Calligraphy Wall Décor

YOU WILL NEED:
Paint, metallic acrylic
Water-soluble inks
Gel pen, glitter
Watercolour paper
Tissue paper: white, blue
Dies: circles, 4cm, 4.5cm, 5cm
Tools: water spritzer, paintbrush, lightbox (optional)
Beads
Die-cutting machine

METHOD:
1. Pour water-soluble ink onto a saucer and dip the tip of a paintbrush into it. Flick tiny spots of ink onto a sheet of dry watercolour paper. Add another shade of ink in the same way and allow it to soak in.

2. Lightly spritz areas of the paper with water and shake ink onto the surface as before. This time the ink should spread and dilute a little. Leave to dry before repeating the process in different areas.

3. Continue building up the layers of colour as desired. More layers, water and darker inks can create an almost solid background which is perfect for white lettering. Scattered colours with a lot of white space looks great with metallics. 

4. For the garland trim, take two sheets of tissue paper in white and blue. Fold them carefully to a manageable size and die cut several circles, measuring 4cm, 4.5cm and 5cm.

5. Arrange the discs in alternating colours and decreasing sizes to make an odd number of piles. Decrease the number of discs in each pile working out from the centre so that the garlands will be different lengths.

6. Take a long piece of cotton and thread a bead onto it. Take the loose end of the thread and pass through the eye of the needle so the bead sits at the centre of a loop. Pass the double thread through the centre of a small paper disc and add another bead.

7. Continue adding circles and beads to separate the circles from each other. Add a final bead and pass the needle through this a second time to lock the garland in place. Fix the loose end of thread to the inside of a magnetic poster hanger with washi tape. Repeat to complete the trim.

Three ways with… faux lettering
White lettering
Print out the alphabet in your chosen font and position onto a lightbox to see a reversed image. Place a sheet of thin card on top and trace the individual letters in pencil. Use a craft knife to cut out the letters and flip them over. Arrange onto ink dyed paper and fix in place.

Faux lettering
Take a sheet of ink dyed paper, draw parallel guidelines onto the back,  print out an alphabet in your chosen font, then layer the sheet over the top and lightly sketch around the letters in pencil. Use a watercolour pencil in a darker tone to trace over the sketched lines, filling in the thickness of the strokes. Take a glitter gel pen and add a drop shadow, accentuating each character.

Metallic lettering
Repeat the first step from the faux lettering. Take a fine paintbrush to apply metallic acrylic paint to the letters, outlining them carefully before filling in as necessary. Leave to dry completely before adding a second coat of paint.