An Introduction to Hand Lettering with Decorative Elements

by Annika Sauerborn

A treasure trove of lettering styles and decorative elements, this handy reference offers an abundance of eye-catching alphabets, numerals, ribbons, borders, flowers, banners, and other easy-to-trace embellishments. With this guide, it's easy to add a personal touch—humorous, dramatic, or romantic—to any handwritten message or meditative journal.
Hundreds of ornaments, all of them hand-drawn by the author, include dozens of alphabets and numerals. You'll also find frames, flourishes, and corner designs that provide pages with a stylish finishing touch. Decorative motifs range from arrows, hearts, and stars to leaves, blossoms, and wreaths. A wealth of fanciful graphics for special occasions includes designs for birthdays, weddings, holidays, and all four seasons.  Calligraphers, crafters, and illustrators as well as anyone who wants to add a bit of pizzazz to their writing will prize this imaginative source of inspiration.  

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Crafts

134 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 25, 2017

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever looked at a hand lettered card, decorative sign or wall plaque and thought you would love to be able to do something like that? Ms. Sauerborn has written the book that will give you the instructions and the inspiration to master hand lettering with a little practice.

An Introduction to Hand Lettering is divided into several helpful sections. Most importantly is the Materials section. You have to use the correct tools to eliminate frustration and elevate success. You probably have most, if not all of the materials needed to begin. Pens, pencils, rulers, and sketching paper are a few examples.

Following the layout of the book, you will start with borders, frames and lines, and then work your way up to images as well as various alphabets. If you feel unsure about drawing freehand, be sure to have some tracing paper on hand to practice.

There are countless uses for Ms. Sauerborn’s Decorative Elements. Handmade birthday and holiday cards will wow your friends and cost a fraction of the price you would pay for a greeting card these days. The section entitled “Seasonal Illustrations and Occasions” is my favorite. Making your own gift tags for Christmas is cost effective and will add a sweet personal touch to every gift this holiday season. Making personalized signs for the holidays is also fun. You could hang one at the front door to greet visitors. They just might want you to make one for them!

This book is designed for teens and adults because younger children would most likely become frustrated if they tried this on their own. I say this because there are no set designs, but you are given all of the elements to create hand lettered items that are only limited by your imagination. Even if you aren’t a “crafty” person, you can trace the images and letters to create whatever you envision. If you are artistic, you will be delighted by the inspiration and ideas you find inside these pages.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy from Dover Publications in exchange for a fair and honest review. Copyright © 2019 Laura Hartman

[Flora · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the challenges faced by every letterer, art journaler, illustrator and bullet journaler is how to decorate or embellish a piece of art or a page of a journal to make it as beautiful or attractive as possible. Even if you have lots of ideas, it is so easy to get stagnant and start to add elements that are same-old, same-old.

That is why I feel that a book such as “An introduction to Hand Lettering with Decorative Elements” is such an important addition to the reference library of such artists or crafters. When I first started lettering, I scoured the internet for ideas but this book would have been so convenient and time-saving to have on-hand! I love to look at or just flip through this type of books for inspiration – tons of graphics and not too many words!

It features hundreds of ornamental elements that you can copy or trace. There are a few step-by-step instructions as well.

Elements include:

Borders, frames and corners
Flourishes
Leaves, Flowers and garlands
Ribbons, arrows and patterns
Seasonal illustrations and occasions such as those suitable for Autumn, Christmas, weddings, birthdays and parties, picnics, beach and sea
Gift tags

Finally there are some pages on how various styles of alphabets and numbers can be drawn, and also examples of how the elements can be used with lettering are peppered throughout the book.

All the drawings are done beautifully by hand.

I feel that a better title could have been chosen for this book because it is great not just for handlettering, but as inspiration for lots of other art projects. Also, the title can be a bit misleading as the content in the book is not chiefly on the hand lettering though there are some pages of that.

Having said that, I highly recommend this idea book and can't wait to get a paper copy for myself.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dover Publications for this review copy.

[Rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a really nifty book, especially since I've had trouble figuring out how to make my lettering projects into cards/tags/etc. Sauerborn gives a lot of nice ideas for this particular aesthetic.

[Juli Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's not enough lettering in this book for my purposes. 3/4 of it is decorative doodles, which are cute but not what I was looking for. There is little-to-no-text in this book and only a handful of calligraphic alphabets at the end to look at.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[Ashlyn Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is the most basic introduction possible and tended to be more tracing/patterns than actual info

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flourishes are an easy way to make any hand-lettering or paper craft project stand out. Artist Annika Sauerborn offers here a wonderful book of ideas, serving as both guide and jumping off point for your own ideas. She shows options for making frames, ribbons, leaf embellishments, and so much more, for all skill levels, from the very beginner (and I count myself in that category) to the more advanced. I read the ebook version, but I look forward to purchasing the physical book to add to my collection!

[Loren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good introductory book to hand lettering. It included a guide to many decorative elements and covered a few simple alphabets that are a good starting place for beginners.