Lettering is great — you learn how to write beautifully. But then what? Instead of letting it be a white elephant, there are some very practical ways to incorporate lettering in your life, and that’s the whole point of this post. Here are 6 brush letter art ideas you can incorporate in your daily life.

1. Signages

You can do up signages for any special event yourself! From place settings and dish descriptions at a party to guest book signages at a wedding, the possibilities are endless.

There are people who making money doing this, of course — if I’m a beginner, I’d probably want someone to do my (hypothetical) wedding signages rather than do them myself! But if it’s for a small event at home, like a birthday party, you can always DIY it!

2. Wall decor

Which brings me to the reason why I started lettering in the first place: I couldn’t afford to buy those lovely prints on Etsy. Shipping alone would melt a hole through my pocket. And digital downloads? My colour printer hasn’t worked right in months.

The ‘easy’ solution? Learn how to do it myself so I didn’t have to pay for it. I quickly fell in love though, and now pieces of my lettering decorate my wall. I recently got an air-conditioner installed, and the trunking runs above the top of my desk, so I cover that awfully bland whiteness with a collage of lettering stuck on with washi tape.

Related: How to DIY Typography Prints, Brush Lettering Style

3. Your Planner

I do love a pretty planner, but I don’t like springing for the multitude of stickers out there. Again, shipping is a nightmare! And I don’t have a Silhouette or something similar (yet) so digital downloads don’t work either.

Instead, I use lettering to pretty up my bullet journal. A lot of people look at prettified bullet journals and think, “I don’t have the time to do that!” but it takes me about 10 minutes to set up my weekly spread, lettering and all.

Sometimes, I may do a full page quote. This usually happens when I have a blank page, but want to do a spread next. Or when I messed up the page, so I cut a piece of paper to fit, letter on it, and glue it in.

Apart from that, my lettering is kept to the headers, and random little instances like the one you see in the picture! For most part, I just use a black pen and my Staedlter fineliners.

Even if you use other planners like the Hobonichi, Midori Traveller Notebook, Erin Condren Life Planner or Passion Planner, it’s nice to have something pretty to look at, so why not letter?

4. Sketch Notes!

Another way you can use lettering is with sketch notes. Sketch notes are a visual means of note-taking. Rather than writing lines of text, you add (relevant) doodles.

I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it myself. I’ve been taking notes the traditional way (aka writing or typing) for the past 16 years, and I’ve never been very good at doodling! But they are certainly look more appealing to study from than pages of lines of text drier than the Sahara.

What you see here is my attempt at visually journaling what I did and accomplished every day in a Sketch Notes type of deal!

5. Correspondence

You can also give your lettering away in the form of cards, or on envelopes.

When I was a kid, it was a budget thing. I didn’t have enough money to buy $5 cards for all my friends and family at Christmas, so I made them. The habit stuck.

You can letter over a watercolour wash for a card. Or letter their name on the envelope.

I tend to write really long letters to my pen pals. Instead of buying a lot of expensive paper, I use grid paper from Daiso, decorated with washi and by lettering their name at the beginning.

You can also letter on the envelope. I usually letter their names and keep the address in simple block letters — machines probably can read that better, I think!

Related: DIY Letter Set: Watercolor Flower Painting (Part 1)

6. Gift Tags

Lastly, gift tags! It’s an off-shoot of correspondence, really, but you can totally letter on these — albeit with a skinnier pen or with pointed pen calligraphy instead!

I usually just write on the parcel itself, but if you do gift parcels with gift tags, you can always use your lettering here. Who knows? Your recipient might actually keep the tag!

Are there any other brush letter art ideas I missed?

Let me know in the comments!