Love is in the air with Valentine’s Day coming up! Put your calligraphy to use by making a card for your significant other or loved ones. Nothing spells love more than a personalised and handmade card – after all, it’s the effort that counts!
Need some inspiration? Here are four beginner-friendly ideas for Valentine’s Day cards that you can make with a pointed pen. And don’t leave without downloading the free traceable templates at the end of this blogpost!
- Minimalist and Simple
- Elegant Flourished Heart
- Delicate Heart-Shaped Frame
- Blooming Floral Heart
(By the way, I used a Hunt 101 nib for the cards shown below!)
Minimalist and Simple
This card is perfect for the minimalist – simple calligraphy with heart-shaped flourishes for V-Day. You can keep it simple with only calligraphy, or add embellishments to fill in some of the negative space. In this card, I added shadow strokes, little hearts and pearls.
You can download a traceable template of this design at the end of this blogpost!
Elegant Flourished Heart
Using large flourishes to form a heart, there’s an understated elegance to this card. Best for the sophisticated and refined gentleman/lady in your life!
If your heart shape isn’t too obvious, you can add embellishments around the perimeter. This makes the outline of the heart shape more obvious. You can download a heart-shaped template at the end of this blogpost, to try this out. I’ve also included a traceable template of this exact design if you want more guidance!
Delicate Heart-Shaped Frame
The cartouches in this heart-shaped frame remind me of lace and doilies. I’m sure sentimental romantics will love this design!
While the design looks complicated, it’s simply a chain of repeating cartouches. Start by creating a chain of loopy flourishes around a heart-shaped outline. Then add embellishments as you go along, repeating them for each set of cartouche.
Here are some ideas for sets of cartouches that you can use. You can keep them simple, or make it as detailed as you like – it’s up to you!
Blooming Floral Heart
Made for floral lovers, this blooming heart goes hand in hand with a V-day bouquet!
This design is simply repeated illustrations of the same flower and leaves. Start by drawing a bunch of flowers in the centre (I usually start with 3), then add leaves that extend outwards. Then add more flowers and more leaves to fill up the heart-shaped outline.
Here’s how I draw the flowers and leaves. When broken down, you can see how these are drawn using simple lines and shapes. So don’t feel intimidated at the thought of drawing or illustrating!
I hope this blogpost has given you some ideas on simple Valentine’s Day cards you can create! If you try out any of these ideas, I’d love to see it. Please share with me via email or tag me on Instagram. ♥️
Lastly, here are the free traceable templates that I’ve promised. Just fill in the form below to get the download link!