10 Valentine's Day Calligraphy Card Phrases and Ideas

…which won’t make your eyes roll.

Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to share this love with each other, surprise your partner - or - and often the more challenging - instigate a bit of self-love.

But a romantic gesture isn’t just for valentine’s day. We can also do this at any time of the year (who doesn’t love a surprise dose of love?!). 

You might be celebrating an anniversary (first date, first kiss, wedding etc), or you might want to just share with someone - romantic, or otherwise, that you like them quite a bit.

In any case, it doesn’t have to be SUPER cheesy.

Making your own card to share or keep can be an extra special touch and puts your in control of the content - and how soppy you want to make it.

Add a personal touch this Valentine’s Day

But where do you start with calligraphy designs?

Firstly, choose your tools. Below I have listed my favourite brush pens to work with, but don’t forget you can create beautiful calligraphy with any pen - or even with just a pencil!.

Secondly, decide on your card’s phrase, depending on who is receiving it. Below I have shared 10 Valentine’s phrases and designs - for all types of love(ers) out there.

My Favourite Brush Pens

Here’s three of my favourite pens to use in my calligraphy designs (which will be in the upcoming workshops!): 

1. Tombow Fudenosuke: This pen you can get hard or soft tip versions. I really like the hard tip for beginners as it doesn’t give so quickly when we apply pressure for the thick downstrokes and gives more stability when you release the pressure for the thin upstrokes.

2. Pentel Brush Sign Pen: The perfect small tip brush pen - ideal for navigating any style of letters, but especially great for modern brush script style. 

3. Zebra Mildliner: A dual ended pen - a bigger brush pen on one side, and a fine liner / pen at the other end. The bigger brush tip is great for bringing in some larger letters, or thicker shading, and the fine liner can be used for all sorts of design elements (hearts, stars, dots etc), flourishes, shadow lines and for monoline or faux calligraphy.

So, three fabulous brush pens (which all come in the Valentine’s Calligraphy workshop packs!), which can all do wonders on their own, but what about all together?

Valentine’s Phrases For Everyone

Here’s some of my favourite Valentine’s phrases (which aren’t too soppy) and fun designs to play with:

1. For the classic lover: ‘From Your Valentine’

2. For the culture vulture: ‘My Love’ in different languages

3. For the short and sweet: ‘You & Me’

4. For the straight up: ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’

5. For the secret crush: ‘Be My Valentine’

6. For the friend: ‘Huge hugs and high fives’

7. For the relative: ‘Love you to the moon and back’

8. For the comedian: ‘I like your face’

9. For the romantic: ‘Together Forever’

10. For the realist: ‘When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.’ - Dr Seuss

A classic: short, straight to the point, and lovely to write.

Mix up the styles: get creative and all the lettering practice, all with a brush pen!

Not sure what to write? Practise some words and phrases first - pick the one you enjoyed writing the most.

Choose your phrase, grab your weapon (pen) and get designing.

A great creative boost, and mental boost too - releases lots of lovely hormones - good for everyone, but a dose of self love too.

Want to learn more? Join me for a Valentine’s Day workshop this February and share some love!

London: 8 February 2023 > check out tickets

Online: 10 February 2023 > check out tickets

For pen supplies I recommend Cult Pens or Pentel direct.