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Chocolate Musings

Set your goals - make the plans - artfully create your life - live it beautifully. Grab the good chocolate and find your muse.

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Home » floral

How to Create Floral Alphabets – 5 Ways

February 13, 2020 Leave a Comment

Five Ideas to Create Floral Alphabets | Chocolatemusings.com #floralalphabets #flowers #letters

If you’re looking for a challenge, try combining the alphebet with different elements. In this case, with florals. Try it, you’ll find that there are always new ways to combine the alphabet with flowers. Here are five different ideas to create your very own version of a Floral Alphabet.

Start Your Inspiration

First off – if you want to learn how to doodle flowers, but you’re not sure where to start – here’s my post highlighting my favorite floral doodling books.

Or you can check out this post on doodling flowers (without drawing!)

Dress up your alphabet with wreaths! Here are 3 ways to draw circular floral wreaths.

Here’s one last inspirational idea for you – check out my Floral Bullet Journal Theme.

Inspiration From the Shop:

  • Floral Wreath Stickers - No Numbers | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreaths #plannerstickers
    Floral Planner Stickers Without Daily Numbers
    $4.45
    Add to cart
  • floral wreath stickers with numbers | ChocolateMusings.com #plannerstickers #planner #stickers
    Floral Planner Stickers With Daily Numbers
    $4.45
    Add to cart

Now it’s time to get started!

Floral Alphabet Version 1:

Block Letter O Outline with Flowers | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters

Choose a block-letter style and fill the inside of the letter with various types (or the same type) of flowers.

You can choose to draw the flowers exclusively inside or have some flowers break out of the lines. I have a hard time staying within the lines.

Ideas for the background:

You can leave it all black and white with a white background, fill the background with a single color or pattern, or add splots of colors loosely to the flowers.

  • Block Letter O Outline with Flowers | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters
  • Block Letter D Outline + Filled with Flowers | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters
  • Letter S Outline with losely colored flowers - Ideas for Floral Alphabets| ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters

Flower Alphabet Version 2:

Choose a flower, then use that flower as the main stem or stems of the letter. As you can see, little tweaks here and there add even more variety.

  • Letter F with Flower - Ideas for different alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #letters #ideas #alphabet #florals
  • Letter F with Flower - Ideas for different alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #letters #ideas #alphabet #florals
  • Letter F with Flower - Ideas for different alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #letters #ideas #alphabet #florals

Alphabet Version 3:

Create another shape like a circle or square around the outside of a blocky or bolded letter. Fill the background space with the flowers and then create the letter using negative space (so the area where the letter would appear is blank).

  • Letter R Flower Background - Ideas for floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters
  • Letter R Flower Background Plus Flourish - Ideas for floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters

Botanical Alphabet Version 4:

Create the letter using only florals to form the shape. Another way to add more variety is to add some color or flourishes!

  • Letter Q Flower Alphabet - Ideas for floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters
  • Letter Q Flower Alphabet - Ideas for floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters
  • Letter Q Flower Alphabet - Ideas for floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #alphabet #flowers #letters

Floral Alphabet Version 5:

Letter the names of flowers starting with each letter of the alphabet. Technically that makes it a floral alphabet, right? Add a doodle of each flower near it’s lettered name.

Fun with lettering + flower doodles | ChocolateMusings.com

Bonus tip:

If you’re creating a lot of the same type of Add extra detail to the leaves and petals for a few particular flowers to bring them out from the crowd.

  • Painting Serif Letter A - Ideas for creating different floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #lettera #watercolor #floralalphabet
  • Adding the flowers Letter A- Ideas for creating different floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #lettera #watercolor #floralalphabet
  • Painting vine flourishes letter A - Ideas for creating different floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #lettera #watercolor #floralalphabet
  • Flourished Letter A - Ideas for creating different floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #lettera #watercolor #floralalphabet
    Flourished Letter A – Ideas for creating different floral alphabets | ChocolateMusings.com #lettera #watercolor #floralalphabet

I had so much fun creating all these styles. As you can see, changing details here and there seem to make a completely different style!

Which way do you think you’ll try first? Of course, you’re welcome to try more than one. I hope you’ve got some ideas on how to create a variety of floral alphabets and you’re inspired to start doodling! Make sure you pin your favorite style to your Pinterest or share it on Facebook with your friends.

Even if you missed us for this challenge, we’d love to see your work! Tag us on Instagram or leave me a comment below – I’d love to know what you tried.

Wishing you joy and creativity every day - Tricia
Ideas to Create Floral Alphabets | Chocolatemusings.com #floralalphabets #flowers #letters

Are you looking for more inspiration? Here are some of my favorite doodling supplies.

