More Belated Incoming Outgoing

I spent the mid-month of December working on mail, slowly but surely catching up on my replies.  These will be going out in the mail tomorrow.

Got this great envelope and letter from Anne Elizabeth from Letter Love.  This was her first letter to me and my second to her.

I love the washi tape and the labels.

I also love the stationery.

I am also replying to this great note from Erin Fickert-Rowland.  Her mail art can be found here at Elysian Studios.  She's kind of awesome and very adventurous.

I loved this card so much.  The texture of the paint left on the smooth stock was great.

This is a returned correspondant card from Katherine, who I think I found over at Pen Pal of the Week.

She has great handwriting and is my only Canadian Pen Pal.  I like the postmarks on her envelopes.

On the outgoing side, I sent all three replies in these airmail envelopes I had bought from Amazon forever ago.  Not fancy, but better than a plain #10.

This is the international stamp for Katherine's letter.

Also outgoing tomorrow is the awesome Pneumatic Post.  This will be its third trip through the postal system.

The Pneumatic Post comes from the LWA and is awesome.  The best part is finding fun things to fill it with.  The first time I mailed it out, I sent out a bagel dog bone and addressed it to Kathy's dog.  When I got it back, I received some great beauty samples.  I am not going to mention what I am sending out this time in the event she reads this post.

The LWA does a great job of explaining how it all works so I won't re-hash it for you here, but it is a fun mail toy.  I thought I would have a hard time with the postage removal, and it did take some work, but it was not too bad.  I soaked it for a few hours yesterday in hot soapy water and got as much of the sticky stuff off with my nails as I could.  Then I hit it with the Goo-Gone and it was good as new.  Probably should have tried the Goo-Gone first.

My plan tomorrow is to go to the main RI post office to see if I can finally get my hands on some $2 Waves of Color Stamps and hopefully pop one on this thing.  Either way it's getting mailed, but I am having the worst time finding that series.  My local post office said the don't have them and won't be getting them.  They called a second post office in my city who said the same.  The third post office I tried had never even heard of them, I had to show them a photo on my phone.  So we shall see how tomorrow goes.

1000 Cards for Patsy

Today over at the LWA Blog Donovan posted about a woman named Patsy.  Patsy lost, literally, a lifetime of correspondence in Hurricane Sandy.  She is 87 and she was saving them to read in her final hours.  Her son-in-law is trying to get her 1000 cards for Christmas.  I am sending four, because I don't know when to stop.  Click that link above to see the story.

Got this card at Papyrus, thought it was classy and elegant.

Also love the lined envelope.

Picked this card because it was glam.  At 87, you deserve some glam and expensive cards.  Also, I love purple and snow.  The envelope is a shimmering silver.  Also from Papyrus.

Matching lining!

Picked this card because aquamarine is my very favorite color, other than gray.  March is my birthday, aquamarine is my color.  From Papyrus.

This is the final card, from Hallmark.  I love what is says, because it's true.  I think of her receiving all of this mail and I can see her smiling and joyful.  This card has a stunning matte-finish gray envelope.

Patsy, Merry Christmas.  You are four cards richer and I thank you for the smile you brought to my face tonight.  I loved sending these to you.

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!

It's Happening!

You know what I did tonight?  I organized all of the mail that I need to reply to.  I went out to Staples to get a little pendaflex thingy to put it all in.  I should have gone with the bigger box, people!  My mailbox has been blessed.

So I've been working for a few weeks now, establishing a pseudo-routine.  This passed weekend Boyfriend came home from his epic trip.  The weekend before that I gave my room a much needed scrubbing and put all of my papers and mail and stuff in a box.  

Tonight, rather than finish putting away my laundry, I decided to get back to my mail.  I am so excited to get back on track and write back to my new friends.  

Also, I splurged today and spent some money over in the Member's Only shop of the Letter Writers Alliance.  I totally bought the Pneumatic Post!  I also bought their correspondence record, which is available only to members.

I can't wait until they come in and I am so excited to be organized enough to start writing back to people!

Wishing you all good mail days and thanking you for your patience.

USPS Drama

Linking today to a great post by Donovan of the Letter Writers Alliance about what is going on with the Postal Service.

What is Happening With the USPS & What it Means for You & Me

Write More Letters!

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 :-)