‘Cute Hand Lettering for Journals, Planners and More’ is a new Search Press book by Cindy Guentert-Baldo which seeks to inspire you with tips, tricks, ideas and challenges for creating your own hand lettering styles!
Firstly, don’t be fooled by the size of this book as this pocket-sized book is absolutely jam-packed with ideas to create a variety of hand lettering styles (as you can see from the detailed contents pages!)
The book starts by explaining who Cindy, your hand lettering tutor, is! Cindy is based in the USA and has a wealth of crafting experience! You can find out a bit more about Cindy through the book but also through the following channels:
Cindy’s website: https://cindyguentertbaldo.com/
Cindy’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/cindyguentertbaldo
Cindy’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/llamaletters/
I absolutely love how accessible this book is. The layout is clear and easy to follow. Cindy doesn’t presume any prior knowledge and so gently guides you through ‘what is lettering’, ‘tools and materials’, ‘jargon’ and explaining the book’s layout with encouragement and positivity.
The book is split into 7 chapters and each chapter has a different colour so it makes it really easy to follow. Chapter 1 is the ‘intro’ chapter. Chapter 2 starts with looking specifically at your own handwriting and playing with basic lettering, cursive lettering, and connecting your letters.
Throughout each chapter there are pages so that you can practise which is a really good opportunity to explore what you’re learning!
Chapter 3 then takes you through the process of adding flair, style, swirls and more with your own everyday writing to turn it into hand lettering. Chapter 4 progresses your lettering that little bit further by exploring block lettering, bubble lettering, overlapping lettering and bouncy lettering. Chapter 5 takes us another step further by looking at how we can add doodles and flourishes to our lettering as well as looking at composition (spacing, layout etc). As ever, these chapters are full of lots of tips, tricks, techniques and practise spaces to help you along the way!
Chapter 6 brings the whole book together by looking at how you can use all of these techniques that you’ve learnt within different shapes and spaces (from journals to notes, headers to shape-fillers, banners to labels) as well as combining different lettering techniques.
This is a really beautiful, well-presented book with lots of inspiration, tips, techniques and encouragement for adding sass, flair and style to your hand lettering no matter what the project!
The book is available to buy from the Search Press website https://www.searchpress.com/book/9781782218616/cute-hand-lettering
All of the images are my own but they have been approved by Search Press for the purpose of this review. They cannot be taken or re-used in any other circumstances.