Create A Lettering Notebook Using Happy Planner

Don’t you look at other people’s handwriting and silently wish you wrote that beautifully? What if I told you that you can! All you need to do is Create A Lettering Notebook, fill it with lettering paper, pull out all those amazing brush pens and get practicing. Get started with tips from my setup below!

As a left-hander I always felt penmanship was much harder for me. I can remember always looking around at other classmates writing and just wishing I could write as pretty. I really practiced and worked hard at improving my handwriting.

The good news is that my handwriting did improve. But then along came all the fancy electronic tools…computers, smart phones…you get the picture; and my handwriting suffered again. It wasn’t until around 2016 when I got back into planning with the Happy Planner that I started to work at my penmanship again.

So imagine my excitement when Happy Planner came out with the Love For Letters Collection! They created both a classic and BIG planner along with planner companion packs for both sizes. Regardless of the size both were meant to help you practice your handwriting and calligraphy.

When you set up a hand-lettering notebook (and you practice!) you will improve your penmanship while also embracing a new artform. You can then transfer this newly learned technique to your planners and journals!

So let’s take a look at what supplies I used to create my own Lettering Notebook.

Supplies

• Happy Planner BIG Notebook (I used La Fleur)
• Happy Planner Hand-Lettering Practice Sheets
• Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pens
• Tombow Dual Brush Pens
• Pigma Brush Pens
• Pentel Brush Sign Pen
• Cricut Explore 4 Cutting Machine

It really isn’t complicated at all. The key to your success is daily practice.

Find Out Which Brush Pens I Love Most

My Happy Planner BIG Lettering Notebook Setup

As with all my disc bound setups I like to keep things separated and well organized. Below I go through the details of each of the three tabs in my Lettering Notebook. You can setup your lettering notebook anyway you like. I chose the BIG Happy Planner because I was able to get the hand-lettering practice sheets in this size.

01. Start Practicing

The best place to start is to pull out all your brush pens or pick up at least two different kinds of brush pens to test what feels comfortable in your hands. Create a practice sheet of all the different brush pens by practicing the same letter. Again, the goal is to find what pen feels most comfortable.

You may find when you start that you don’t like your penmanship. But don’t give up! Having good brush lettering skills comes from regular practice and; from practicing comes hand and wrist muscle memory.

If you want to just dive right in and get started try picking up a calligraphy practice pad. Remember these papers from school?! I know you do, especially if you came from a time when they actually taught cursive in schools. Sadly, it’s an art form that is slowly going away.

I’d suggest keeping your first tab as your (active) practice sheets tab. That way it is the first thing you see and can jump into when you open your notebook. Your next tab should be organized with a collection and variety of calligraphy examples.

With calligraphy and brush lettering there is also an abundance of flourishes you could practice. But, at the beginning I would suggest just practicing the lettering until it becomes memory. Then try your hand at adding flourishes to writings.

02. Examples and Guide

This next tab holds calligraphy examples and guides. There’s no shortage of these available across the internet. You can also create a guide using the fonts on your computer.

That’s what I did! I simply created the alphabet, numbers and symbols into a Word document; then chose my favorite font and printed it off. It was that easy.

While I am not a penmanship expert by any stretch, I have heard that you should not trace the letters you are practicing. The reason is because you want your unique lettering to shine through, not someone else’s.

03. Keep Practice Sheets

The last step is to keep your past practice sheets so that you can start to see your penmanship improving…and it will improve with practice and time!

Even today I’m still learning! My handwriting is far from perfect. But I embrace my penmanship and improve it every chance I can, especially through journaling and planning.

Once you have this lettering notebook all setup and ready to go, there is only one last thing to do which is completely optional.

Add Cricut Customization

One of my most favorite things to do with Happy Planner covers is to customize them using my Cricut. That’s exactly what I did for this Lettering Notebook.

You can see all my Planner Ideas Using Cricut where you will find both the Happy Planner Caregiver Notebook Setup and how to Create A Memory Keeping Photo Journal Using Happy Planner. Both of those setups showcase the cover customization I did.

Watch My Full Setup

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