Love Your Handwriting

Creating Keepsakes

by Heidi Swapp

Whether you are designing a heartfelt greeting card or a beautiful scrapbook page, your own handwriting adds a touch of your personality to everything you create. In Love Your Handwriting, Heidi Swapp teaches you how to write in a clean and easy-to-read style that reflects your unique personality. This three-part set includes: A book. Love Your Handwriting is packed with Heidi's tips for improving you handwriting.; A guided workbook. Now you are ready to practice. Heidi's proven techniques are presented as fun and easy assignments in a workbook where you can develop your handwriting style, one step at a time.; A handwriting tool kit. This set includes everything you need to start putting Heidi's lessons into action: a fine-tipped pen, a mechanical pencil, a zero-center ruler and a good quality eraser.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crafts, Art, Reference

164 pages, Spiral Bound

First published August 28, 2005

About the author

Heidi Swapp is known in the craft industry for her innovative style, trend setting product ideas and her recognizable, fanciful handwriting. Whether she is spray painting on her scrapbook pages or creating embellishments that are completely 'see-through' her boundary pushing concepts have always made her 'the one to watch.'
Heidi describes scrapbooking as a 'lifestyle' - it's something in the forefront of her mind as she lives each day looking for stories or snippets of history she wants to capture. Her passion is capturing the memories and 'sprinkling them with fabulous' in the form of glitter, color, ribbons, ruffles, flowers and bows!
As Heidi brings her signature style back to the craft industry she plans to encourage and inspire everyone to tell their story, create to remember, and along the way...make pretty stuff....everyday!

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I expected. I guess I didn't read the packaging properly - I didn't realize that it was more about scrapbooking than actual handwriting. The back cover actually refers to journaling, which I do a lot of. I was hoping to make my journal more legible and pretty for when I refer to it later, but Heidi Swapp was really referring to a small, descriptive section of the scrapbook page. I guess she and I have different ideas about what "journaling" is.

Swapp offers some decent tips on page layouts, if you enjoy scrapbooking, but her examples all looked the same to me after a while.

The book claims to be able to help the reader improve her/his handwriting, but I didn't find anything that I found really helpful. I'm actually surprised that Swapp says people tell her they love her handwriting! I don't think it looks particularly nice, or easy to read. It's a very stylized way of writing, which probably works well as hand-lettering in a scrapbook, but I didn't find her example of a 'Thank you' note that impressive.

Also, she has the annoying habit of ending most paragraphs with: Wink!
Shouldn't it be *wink*, or (wink)? Written as it is, it seems like she's actually saying "Wink!", like it's part of the instruction.

In summary, this might be a good book if you know what you are picking up. Because this book is sold as a kit (with pen, pencil, and workbook), it was sealed in plastic, and I didn't have the opportunity to browse the book's pages in the store. I've learned my lesson.

[Cindy Bahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friend recently gifted this to me, knowing I love trying various artistic things. I'm not into scrapbooking. But have been wanting to learn various lettering for mixed media. This book delivers and more. The intro of the book by Becky Higgin really describes why this book is so amazing. She talks about how it can help you handwrite your journaling more and encourages you to handwrite a letter for your family to keep for years, not worrying about how your penmanship looks. And more. I was pleasantly surprised by the items included such as the pen, ruler, pencil, and other things. I absolutely love this book and it's helped me so much. Not just as an artist but also as a writer. I know, as many writers do, that writing by hand engages creative parts of your brain that typing just doesn't. This book has helped me to handwrite my stories more and I can see the results. It's amazing.

[Lain · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll admit, if it says "Heidi Swapp" on it, I will buy it! I ordered this book and got it as soon as it came out. But after leafing through the whole thing several times, it's still sitting on my shelf. It comes in a cute package and has some fun add-ons (a pencil, a ruler, a pad), but it kind of seems like a glorified magazine article. I was expecting more "how-to's" in terms of how Heidi gets her signature style and creates some of her unique looks. But there wasn't a ton of instruction (I'm still trying to figure out how she does the shadow effect).

All in all, it's a fun book to have and to play around with, but it's not going to turn you into a creator of illuminated manuscripts overnight.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is hard to rate. Written by a scrapbooker, and designed with scrapbookers in mind, this book is intended to make you feel better about your own handwriting. What is won't do is teach you how to write like the Heidi Swapp. When I was first reading the book and following the exercises, I did see a little improvement in my own writing, and a definite improvement in my acceptance of my own writing (which I've never liked), but... I'm not sure that it has had a lasting effect. The author does a great job of boosting your confidence, and reinforcing the importance of the personal touch that handwriting offers. But almost 3 years later, I can't say that I feel that different than before I started the book. However, I can see myself picking it up again, and giving it another try.

[Corina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am NOT an idea book person, but i loved this!! I thought my handwriting was fine, but this book gave you so much instruction and insight! It's one of the few books that I predict will be timeless. It also gives you a kit, so you HAVE the materials that you need, and plenty of inspiration from Heidi's layouts. I'd recommend this to any scrapper, whether or not they have insecurities about their handwriting!

[Sandybear76 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend gave me this book today. The kit came with an instructional book, a workbook, a pencil, a fine-point pen, a zero-centered ruler, and an eraser. I read the book but didn't use the workbook yet. I am waiting for a weekend to have a bit more time to play with the techniques and the workbook.

[Britt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I still hate my handwriting.

[Bonita Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teaches one to be more comfy with their own style of printing/handwriting.. teaches us all how to journal more effectively, and show our artistic ability thru our handwriting! Loved it!

[Christel]

Great exercises for improving your handwriting.