Review: Hand Lettering A to Z by Abbey Sy

I've been wanting to try my hand at "proper" hand lettering for a while - I often get complimented on my handwriting but when it comes to lettering for journalling or cards I'm never quite as happy with the outcome as I hope to be. So when the lovely folks at Quarto Publishing got in touch with their Autumn catalogue I was thrilled to see how many titles they had on the subject.

Hand Lettering A to Z by Abbey Sy is a gorgeous place to start. Abbey's instagram is absolutely lush (follow here here) and I particularly love her Bangkok photos as we've just returned from there, so I was super excited to be able to have a look at her book.

The book takes you through a range of hand drawn fonts, plus has additional chapters on embellishments and a gorgeous gallery of inspiration.

See how beautiful? So exciting. I was so excited, in fact, that I totally ignored her advice to get a sharp pencil and a proper table to work at. 'I can do this in front of Netflix can't I?' I thought. The answer? Well... you can decide for yourself...

That said, I had great fun playing with my new calligraphy pens (I haven't owned a proper calligraphy pen since I was about 11 years old - I also bought some proper fountain pens, but they completely defeated me, see earlier references to impatience). The instructions were easy to follow and there are loads of different styles to try. After about an hour I felt I had at least some idea of how to go about creating beautiful hand lettering even if I hadn't actually got the skills yet. I've bought myself a helicopter pencil and I'll definitely be returning to this book again and again - and of course I'll be sharing my successes (and failures) with you!

Hand Lettering A to Z by Abbey Sy. Published by Rockport, an imprint of The Quarto Group. Out now. Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2tdPrvH

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Opinions needed

I have a beautiful, really delicate vintage filigree brooch in the shape of a butterfly. The trouble is, I can't decide whether to make it into a necklace or a bracelet. What do you guys think? (Sorry about the blurry photo - that's what happend when I only have my phone, not the proper camera):

Win a bracelet!

It's competition time! Would you like to win a one of a kind bracelet made from a vintage brooch, chunky amazonite nuggets, rock crystal, pretty pink Peruvian opal and Swarovski crystals? One that fastens with a cute heart-shaped toggle clasp? I thought so! Just to whet your appetite a bit more, here's a couple of pictures: Because it's nearly Valentine's Day I thought I'd have a bit of a soppy theme. So, to win all you have to do is follow me on Twitter here (if you're not already a follower, if you are you can get retweeting right away) and RT any of my tweets that mention the words "Valentine's", "love", "romance" or "romantic". For each RT you will be entered into the draw (no more than one an hour, though!). For two bonus entries, just blog about Made With Love or this competition. The competition runs until midnight on February 9th and I will be announcing the winner then via this blog. Good luck!

Explosion in a jewellery box

It took me ages to find a pretty way to store the jewellery for my Folksy shop . I didn't want it to get muddled up with my own jewellery, but at the same time I didn't just want to stick it all in a box. I also wanted something that I could take with me to craft shows. At first I used a French shabby-chic style mini jewellery mannequin, but it soon got full! Then I found a gorgeous bird-themed jewellery stand. Unfortunately I've been so busy making lovely new items recently that tha's got a bit stuffed too! Oh dear... (Sorry about the picture quality, I had to take them on my mobile) I think it's probably time to buy another jewellery stand. I want one that will complement my existing ones but not exactly the same. Any suggestions will be happily welcomed. And how do you all store your stock? Is it tucked away under a bed or proudly on display to make the most of any visitors?

Made With Love by Kat

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