What to write in a greetings card when you don't know what to write

I'm going to be letting you in on a little secret of what to write in a greetings card when you don't know what to write in a greetings card.

Now I LOVE card making but I often find that I'll create this beautiful greetings card and then I realise I have no idea what to write inside it. I'm certain I'm not alone in this struggle. Obviously I don't know you or your relationship with the person that you're giving the card to so this tip is one that you can use regardless of those details.

So what is the secret? Wellll, the secret isn't so much what you write in the card but how you write it and the trick is calligraphy. What I mean by this, is that you can utilise calligraphy to write within the greetings card to take up more space than handwriting takes up.

There are 2 benefits of doing this:

• The first is like I said previously and that is that it takes up more space within the greeting card which means you don't have to find as many words to use

• The second is that calligraphy general looks nicer than handwriting anyway so I don't think people will think "oh, they've not written much" they'll think "wow, they've written calligraphy in the card too!"

Now, let's get a bit further into it. I'm not just referring to writing "happy birthday" in the middle of the card. I'll show you an example of what I would write and how big I would create the letters.

Let's get started from the top. Write out "to" or "dear" and then the name of the person. I tend to write the name slightly lower than the first word. Then for the main body of the card I tend to write "Wishing you a very happy birthday. I hope that you have a lovely day!" Sometimes after this I'll write "Hopefully see you soon!". I then sign off with "From" or "Love from" Gemma and then maybe some kisses at the bottom, dependent on who it was. I may omit the "from" or kisses at the bottom if there's not much room.

So the body of the text isn't anything unique, I don't abbreviate anything and I write in full sentences. I tend to write in a bouncy calligraphy style as this is my go-to style and it happens to take up more room than if you write without the bounce.

Sometimes there isn't enough room to fit a word in so there may be a bit of an awkward gap. In instances like this I'll doodle something to draw attention away from the gap. On this occasion I drew simple flower doodles.

In terms of the pens I use, I either use a Pentel brush pen or Monami fineliners which can also be used brush pens. You can see reviews of these if you're interested over on my YouTube channel.

If you're reading this and you don't know calligraphy, I have a learn calligraphy playlist on my YouTube channel though my blog posts are a little more up-to-date than the videos. I also currently teach workshops so if you want to learn in a more structured way. You can book yourself a ticket.

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Get started with modern calligraphy with brush pens and my workbook collection. If you're in the early stages of learning modern calligraphy, you may also want to join one of my upcoming calligraphy workshops.

Want to learn how to create a bouncy modern calligraphy style? Pop your name and email below to get a FREE 10 page bounce calligraphy guide.