalized!
Such beautiful monogrammed card. You can’t tell they are hand drawn!! I love the flowers that you added, it made it more feminine and soft. Wonderful!!
Beautiful personalized cards!
Awesome cards!! Love them! Thank you for sharing your talent.
I LOVE monograms.
Great idea. Love the monogram idea. It has a very elegant look. Beautiful cards!
The designs are amazing. Thanks for sharing…
Wow these are gorgeous.
These cards are gorgeous. I love the idea of monogram cards. Makes them so special.
So pretty. Hugz
Beautiful cards.
These are really stunning! What a lovely idea for personalizing a card.
These are such beautiful cards!!
What a lovely card! Beautiful colors!!!