Handwriting Cheat and tips

Even if you have reasonably neat handwriting, most of  us think  our handwriting isn't neat enough to put on display.  

So when it wasn't possible to print the names on the cards,  I had to come up with a solution to get all the  handwriting on the wedding place cards  the same....the  height and the width of the letters.  Even spacing  of the letters is important and they all had to have the same  angle of slant. 

 Thinking of all these things at once isn't easy for me,  unless you have spent many, many  hours practicing calligraph that is.

My solution was to choose a font  that was suitable,  print off  all the names  onto copier paper.   I placed the paper onto  my light box  and positioned a card panel  over one name, making sure all the letters were touching the line I had lightly drawn across the card ( see the  TIP at the bottom of this post)

 Then it was just a matter of tracing  over the each name with a fine nib calligraphy pen.  It took a few practice attempts  to get the feel for it, but it worked well.  

 In fact it worked so well  the bride felt confident enough to write the names on the place cards herself.  

One thing I would say is don't write too slowly or your writing will look a little shaky, but don't go to fast either or you'll risk coming off the lines.   Try to keep your writing speed constant.

 Who knows , if you practice enough you 'll  soon be able to write perfectly without  having to trace......ha ha ..we live in hope.   
 If you don't have a light box, you could use a glass top table with a lamp under the table.

TIP. I am at heart a lazy crafter... I hate measuring the same thing over and over again, so measuring 48  of these little card and drawing a straight line across each and every one is my idea of a nightmare. So I will share my little cheat with you all. Once I had worked out  exactly  where I wanted to position the names.  I cut a piece plastic 3/4 of an inch wide by 4 inches long.  Now I just line up the plastic strip with the bottom of edge of the panel and use the top edge as my rule to draw a line to write on.  
All the names will be at exactly the same height and straight. 
As the names can be seen through the card positioning the names along the line is easy.