Welp, the festive season is in full swing by now and if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably realised that your Christmas craft list was WAY too ambitious and you definitely don’t have time to DIY everyone’s card and gift! If you’re short on time but want to add a little personal flourish to your holiday gifts and décor this season, I’ve rounded up a few super simple and speedy lettering projects you can squeeze in whenever you have a little spare time.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times before, lettering is definitely not my strongest suit but I’m a firm believer in fun and thoughtfulness over perfection. If you’re relatively new or a little out of practice with hand lettering, here’s a few quick tips to get your started:

• It’s helpful to warm up and do a few practice words or squiggles before each project
• There’s no shame in pencilling letters as a guide or even tracing the whole thing - fake it ‘til you make it!
• Take it nice and slow and don’t be afraid to take your pen off the paper between letters

If you’d like to take a deeper dive into brush lettering specifically, check out my Brush Lettering Tips & Tricks blog post which is jam-packed with advice and hacks! Without further ado, let’s crack on with some easy and fun lettering festive lettering projects…

Hand Lettered Place Settings

First up is the project that actually inspired this blog post! Nikki hand lettered these beautiful agate place settings with 3M Posca Pens for her friend Rachel’s wedding in October. You could either seal them with spray varnish - Nikki used Montana brand - so your guests can keep them afterwards, or if you leave them un-sealed they can be cleaned and re-used. Their wipeability also means that you can clean your lettering off and start again if you’re not happy with it, which I’m certainly all for!

I just adore how dark and cosy they look with this table scape!

If agate feels a little bit *too* extra for your Christmas dinner table or you want to make do with what you’ve got to hand, a traditional hand lettered place card also looks gorgeous and elegant, and can be recycled afterwards. You could use whichever style of lettering you’re most comfortable with, whether that’s cursive, brush lettering or you could even replicate a favourite font. Full disclosure, I actually tried to replicate Fredericka the Great for this project - as seen in Plant Based Brides’ bullet journal videos - but it absolutely did not go to plan and I’m definitely better with a looser more free hand style!

 I went for a Stabilo Metallic 68 Marker in jade to add a bit of subtle sparkle to my mint green cardstock. This was also a great way to use up scrap cardstock from other projects.

Hand Lettered Baubles

These wooden baubles can be hung on a Christmas tree or used as gift tags on wrapped gifts or stockings. I sketched out my design in pencil and went over it with a couple of coats of Posca Pen. I found that my Posca Pens did bleed ever so slightly into the grain of the wood, so this project works better with bold lines rather than an intricate design.

Acrylic baubles are a great alternative and won’t cause any bleeding. They also come with the added advantage of being able to trace your design through the acrylic! This project is from the Hobbycraft blog and comes with templates to recreate these designs.

Hand Lettered Gift Wrap and Gift Tags

Rather than using shiny or glittery non-recyclable gift wrap, why not decorate some simple kraft paper with doodles and hand lettering? Posca Pens work beautifully, and I love how the Stabilo Metallic 68 Markers look on kraft paper too. You could letter the recipient’s name or a festive message along with some cute simple doodles. It also means there’s no danger of a gift tag coming un-stuck and not knowing who a gift is to or from! You can see loads more ideas for recyclable eco-friendly gift wrapping here.

Brush lettered gift tags are the perfect finishing touch to a wrapped gift or gift bag and it's a great way practice your brush lettering! Assuming your gift recipient has a reasonably common name, you may be able to Google "[name] brush lettering" for some examples to copy or even trace!

I used an Ecoline Brush Pen which are my absolute favourite as they're so juicy and the nibs are the perfect amount of flexible in my humble opinion! If you're trying to find your ideal brush pen, check out this blog post.

I tried to get a charming photo of Juniper with her brush lettered gift tag, but this was the closest I got, and yes, she's chomping it!

Washi Tape Baubles and Gift Tags

Lettering doesn’t have to mean pens! I made these fun cut-out gift tags last year and added washi between the two layers of card. I cut the tags with my Cricut, but they could easily be cut by hand. If you have a Cricut, you can find the project on my Design Space profile here.

This washi design is sold out, but lots is still available in our washi clearance sale!

I bought a huge pack of these wooden baubles a few years ago so you bet they’re getting used for more than one project in this blog! I used our Perfect Pastels Grid Washi Tape in pink and the same method I’ve used for washi tape art:

• Draw your letter outline in pencil
• Cover the area in strips of washi tape
• Cut around your design with a craft knife
• Peel away the washi tape outside your pencil lines
• Erase any visible pencil lines and voila!

You could also do this the opposite way around and cover the whole bauble in washi tape, then remove the letter to leave a washi tape cut-out.

Washi Tape Art Greetings Cards

I find washi art so relaxing and couldn’t resist including a second project in the form of washi lettered greetings cards. I went for a short and simple word as this was a little bit fiddlier to cut around than my previous projects!

This washi design is sold out, but lots is still available in our washi clearance sale!

I found that the washi tape stuck a little bit more firmly to my cardstock that it did to my Archer & Olive journal pages, so you may wish to remove some of the stickiness beforehand by sticking it along a (clean) desk.

Tunnocks Letter Garland

Lastly, I couldn’t resist including this incredible Tunnocks-inspired banner that Nikki made in 2021. She hand lettered the design, cut it from cardstock with her Cricut, and assembled them with a Sakura Glue Pen to get into all the fiddly nooks and crannies! You can watch the process here. 

Did you know... Most of the lettering videos you see on Instagram are sped up and most people don't *actually* letter at the same speed as they write! I recorded myself lettering a few of the projects in this blog post - see if you can guess how much each of these clips was sped up by!

I hope that’s given you a little inspiration for some festive lettering projects! Why not bookmark this page so you can come back to it every year? If you’ve been inspired by any of the suggestions in this post, we’d love to see! Please tag @nikkissupplystore and #NikkisSupplyStore on Instagram, where you can find heaps more journaling and stationery inspiration. You can also follow me at @joy.margot for more craft content and pictures of my cat, Juniper.