Santa Mail

OK mail friends, I am geeking out!

We all love mail, right?  Right.  So as a mail fan, I promote that among the littlest in my family by sending them mail {see Preston & Hailey}.

Last year, the LWA posted some Santa Letterhead.  It's awesome and it's here.  I immediately thought to myself "What if that creepy Elf on the Shelf person delivered mail from Santa?!"

So last year Preston received one or two letters that magically appeared overnight from Santa's personal Postal Worker.

Now that it's December, I wanted to get started on the Santa Mail so they can both get several letters, so I text Preston's mom and Hailey's mom and I ask for notables from the year / recent good behavior to mention in the mail from Santa (because you know that little Elf is a damn spy).

Yesterday, I went to Staples and picked up some nice paper.  I ended up with two packs of beautiful paper, which I cannot locate on their website so I apologize.  One is a soft silver shimmer and one is a soft golden shimmer they call "buttercream".  Fifty sheets per pack, paper not cardstock, no matching envelopes that I could see.  They were $9.99 each.

I whip up a letter for Preston on the Buttercream paper and I feel pretty proud of myself.  The shimmer makes it look awesome, very Christmas, and the Santa Letterhead from the LWA is just fantastic on it.

I get home from work last night after dropping off Preston's first letter and I was messing around on the internet, looking for some type of Santa frame decor that I could put on the envelopes (I am using left over 32# resume envelopes in ivory because I have lots).  And changing the font up on the letter, trying to make it look as grand as possible. 

So I Google "Santa Envelope".  Bad idea.  What I found last night cost me $60 this morning.

Feast your eyes on THIS:

I went into a catatonic state immediately and mumbled something to the effect of "I MUST HAVE THIS".

This stunning paper crafting was done by Danielle Flanders, and this is the post she did about the Santa Mail.  Those are her photos above.

Her post links to other amazing paper-crafting people who, in September, all did projects with this stamp set.  These are links directly to them:  One, This Person Made Post Cards TO Santa, Stamped Santa Letterhead & Envelopes, Full-on suite with clipboard, And another, And another, This is totally over the top, Check out the stunning certificate.

So what did I buy?  I bought the Santa Stamp Set here, and the Postmarks Stamp Set here, along with a set of three acrylic stamping blocks.  I'm not a "stamper" so I needed the blocks to get the stamps to work.  I literally just purchased these this morning so I hope it comes in quick, because I want to make envelopes!  I will most likely still use the LWA letterhead, because I want to be able to print with my printer, but I want to make fancy envelopes with those stamps and a "nice" certificate for each of the kids.

You actual mail artists will obviously be using the Postmarks Stamp Set all the time so that is easy to justify.  The Santa stamps are just awesome.

Enjoy!