B R U S H-L E T T E R I N G :

Ca rd s , Env e l o pes & More w i t h Kri sl am Chi n

 TOOLS & RESOURCES

Materials
•• Thin flexible brush pens, such as Pentel Arts
sign pen touch, Fude brush tip and the
Tombow fudenosuke brush pen
•• Thick flexible brush pens, such as Tombow
Dual Brush Pen Art Marker
•• Tombow fudenosuke brush pen
•• Addressing stencil, such as OPount 3 pieces
3 style envelope addressing guide stencil
•• Small kraft cards and envelopes
Krislam uses the Recollections collection from Michaels

•• Small white cards

Krislam uses the Recollections collection from Michaels

•• Kraft paper gift tags with string

Krislam uses Kinglake brand

•• Smooth ~8.5” x 11” Paper, such as Rhodia

No. 18 Staplebound NotePad 8.25 x 11.75
•• Pencils, such as Palomino Blackwing Pencil
•• Flexible markers, such as Crayola 50ct
Washable Super Tips Markers, 50 color
variety

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 B R U S H-L E T T E R I N G :
Ca rd s , Env e l o pes & More w i t h Kri sl am Chi n

LETS DO THIS
Hand lettering is very simple. It’s a combination of thick and thin strokes and when to apply and release
pressure. That’s it - I promise! Your downstrokes are thick lines and your upstrokes are thin lines. See the
example of non-script and script below. So if you can remember your handwriting drills from elementary
school, this is going to be easy peasy!

SHOW ME YOUR DRILLS

Drills are a good way to warm up and/or practice when you don’t have time to do very much lettering.
It not only helps your muscle memory, it also helps with transitions. So let’s start with a few drills!

DOWNSTROKES

UPSTROKES

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SHOW ME YOUR DRILLS

CONNECTING BOTH STROKES

1
2

PUTTING THEM TOGETHER

1
3

2 4

CIRCLES

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SHOW ME YOUR DRILLS

TRANSITION SWOOPS - Beginners will often struggle with the transition between thick and thin lines
with letters such as “C”. I highly encourage doing more “Transition Swoops” exercises to see when to add
pressure and when to release. Try not to get hung up on what it looks like vs. getting the pressure down.
I included an entire page dedicated to this exercise in case you want to come back and practice more. 
apply pressure
2

release pressure

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3
4

1
2

1
2

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1

2
2

4
3

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1 3 2

4
1 3

1 2

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1
2

1
4

3
5
1

2
4

2
4
1 3

1
2 3

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1 2

1
4

5
2

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2

1 3

1
3

3
2

3
1

2
1 3

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1
2

1
4

2 3

3
1 2

1 2

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1
3

2
1
3

1
2

5 4

1
2

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CONNECTING LETTERS
When you’re connecting letters, it’s always best to end with an — upstroke that way the next letter has
something to latch onto. See example below:

HAND LETTERING STYLE

As you continue to practice you will begin to create your own style based on your own handwriting.
While there are many ways to do hand lettering, there are two distinct styles you’ll see throughout the
hand-lettering community.

Ascender Line

No Bounce. This style of writing is on an

invisible baseline. You’ll also notice that

X-Height
most of the lowercase letters stay within
the x-height. This is good for addressing
Baseline
cards or anything that needs to be more
formal/legible.

Descender Line

Ascender Line

Bounce. This style of writing is quirky

and closer to what you’re most familiar
with seeing when it comes to hand
X-Height
lettering. We let our ascenders go higher,
Baseline our descenders go lower, and forget
about keeping a consistent baseline
or x-height.

Descender Line

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ABC REFERENCE SHEET

Psst - put tracing paper over me! :)

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