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How to Fake a DIY Hand Lettered Print

April 26, 2016 By Morgan Last Updated: December 6, 2020

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Do you love the look of a hand lettered print but don’t know how to make one yourself? Learn how to fake a DIY hand lettered print!

A while ago, I shared a post on how to hand letter and it’s by far become my most popular post. I love the process of hand lettering and I love the look even more. I can spend days perusing Instagram and Pinterest for inspiration. If you’ve ever looked at anything hand lettering on Pinterest (are you following my hand lettering board and alphabet inspiration board?) you’ve probably come across some beautifully done hand lettered print that you wish you could recreate. Maybe it’s a free printable, but you’d still like an “original” to hang in your home – one that was done by hand rather than a printer.

And maybe you know how to hand letter, but not in that style. Or maybe you don’t want to put in the meticulous effort of creating your own print. Well, I’m going to solve that problem. Today I’m going to teach you my simple trick for how to fake a hand lettered print.

Do you love the look of a hand lettered print but don't know how to make one yourself? Learn how to fake a DIY hand lettered print!

How to Fake a Hand Lettered Print

First, you’re going to have to find what form here on out I’ll call your inspiration print – the print that you are going to fake. Search Pinterest for free printables (again, check out my hand lettered board on Pinterest for some inspiration and sources, and be sure to follow it as I’m always adding new stuff!). Save and print it to the size you would like. (I suggest using a larger size for your first few tries until you get the hang of it).

Untitled

I created one on PicMonkey that you can download here if you’d like to follow along. (It’s a quote from the Taylor Swift song, Never Grow Up which I sing to Ryan every night. I can’t listen to it without crying.)

Do you love the look of a hand lettered print but don't know how to make one yourself? Learn how to fake a DIY hand lettered print!

First, take your printed image and tape it to a well-lit window. This also works (and to be honest is probably easier) well with a glass coffee table and a light underneath. Carefully tape the paper you want your final print to be on. I used cardstock and I could still see the image just fine. If you have it, I suggest just taping the corners with masking or painters tape so that it comes off easier, but if you don’t have any like me, you can loop tape on the back. If when you take it off you’re worried about the paper ripping, cut the loop and either cut it as close to the paper as possible OR just lay the tape out of the back of the paper.

Once everything is taped up, begin tracing the image that is showing through with a pencil. You can either we intricate with it and trace every detail, or do like I did and get the general shape and outline. I chose this route because then I was able to customize different parts of the font that I wasn’t a huge fan of and could make it my own. I just used the outlines as a template and followed these steps for how to hand letter later.

Do you love the look of a hand lettered print but don't know how to make one yourself? Learn how to fake a DIY hand lettered print!

Once you’re finished, you can either proceed with going over with a pen of your choice (I use Sharpie pens – I like how the lines are crisp and the ink flows smoothly without bleeding.) or follow the next steps of hand lettering and shape each letter out in pencil.

Either way, once the penciling and ink are done, let it dry a few minutes and then erase any and all pencil marks. Go back and fill in any weird spots to make the script or image smooth.

Do you love the look of a hand lettered print but don't know how to make one yourself? Learn how to fake a DIY hand lettered print!

Add to a frame if desired and enjoy your brand new hand lettered print!

Do you love the look of a hand lettered print but don't know how to make one yourself? Learn how to fake a DIY hand lettered print!

These prints make beautiful gifts and home decor – but please be sure not to sell these if you are using someone else’s design since that’s both untruthful and illegal. Also, if you are using something like dafont.com or picmonkey.com to create your inspiration print and plan on selling that, be sure to look into the font licensing rules – I know that a lot of dafont’s free fonts have a restriction for commercial use or profit.

So tell me – are you as obsessed with prints in your home as I am? What’s your favorite quote? Let me know in the comments!

Do you love the look of a hand lettered print but don't know how to make one yourself? Learn how to fake a DIY hand lettered print!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy these posts!

