Card: Valentine's Day - Arrow Words

Inspiration: I thought I had taken the alphabet I used for this card from Margaret Shepherd's Calligraphy Alphabets Made Easy, but I went through the book twice today and couldn't find it.  My best guess then is that I might have been inspired to try to make my own alphabet (each set of pages in the book is set up to be a week's worth of exercises in calligraphy and one of those weeks did have the 7th lesson of the week as a design your own alphabet).  I must have figured doing an alphabet for Valentine's Day would have been easy.  I really like the "art deco" quality to how these turned out.

How I Make Them:  I initially drew out my alphabet for this card in a notebook (see image below).  Since then I always make the lettering part of this card on vellum by tracing that original drawing with the use of a light box (initially I had a home-made one using a long light stick places inside an acrylic cookbook holder). I start with the arrows in gold gel pen.  Next I add all the red hearts on the tips of the arrows in red gel pen.  Finally I add the straight edges of the letters using a small nibbed calligraphy pen and black india ink.  I usually do several of these and let them dry overnight.  Then I cut them out of the vellum, sometimes using fancy edges craft scissors like in the photographed example above.  I secure the vellum to the front of the card using heart shaped seals or stickers that overlap the card and an edge of the vellum.  I usually leave the inside of these cards blank to write a personal message.

Alternatives:

• Simple inspired alphabets could be used for any kind of card.  The more embellished the letters are, the less other decoration is needed so that the alphabet stands out.
• Some quick ideas I'm thinking of: a snowman shaped or accessorized alphabet for winter holidays, a balloon themed alphabet for birthdays, a flower-shaped alphabet for mothers day, an alphabet made of tools for father's day.  What other themes can you come up with that might be fun to try?

Additional Photo