I'm Rebecca, a lettering artist from London. I get asked lots at this time of year what I would buy someone interested in calligraphy for Christmas and my first answer is always Tombow pens.
I can still remember the feeling of discovering a pack of multicolour pens with a special colour change pen in my stocking when I was about seven or eight years old. Oh that joy of a fresh pack of pens ready for some creative adventures and magical creations. It turns out I still feel the same way about new stationery now all these years later. It's a brilliant gift to receive and to give at Christmas. I have been using Tombow materials in my studio and to teach workshops for years and I still get excited when I buy a new pack and try out the colours.
So if you have a creative friend or family member and you're stuck as to what to get them this Christmas, here's some brilliant Tombow gift ideas to give them that new stationery feeling.
The Newbie.
This is your friend that has mentioned they might like to try calligraphy one day or the one that has beautiful handwriting and still writes hand written letters and sends birthday cards in the post. They are going to love the Tombow Lettering Set Beginners. It has both an ABT Pen and the Fudeosuke calligraphy pen that are perfect for brush lettering as they allow you to create both the thick downstrokes and thin up strokes you need for this technique.
The ABT creates big bold strokes and the Fudeosuke allows you to make more precise detailed work. Add in a set of the Candy or Vintage coloured ABT pens and they will be ready to create some beautiful lettering.
The Crafty One.
This is the person you know who is a brilliant baker, sewist, knitter or card maker. I often have super creative folk attend my lettering workshops to enable them to add lettering to their craft in some way. It might be gift tags for handmade products, lettering on icing or to help them design a logo for their small business. People that already find calmness and pleasure from crafting often gravitate toward lettering and your gift will be something they can treasure and put straight to good use.
I would buy someone like this a Blended Lettering set which contains everything they need to experiment with the pens and learn how to begin to blend the colours.
Inside there is a Water Brush and blending palette and guide to explain how to use the kit. I love the effect that blending Tombow can make and for someone crafty and interested in creative challenges these sets will be a fantastic present.
The Teenage Art Fan.
Is there a budding artist lurking in your family, using their skills to create beautiful home work and secret highly decorated notes to friends? Then you need to get them one of the ABT Dual Brush Pen Manga packs. These pens are perfect for vibrant, joyful illustration and lettering and come in two great colour selections that will enable them to create loads of different kinds of drawings and lettering. Alongside the soft brush-shaped tip there is also a fine tip that can be used for important diary entries or a thank you letter to you for buying such a great gift!
Or you might want to think about a Creative Journaling Kit which has everything they need to start their very own bullet journal. I love this set as it has the perfect journal to use the Tombow pens with. The paper is smooth and thick and is dotted which is perfect to create clean layouts and for lettering practice.
The lettering Pro.
Now someone that is already practising lettering may already have a Tombow pen or two in their materials kit so we need something special to challenge them to take their lettering to the next level.
Adding to their Tombow stash is always going to make a lettering fan happy. The more colours they have to experiment with the better. I found my lettering style really developed when I began looking at how colour could change the feel of each composition and having a broad range of pens to play around with really helped.
So if you know the person well and can sneak a look at what colours they have already and add to them that's brilliant. But if not, the Lettering Set advanced is a great set that will encourage them to experiment with different pen sizes and have a few colours to create different lettering effects with. You could add in the Fudenosuke Calligraphy Brush Pen pack to give them a range of fine tip coloured pens to work with and really push their practice.
The Tombow Bristol Paper drawing pad is the perfect paper for lettering to keep the pens writing with clear crisp lines and I use this for both layout ideas and final designs. Adding one of these in will have them buried in their lettering practice before the turkey is even in the oven.
Your Secret Santa.
Everyone loves a pair of novelty socks but I am sure your secret santa would much prefer to open a pack of ABT pens this year. The primary, pastel, vintage or candy colour sets are really lovely selections or a Lettering Set for Beginners would go down a treat I'm sure.
An extra special gift.
Something I lusted after for years and still get excited about opening is the ABT Dual Brush Marker Case. It's a thing of wonder as it folds out to allow you to see all the pens at one time and you can't help but feel jolly when you see the rainbow emerge.
It contains 107 colours and a blender pen and I use glorious box of tricks daily for everything from initial sketches to surface pattern design.
This is the kind of gift that will go down in history and be so well used and loved. It creates little gasps from my students at workshops when I show them and definitely gives me the same feelings I got from opening my pens in my stockings many moons ago.
When you've made your Tombow gift purchases, head over to my Instagram for more lettering inspo!