 

Teach Yourself How to Hand Letter

 

DIY Nursery Print

 

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Comments

  1. Heather @ Polyglot Jot says

    April 26, 2016 at 7:59 am

    oh wow so cool! I always love how these look but never thought i’d be able to pull it off. So awesome!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 11:17 am

      Seriously, anyone could do it!

  2. Gretchen says

    April 26, 2016 at 8:12 am

    I love this idea! Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 11:20 am

      Glad you liked it – thanks for stopping by, Gretchen!

  3. Emily says

    April 26, 2016 at 9:28 am

    I am intrigued by hand lettering, but at this point I don’t think I have the time to take to learn what I’m doing. Your method looks great!!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 30, 2016 at 1:56 pm

      This was is definitely much quicker! Just print, trace and go!!

  4. Francesca says

    April 26, 2016 at 10:14 am

    This is awesome!! I’ve always been so jealous of people who can do this! Now I can do it myself, thanks for sharing this!!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 11:22 am

      That’s my goal! And it’s a great way to get your feet wet with it, since in a way you’re practicing strokes and shapes!

  5. Gwen says

    April 26, 2016 at 10:15 am

    THANK YOU for the tips. My favorite quote: Love is like a butterfly, it
    goes where is pleases and pleases wherever it goes”. Anonymous

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 11:23 am

      So glad you enjoyed it, Gwen! That’s a wonderful quote as well!

  6. Meredith says

    April 26, 2016 at 10:52 am

    What a great idea!!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 11:24 am

      Thanks, Meredith!

  7. Shaunacey says

    April 26, 2016 at 11:19 am

    brilliant!! I have no handwriting skills but this might work for me!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 11:39 am

      That’s the beauty of it!!

  8. Celeste says

    April 26, 2016 at 4:14 pm

    I love this little cheat! I usually do the whole rubbing pencil on the back of the printout to trace it, but this works nicely as well. My hand lettering is definitely not up to par yet!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 11:40 am

      It’s so super easy! I love the pencil trick for smaller things, but for bigger ones it’s kind of a pain. (just like how taping up all of this just for one word would be silly, ha!)

  9. Jasmine Hewitt says

    April 26, 2016 at 8:41 pm

    I want to try this! I usually fail at crafts though, but I could do a million different quotes like this for my house

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 1:30 pm

      I’m working on a “quote wall” using this method and my other hand lettering tutprial and it’s coming out so cute!

  10. Lilies + Lambs says

    April 26, 2016 at 9:52 pm

    Great idea! Will have to try this soon xx

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 1:38 pm

      Let me know how it goes if you do!

  11. Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table says

    April 27, 2016 at 1:16 am

    This is genius! I just pinned it to try – when we get settled in our new place I’m going to be a DIY fool!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 1:39 pm

      Yay! I’m so glad! And yes, new homes make me want to make ALL of the things!! Thanks for pinning, Laura!

  12. Emily says

    April 27, 2016 at 1:21 am

    You totally got it Morgan! Your ingenuity is amazing, and this is definitely something I would love to do!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 30, 2016 at 1:44 pm

      It’s so easy, Emily!I hope you give it a try!

  13. Kristy @ Southern In Law says

    April 27, 2016 at 2:11 am

    This is such a sweet idea! You are too clever, my friend! <3

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 1:41 pm

      WHile I wish I could take aaaaaalll of the credit, most of it belongs to my grandma who showed me something similar on a glass coffee table when I was a kid, ha!

  14. DIY and Dinosaurs says

    April 27, 2016 at 2:17 am

    I love to hand letter and doodle but it always takes me a while to perfect the letters! This is a fantastic way to get a great looking piece done in no time! 🙂 Thank you!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 1:41 pm

      yes! I love it for gifts for that exact reason.

