Creative Ways to Use Hand Lettering (15 Project Ideas)
Looking for some hand lettering project ideas?
In this post you’ll find a list of creative hand lettering projects that you can give as gifts, sell, or make for yourself!
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What can you use hand lettering for?
The answer is so many things!
This post includes just some of them. Hopefully you’ll get inspired to try at least one!
By the way, if you’re new to hand lettering, you can get started with this simple beginner’s guide.
Wooden signs
Wood signs are a great way to display your hand lettering, maybe as part of your home decor!
You could make and stain a wood sign yourself or buy an already prepared one from a craft store.
To do the lettering, you can use paint pens or a paintbrush and paint.
Here are some tutorials:
- Hand Lettered Wooden Sign YouTube tutorial by How To Hand Letter
- A fun Christmas sign video tutorial by The Happy Ever Crafter
And here’s a beautiful example of a hand lettered wooden sign by @all_things_lu.
Flower pots
Flower pots with hand lettering on them is such a cute idea!
Here’s a tutorial to make your own hand lettered flower pots by Amy Latta Creations.
You could put real or fake plants in the pots and give them as gifts.
Bullet journaling
Bullet journal spreads look extra pretty with the addition of hand lettering!
There are lots of cute and simple styles you could use for titles, months, days of the week, and subheadings.
For some ideas, this YouTube video by Shayda Campbell shows you how to do several easy lettering styles you can use in your bujo.
And here’s a blog post by Little Miss Rose with eleven simple lettering styles for your bullet journal.
Menus
Making your own hand lettered menu sign would be a great opportunity to use several different lettering styles.
Menu signs are great to display at weddings or other gatherings.
Here’s a fun tutorial by Amy Latta Creations for how to make a farmhouse style menu board.
You may also have seen chalkboard-style menu signs at restaurants, like the one below by @notjustspringdesigns.
Place cards
Who wouldn’t like to find a place card with their name done in beautiful lettering?
Hand lettering your own place cards would be a fun and simple way to use your skills.
If you need to, do a light sketch in pencil first for placement before you go over it with a pen.
Place cards don’t have to be just paper, either – you could experiment with lettering on leaves, rocks, and other surfaces.
Gift tags
Hand lettered gift tags are the perfect way to add a special touch to a gift.
Cut your own tags or buy ones ready to use and use hand lettering to make them unique!
Related: Super Easy Lettering Style Tutorial
Labels
Try making custom labels with your hand lettering using sticky labels (like these cute Kraft labels on Amazon).
You could use the labels for organization while also adding a hand lettered touch!
If you have a cutting machine like a Cricut or Silhouette, you could also cut the lettering out of vinyl and make your own labels that way.
Watch the process of making the vinyl label here.
Acrylic signs
Clear acrylic signs with lettering on them are often used at weddings.
A layer of paint is usually painted onto the back to serve as a background for the lettering.
They look really beautiful, as you can see in the picture by @wordslikehoneydesign below.
Some artists do the lettering by hand, and others use a cutting machine to cut the lettering out of vinyl and apply it that way.
Here are a couple of tutorials to make your own acrylic sign:
- This YouTube video by The Happy Ever Crafter shows you what pens and supplies to use to write on an acrylic sign by hand.
- This YouTube video by DIY Lily Ardor shows you how to do an acrylic sign using a Cricut machine and vinyl.
If you use a cutting machine and vinyl, you can still use your own hand lettering by creating the design digitally first and uploading to the design software.
Ornaments
Hand lettering is perfect for adding a personalized touch to your Christmas ornaments!
There are different kinds of ornaments you could use. Some are made from wood or acrylic and come in unique shapes.
The easiest ornaments to write on would be ones that lie flat, but you can also do traditional round ones for a little more of a challenge.
And once again, you could opt to apply adhesive vinyl for the lettering instead.
Here are a few tutorials:
- Personalized Hand Lettered Christmas Ornaments tutorial by Amanda Arneill
- How to Hand Letter on Acrylic Ornaments by By Amanda Kay
- How to Hand Letter on Christmas Ornaments by The Happy Ever Crafter
Chalk lettering
If you have a chalkboard or sign, try doing some chalk lettering!
You can use chalk, chalk pencils, or chalk markers to do chalk lettering.
Here’s a YouTube tutorial by Sarah Types that shows you the process for creating a chalkboard sign.
Gift bags
Take a plain gift bag and turn it into something special with hand lettering!
Any pen or marker should work on a paper gift bag, and you can use a pencil to sketch out guidelines and a design beforehand.
You could personalize gift bags by doing names, or just do a greeting.
Notebooks
With hand lettering, you can customize your own notebook and journal covers.
For simple designs, you can sketch lightly right onto the journal.
For more elaborate designs, sketch it out on a separate piece of paper and then transfer the design to the journal cover.
Scribble pencil on the back of the paper, place it on the journal cover, and trace the design firmly with pencil to transfer it.
You can experiment with using different markers, pens, and even paint on notebook surfaces.
Here’s a YouTube tutorial for doing hand painted lettering on a notebook cover.
Wrapping paper
Making your own wrapping paper is so fun, and it’s easier than you think!
All you need is some plain wrapping paper and a marker.
- Cut the amount of paper needed to wrap your gift.
- If you want to be really neat, make some guidelines with a pencil and ruler.
- Use a marker to write the same phrase over and over, in whatever style(s) you like, until the paper is filled.
- Wrap your gift and enjoy the pretty paper!
Below you can see how I did this with black paper and a white Posca paint pen.
Once the gift is wrapped, it always ends up looking so good despite any imperfections!
You could also wrap the gift first and then decorate it. That way you wouldn’t have to fill the whole piece of paper.
Here’s an Instagram video of me decorating brown kraft paper for a Christmas gift.
Bible journaling
Lettering scripture is a great way to meditate on the words you read.
There are Bibles made for Bible journaling that have extra margins or blank pages for you to fill with notes and illustrations. (Here’s an example of one on Amazon.)
You could also do your Bible journaling in a separate notebook. Many people take sermon notes in the same way.
It doesn’t just have to be lettering, either! You could mix in painting and other illustrations.
Here are some resources for learning more about Bible journaling and lettering:
- This YouTube video by ScribblingGrace shows you how to do many different lettering styles that you can use in your Bible. (She also has lots of other Bible journaling tutorials.)
- Krystal Whitten’s Faith & Lettering book teaches you all about hand lettering and journaling scripture.
- This YouTube video by HowtoHandLetter goes over various Bible journaling supplies like paint and pens.
Cards and envelopes
Of course I had to include this one!
If you’re a lettering artist, you can make your own card designs and do some fancy envelope addressing, too.
There are so many card tutorials out there. Here are a couple:
And here’s a tutorial for doing neat and pretty envelope addressing:
I don’t know about you, but looking at all these ways to use hand lettering has me itching to do a lettering project myself!
Which one will you try?
For ways to make your lettering even more special, read this post next: 21 Easy Ways to Embellish Hand Lettering
Save this post for the next time you need some inspiration! ⬇️