Useful Lettering Supplies

  • Pencil – My favorites: Wooden Pencils | 2H Pencils |Drawing Pencil Various Leads | Mechanical Pencils | 2H Mechanical Lead
  • Ruler: 6″ Stainless Steel | 12″ Transparent Ruler
  • Erasers: Plastic Eraser | Click Eraser | White Pearl Eraser | Tombow Mono Black Eraser | Sand Eraser
  • Circle Maker: Helix 6″ | 12″ Ruler
  • Lightbox
  • Laser Level

Paper

  • 32 Lb Printer Paper (I like the HP brand)
  • Tracing paper
  • Rhodia Paper A5 Dot Pad | Rhodia Blank Notebook | Rhodia Size Varieties
  • Marker Paper Varieties | 6×8 Pad Size
  • Bristol Smooth Paper (the best Tombow Marker blending paper I’ve tried so far!)

Explore more ideas & inspiration on the blog!

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Filed Under: Blog, Get Creative, Tutorials & How To Tagged: alphabets, beginner lettering, floral, how to, lettering, Tutorial

Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme – May 2019 Plan With Me

April 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #minimalist #blackandwhite #bulletjournal

Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme – May 2019 Plan With Me

Have you ever had something you really wanted to try, but never did because you were afraid you wouldn’t be good at it? Practically everything I do starts as that thought in my head. This time it was drawing flowers. I really wanted to draw flowers. Outline drawings, watercolor paintings, floral wreaths, you name it, I want to create flowers. But I collected flower drawing & reference books instead of trying. I chose floral wreaths for my bullet journal theme this month and I’m happy to say that April showers bring May flowers!

I went a little flower doodle crazy and I’m super thrilled with the way they turned out. It gives me so many ideas for the future. In a way, this whole month is minimal. I love how elegant it looks and how it turned out. I hope you find some inspiration in my floral wreath bullet journal theme this month.

Watch the Plan With Me for Some Oh-So-Satisfying Flower Doodles

What’s in My Planner This Month:

I skipped the monthly welcome page (gasp!) partially because I stared at some blank pages and didn’t know what to do at first. The other part was that I was trying to conserve pages as I thought I could get two more months out of this journal, but I realized that I neglected my brain dump pages and review pages, and those pages are essential for keeping me organized and motivated, so I got a new notebook instead of trying to cram another month in the journal.

Circle Monthly / Calendar Wheel

If you’ve been around my blog in the past, you might have noticed that I like circles. The May monthly calendar doesn’t disappoint. Built around a partial floral wreath, I created a circular May monthly log. Then because I wanted a miniature calendar, I added a flip-out page which also has color codes. Thinking I would only use the flip-out for the monthly, at first I was pleased with the idea. Then I realized I can use it for all the weeklies to follow and now I’m a little giddy. I love it when something good turns into something fantastic.

The only thing I wish is that I would have kept the colors muted or not used as much of them. So use only a stripe of color instead of coloring the box in. I don’t think this will be the last of floral wreaths, a flip-out calendar or color codes. So, there’s always next time!

  • Flowers inside the monthly calendar wheel + Habit Tracker Vines | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocMusings #bulletjournal #flowers #floral
  • Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocMusings #minimalist #blackandwhite #bulletjournal
  • Monthly Flip-Out Mini-Calendar and Monthly Color Codes | ChocolateMusings.com #flipout #planwithme #monthlycalendar

If you have only a few calendar items, the monthly log either in horizontal or vertical format (like mine for last April or December) or this circular format (also known as a calendar wheel) is a really fun change to display significant dates and a high-level overview for the month.

Habit Tracker

Instead of my usual circle habit tracker, I decided to go with a block format. Just so I didn’t have two facing circles across from each other. My favorite part about this page is the leafy vine wrapping around the words. Using a Tombow Brush Pen, I was able to get the thick and thin lines just like you see in calligraphy. Unlike the calendar facing page where each line on the flowers is the same width, the brush pen gives a little more character. I’m excited to track my habits this month!

Intertwining Floral Vines Habit Tracker | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #flowers #bulletjournal #habittracker

Weekly Flower Wreaths

I LOVE floral wreaths. Flowers wrapped around a circle – what could be better? Creating floral wreaths was the inspiration for the entire month, and my goal was to make each day different. #missionaccomplished

I used different pens and pen thicknesses on each of these pages. My favorite: Micron 02 .30mm and Micron 03 .35mm. I also tried a black Papermate Flair pen and a .50mm Micron pen.

Tip: if you decide to watercolor the flowers, make sure you use an archival pen (like the Micron pens, not the Papermate Flair pen) if you ink before watercoloring. Otherwise, your black outlines will blend with your watercolors. And make sure the ink is completely dry before watercoloring. You can use the Papermate Flair pens after the watercolor is absolutely dry.

  • Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly
  • Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly
  • Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly
Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly

Miscellaneous Pages

Social Media Planning

I added a new page to the month – a social media planning page. Believe it or not, I have a lot more images I want to share each month than I post here or on my Instagram page. I create something a little special for Random holidays like Pick Strawberries day or Waffle Day and it never fails, I forget to share them!

All the Things

My journal page/memory keeper spread for the month. I love filling in details of the adventures we have as a family, what I learned & created for the month and other good things.

Seeds of Thought

The last page in my monthly pages is my brain dump page. I love coming up with names for brain dump pages that tie to my theme. For instance, February was a pirate theme & I called my brain dump spread “X Marks the Thought”. So this month, I called it “Seeds of Thought”.

I’m so excited to track and do all the things for the month of May. I love creative planning/bullet journaling because I can customize it and use it as a learning tool each month. I think you might see florals in the future. The moral of the story is, don’t let your mind convince itself that you can’t do whatever it is you want to do before you’ve even tried it.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas & inspiration to dress up your planner or bullet journal and try drawing some flowers & floral wreaths.

Wishing you joy and creativity every day - Tricia

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Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Get Organized & Start Planning, Plan With Me 2019, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, 2019, Bullet Journal, bullet journal theme, Circle, circles, doodles, floral, floral wreaths, flowers, may, plan with me, planner set up

My 5 Favorite Flower Drawing & Reference Books

April 22, 2019 4 Comments

Favorite Flower Drawing and Reference Books (and why) + Video Flip Through | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #flower #howtodrawflowers

My top 5 Favorite Flower Drawing & Reference Books

When the weather gets warmer, and the pollen gets yellow (you know what I mean if you’ve visited the south US in the spring), I start doodling and drawing more flowers. I should probably do that more in the winter (because it makes me happy), but winter is so…blah. I even started a Pinterest board just for leaves on tree branches. Today, I wanted to show you the flower drawing & reference books I keep close at hand.

Similar to why I love to bullet journal, I love a physical book as a reference when I draw. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t fear mindlessly scrolling away and losing my reference or that I can hold the book in my hand or perhaps I’m just old school.

It doesn’t matter the reason why I have floral reference books, and I thought I would show you some of the books I use as my flower drawing references. And what’s more, is I thought you might find it useful even if you tuck it away for reference later on in your artistic journey. To help a little more, I created a comparison guide for the flower drawing books & references. If you have your own reference books, this table is a great way to show the differences in the books.

Comparison Guide for Flower drawing and reference books | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdarawing #floral #botanical

Book Overview

We want to move to a new house in the next year or so. Don’t tell my husband, but I want a big library with reference books galore. But I won’t buy them until we’ve moved to a new house and all the books have their own home. I ultimately intend on keeping them sorted by type and not by the author. All of my flower books in one section, all of my dragon books in another. (FYI: I have one dragon book.)

Some of the books are more beginner friendly. Others have more information and photos plus line illustrations. They range from Peggy Deans’ Botanical Line Drawing to a book that I found on Amazon that shipped from England and took two months to find me.

Botanical Line Drawing
How to Draw Modern Florals
Wild Flowers by Colour
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers
An Illustrated Guide to Garden Flowers

I made a quick video featuring each of these books – you can watch the video below or head over to my YouTube channel to check it out.

Additional Floral-Related Resources

For some other fantastic resources – check out the series books by National Audubon Society Field Guides.  I want to get the ones on birds and rocks & gems. They have amazing photography and line drawings too. I’m not at all intrigued by the amphibians and reptiles. I don’t like snakes one bit.

I happened on an astounding resource of wildflowers here. There are so many more books I want to leaf through and hold in my hands. But I do want to be picky when it comes to resources. I need my flower drawing books to add something or give me a new perspective. Come to think of it, I need all my books to add something or provide a new perspective.

This list is not a comprehensive list. There are so many more ‘how to’ books ‘how to’ books and reference books for florals. What I’d love to know from you is which ones (if any) have you tried and what you thought!

Where to Start with Flower Drawing Books?

If you want to start drawing flowers but feel overwhelmed, start with a step-by-step guide. The Botanical Line Drawing & How to Draw Modern Florals books are great for starting. You’ll learn many petals and shapes. You could draw from them for ages.

Botanical Line Drawing By Peggy Dean

  • Great for beginners
  • Line drawing only
  • 200 + Flower & Nature Illustration
  • Organized by type
  • Use the hashtag on Instagram #botanicallinedrawing when drawing items from Peggy’s book

I listed ‘organized by type as a half-circle on my comparison because there are a couple of sections in her book: leaves, flowers, cacti & succulents & more nature.

One thing I didn’t expect from The Botanical Line Drawing book is that none of the flowers were labeled. You don’t need a name to draw it, but I would like to know the name. Because using #unknownflowername isn’t as fun as #trillium or even #pennywort on Instagram.  It’s a personal preference, and it hasn’t stopped me from referring to her fantastic book over and over again and immensely improving my floral drawings.