  15. Julie says

    April 27, 2016 at 2:31 am

    I’ve been making my own practice hand lettering sheets using fancy fonts (picmonkey has great free ones and lots of sites have pretty fonts to download for free) I’ve been printing them in pale grey and going over them, the alphabet and things like happy birthday, to practice for cards. I’ve not thought to do a whole phrase, quote or song lyric to keep like this, what a good idea.

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 2:08 pm

      Yeaup! It’s a very similar concept, but it’s easier to see how the words connect if you create words and what not. It’s so funny that you mention doing that because I actually have a post on how to create those coming up in the next few weeks! 😉

    • Julie says

      April 30, 2016 at 5:00 am

      Fab, I’ll look out for it, it’s always nice to have more ideas 🙂

  16. Vivianna @ Mums Orchard House says

    April 27, 2016 at 8:43 am

    My lettering is sooo far from perfect. What a great idea!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 2:19 pm

      It’s such a great way to get started with letter!

  17. Emily says

    April 28, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    I love hanging prints up in my home, but am terrible at hand lettering! This is a great way to get that look.

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 30, 2016 at 1:43 pm

      Yes! That’s the main thing I do with it!

  18. [email protected] says

    April 29, 2016 at 8:29 am

    Smart way to copy the letters! Pretty fonts, especially hand lettered ones used for sentimantal sayings always tug at my heart strings:) Pinning!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      April 29, 2016 at 2:24 pm

      I’m the same way – my husband make fun of me because I basically just have words all over our home, but whatever!

  19. Cristi says

    April 29, 2016 at 10:59 pm

    Looks awesome! I’m always in awe of things that are hand-lettered! They’re so beautiful. Thanks so much for linking up with The Alder Collective! Hope to see more of your posts soon! Have an awesome weekend!

    Reply
  20. JaneEllen says

    May 1, 2016 at 3:11 am

    Thought would tell you something about Taylor Swift. There was a very special and brave young girl in Grand Junction that idolized Taylor Swift. She had been battling cancer since she was may 8 or 9. She did so many brave things to help other kids with cancer. Taylor took time to visit Delaney at her home on a Sunday afternoon, there were pictures in paper as Delaney was regarded very special all over our area.
    That wonderful little girl (13) had gotten tumors in her brain also ,had to be placed in Hospice. She died few weeks, maybe longer ago and think we all grieve for her. How special that Taylor took time to see her,grant that wonderful childs wish..
    Happy weekend

    Reply
  21. Debra says

    May 1, 2016 at 8:26 am

    This looks great and it is nice take it back to basics. Not everyone has a Silhouette to make stencils.

    Reply
  22. handy Dmitri says

    May 3, 2016 at 9:20 am

    Now ain’t that handy! Minimalistic and stylish. Personally, I myself would not questions if it’s handwritten or not, as long as it looks as good as you made it. 🙂
    cheers

    Reply
  23. Rhiannon says

    May 3, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    Such a great idea! Looking forward to trying it out!

    Reply
  24. Anne @ Domesblissity says

    May 4, 2016 at 8:01 am

    Aren’t you a clever thing Morgan. That is amazing. I love the brush stroke fonts that seem to be all the rage at the moment but I just couldn’t even begin to try it free hand. Thank you so much for sharing this post at Thriving on Thursdays last week. I’m featuring this one at tomorrow’s party. It’s always lovely to see you each week.

    Anne @ Domesblissity

    Reply
  25. Britney says

    May 6, 2016 at 1:02 pm

    Very neat trick! I can think of a few places in my house where I would want to display a hand lettered print. Thanks for sharing with us over at Simply Natural Saturdays!

    Reply
  26. Kim Six says

    May 8, 2016 at 4:20 pm

    This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing at You’re Gonna Love it! Pinning!

    Reply
  27. Jessica says

    July 26, 2016 at 4:43 pm

    I’ve tried hand-lettering lots of times to have it turn out ugly, but this is something I could do!!!

    Reply

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