Correspondant Cards

In my very first letter from Anna, she sent me the most clever thing I'd ever seen, which I am calling a correspondant card.  Seriously, I swooned.

I didn't scan it because censoring out all of the details would ruin it, but trust me, it's beautiful.  She had hers done professionally, and it's obvious.  The card seems to be a thick cotton card-stock with lovely medium gray branch details on the top.  In a pretty pale gray, it lists her name, her date of birth, her address, her likes and her mail blog.  The font is lovely, the texture is nice and she decorated the back making sure I knew that card was for my keeping.

A second card, not matching the first, was for me to complete and send back to her for her records.

I told everyone who would listen about that card from Anna and what a brilliant idea it was.  Then I started thinking about how I could make a set to send to my new (and hopefully expanding) collection of pen friends.  I realized that I still had a box of Avery Post Cards left over from my college graduation party invites.  Not professional, but free and immediately available.  

So I stayed up until two in the morning copying Anna's genius concept while wishing I could have them professionally done instead.

This was the end result, with my personal details redacted :-)

And this is the card I that gets sent back to me.  With the exception of the card I sent to Canada, I include a self-addressed stamped envelope for my pen pal to mail back to me. It's strange to see my own handwriting arrive in my mailbox, but people seem to like them so far and I love getting them back!

So far my card has been received and returned by Emilie, LR McArthur and Anna.  The trouble now is that I've forgotten who I sent them to.  I tried to only mail them to people who had written me at least once.  The upside is that they surprise me in my mailbox.

So I graciously and gratefully thank Miss Anna of The Lettering for the idea.  If you're lucky, maybe you can get one of her correspondant cards in the mail too.

Good Mail Weekend

I had a good mail weekend, on top of making a wedding cake, which was a nice distraction.  Below is the front and back of a note I received from my cousin Hailey, who is going to be 4 in about a month.  I've been sending her mail for the last few weeks, which she has been saving at my request.  This is my very first mail from her.

Her Mom, my cousin Charlene, translated the below message for me.  If you're wondering, I regret that I do not own a blue princess dress.

I received this postcard via PostCrossing from the Netherlands.









And I received this postcard from Minsk, of all places!  Olga included a lovely quote for me: "A miracle happened: another day of life." from Veronica Decides to Die by P. Coelho.

I received all of the below envelopes from the lovely Anna Lorton, from The Lettering.  You should really check out her blog.  The first envelope contained my correspondant card (more on that in a separate post).  Anna is my new pen pal and we have quite a few things in common so far.  Also, she makes the most beautiful envelopes.

This envelope contained the last letter (the second) she mailed to me, which I am still in the process of responding to (I got this over a week ago).  Wedding cake delay, sorry Anna!

Note how she put a little #2 on the back of the envelope, to keep track.  Love it!

1st Letter Writing Social

So last Saturday, the 21st, I attended my very first Letter Writing Social.  I was able to meet two of my new pen friends, Tara and Emilie, who were the organizers of the social.  Tara even made cookies that looked like envelopes!  These are some of the photos I took while I was there.  I wrote a letter to my boyfriend on one of Tara's typewriters, which was difficult with a broken finger but fun just the same.


The best part of the whole thing was browsing other peoples stuff, swapping materials and chatting.  I was too distracted to really write a letter :-)

1st Post

So this is going to be my mail blog.  I'm in the middle of making a wedding cake, so I'll be fine-tuning this thing and adding pictures and posts over the next few weeks.  But in the meantime, this is where I'm at!

Happy Mailing!