Book excerpt: Hi, I'm Christie. Thanks for purchasing my 2nd lettering and doodle workbook. It has been so much fun to design these pages and I'm blessed to be able to share my passion with you. I named the book "Hand letter, doodle and pray," because that is how I grow closer to God. Sometimes., I hand letter my prayers. I doodle during church. In fact, that's the best way for me to pay attention. If I'm not writing and drawing what the pastor is saying, I'm probably wondering where Suzy got her dress or what sounds good for lunch.I never planned on teaching hand lettering. When I was asked by a friend to teach a class my first thought was, "I don't know how to teach lettering!" But I do know God made me a teacher. Just ask the neighborhood kids while I was growing up. If they didn't show up to my classroom in the woods, they would be scolded. You see, back in the 1970's, playing outside is what you did. And making a fort "classroom" in the woods was totally normal. Later I grew up to be a real elementary teacher and guess what I loved teaching them! Our classes were integrated and there was no art program so guess what Mrs. Daugherty did!?! She (as in me) taught art in EVERY subject. It was amazing!God also made me creative. He designed me to love color, design and textures, oh my! I'm smiling just thinking about it. And the more colorful, the better. But touches of black and white finish off any design and tends to ground it. I love polka dots, plaids, leopard, stripes and all the things.Not only did God make me a teacher and creative, but He gave me a passion for people. I love people. Yes, even the difficult ones. Don't get me wrong, I do have boundaries, but everyone deserves to be loved. And I especially love to help people find themselves in the process of creating art. It can be so healing and freeing.I believe that everyone is an artist. God made us that way. However, not everyone has the confidence or interest to create. And it's my goal is to teach, encourage and inspire people to at least give it a try.I know you can learn to hand letter. It doesn't matter if you are left-handed or have messy handwriting. Lettering is more about the process. I believe that when you hand letter something, it sticks. For example, writing scripture from the Bible helps me memorize it and keeps me thinking positive.Yes, writing pretty is part of the goal in lettering but it's not everything. So the first thing I'm going to ask you to do, is let go of your perfectionisms. How much fun can lettering be when you are worried about the tiniest mistake? In that case, you might as well give up now because it's never going to be perfect.If you want to get really good at lettering you must practice. Think about anyone that is good at anything. How do they get that way? They put a lot of work into it.