I’m very excited about her new book! Guide to Nature Drawing & Watercolor.

  • Flower drawing and references - Botanical Line Drawing | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral #howtodraw
  • Flower drawing and references - Botanical Line Drawing | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral #howtodraw

How to Draw Modern Florals by Alli Koch

Create beautiful and realistic-looking flowers. There is plenty of line work inside the petals and leaves that you can choose to add or leave out when drawing your own modern florals.

  • 20+ Detailed Outline drawings (you’ll see the width of the stems and more detail of the flowers)
  • Flower names – each one is labeled with their common flower name
  • Beginner friendly – with step by step drawings & instructions, you can start small & work into more complex drawings
  • Flower drawing and references - How to Draw Modern Florals | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral #howtodraw

Need Line Drawings AND Reference Photos?

I like to look at pictures and line drawings. I use the photographs for real-world reference, colors, and imperfections.  But I also like line drawings so I can see the form and lines of the flower. That’s why I like Wild Flowers by Colour, Field Guide to Wildflowers and the Illustrated Guide to Garden Flowers. But these books don’t show step-by-step instructions on how to draw flowers.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers

One thing I really like about this book’s pictures is that each picture shows the general shape of the flower – so you can see how they grow together and the general shape of the petals. I use this book to cross-reference different flowers I find on Pinterest to make sure I’m calling it by the right name.

  • Broken into flower family classifications
  • Real-life photos
  • Some illustrated drawings (does not have each one illustrated)
  • Common & Scientific names
  • Flower drawing and references - Audubon Field Guide to Wildflowers | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral
  • Flower drawing and references - Audubon Field Guide to Wildflowers | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral

An Illustrated Guide To Garden Flowers

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find many more on Amazon. If you see it, grab it – it’s my favorite. With both photos & illustrated line drawings of each flower, it is a wonderful reference book. It’s geared to those who want to raise flowers, but it makes a wonderful flower drawing reference book.

  • Scientific & Common Names
  • Illustrations
  • Real-life photos
  • Multiple sections in addition to flower type, it has sections of annuals & perennials & bulbs.
  • Flower drawing and references - Illustrated Guide to Garden Flowers | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral #howtodraw
  • Flower drawing and references - Illustrated Guide to Garden Flowers | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral #howtodraw

Majorie Blammey’s Wildflowers by Colour

I cannot remember who first referenced this book, but I thought it was amazing when I first saw it. By chance, I found it for a very decent price on Amazon from a private seller and had to wait impatiently for it to ship from the UK. There are no real-life photos, but instead, each flower is a color illustration.

  • Common names
  • Classified by color then by type
  • Color line illustration
  • Flower drawing and references - Wildflowers by Colour | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral
  • Flower drawing and references - Wildflowers by Colour | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral
  • Flower drawing and references - Wildflowers by Colour | ChocolateMusings.com #flowerdrawing #flower #floral

Tip:  I found many other books at my local library, and my library lets me renew three times before having to return them.

The thing with drawing books of any kind, even if they are step-by-step and you feel like you’ve graduated beyond that skill or if you need super simple instructions, you can still find value in a reference book. I love going back through the books I own. I always end up learning something new or seeing something I’d forgotten.

What if You’re Practicing Kon Marie and Just Got Rid of Your Books or Don’t Want Any More Books?

First of all, if you threw out a bunch of books because you just Kon Marie’d your house (yes, I made it a verb), good for you. I’m working on decluttering, too. Flower drawing books aren’t ‘clutter’ to me if you’re wondering. But if you’re strictly digital and want nothing to do with buying books, follow me on Pinterest! I keep several boards with inspiration. Feel free to pin any images you’d like as a reference.

If you’re interested in drawing flowers, let me know what resources you enjoy (or ones you’ve found), I’d love to check them out.

4 Comments
Filed Under: Blog, Get Inspired, Journaling & Art Book Reviews, My Muses (My Favorites & Inspiration), Product & Book Reviews Tagged: floral, flower drawing, flower drawing for beginners, get inspired, how to, how to draw flowers, inspiration

About Me


Hi! I'm Tricia, the creative behind ChocolateMusings.com, I know how it feels to lose your inner muse. After years of darkness (which I call the dark ages of my life), I found my inner muse hiding in the forgotten corners of my soul, I vowed never to lose sight of her again.

Bullet journaling helped reignite the passion for art and living life again while organizing my days. I also discovered modern calligraphy and watercolor. Since then, my use of the bullet journal system has evlolved and I call it 'creative planning'. Here on the blog, I show you how to use your planner to ignite your inner muse and explore creativity and art while staying beautifully organized and living a joyful life.

I invite you to grab some good chocolate and dive into my musings. Let’s ignite your inner muse.

Read more on the about me page. You can also find my policies and disclosures here.

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