Dapper Notes

✨GIVEAWAY✨ My friend Ciara LeRoy who collaborated with me on Secret Words just published a fantastic book on lettering, design, and embroidery.

On the surface it appears to be an embroidery book, and it certainly is an excellent one at that. But it’s also chock-full of lettering techniques for beginners, design layout strategies, and promises to be the start of many fun projects.

In fact I already used it myself to embroider a very dapper loop. And I’m giving away BOTH the Dapper embroidery hoop I made as well as one copy of Ciara’s new book Lettered in Thread.

To enter, let me know your favorite mantra that gets you going especially on tough days.

Open worldwide.

I’m giving away BOTH the Dapper embroidery hoop I made as well as one copy of Ciara’s new book Lettered in Thread. Pictured here.

To enter, comment your favorite mantra that gets you going especially on tough days.

Open worldwide.

One of my favorite photo spreads in the book, particularly because my only past experience with embroidery was a simple up and down pattern. And the texture possibilities exposed here are thrilling!

There’re SO MANY pages with lettering tips and basics. This is literally a how to get started with lettering book. Which is pretty fantastic.

While I’m an expert at knotting waxed thread for sewing notebooks, I had no idea one can do the same for embroidery. The step-by-step with pictures in the book was so easy to follow. I probably would not have made the dapper embroidery if this wasn’t explained so well, and ultimately made the process frustration-free.

I’m a sucker for notebooks. A sucker for good embroidery. This is too much goodness, man.

The “nah” hoop was made by Ciara a few years back, which I was almost embarrassed to photograph next to my beginner’s results. But like ya gotta start somewhere amirite

Ciara sent me everything I needed to get started (this was a friend package, and the extras are not included with your book purchase), so of course I had to try some fantastic lettering. This one was done by Mark Caneso, and I’m sorry I butchered it with my beginner skills.

This cute little painting is going onto my art wall pronto. Than

🖝 FYI Place your orders before Friday to ship before the upcoming August summer break 🖜

Can you spot the differences?

I’ve carried two designs as core editions for a few years now, both echoing materials used in the very early days of Dapper Notes. I’ve been wanting to add a third design into the core collection, one that reflects more of the illustrated and artist-made design that feature in my more recent work.

This is where Hoa Nguyen’s Adventures With Pet Duckling watercolor painting comes in. Originally released in 2025 as part of the Bookhead Club and named Forward Bound. The new core Berdan Grove, named for one of my favorite Fair Lawn parks, has the same cover and thread. But much is different, all noted in this set of photos. Lmk if you have any questions, happy to answer anything and everything. XOXO