Letters from Santa

This will be the last post on Christmas anything for 2012, I promise.  I wanted to post some more detailed photos of the Santa Mail and I also have some pics of my Christmas Card Envelopes.

This is one of the letters from my future-sister-in-law's students.  Jen was kind enough to decode them for me.

The top half.

This letter was mailed to me from Hailey. She thought she was sending it to Santa and she included her address on the bottom, just in case!

This weekend I did eight letters from Santa.  I did three for my family and 5 for my friends.  I wasn't satisfied with just making them for my family so I pestered people on Facebook until some people took me up on my offer.

This is the display with undecorated envelopes.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the paper is a shimmering gold from Staples called Buttercream and the a shimmering silver also from Staples.  The envelopes are white and cream resume envelopes I already had. 

This is the decorated array.

I put the white envelopes with the silver paper and used it for the girls.  The trim is silver and red, stamped twice.

I use the buttercream and ivory for the boys, stamped in gold and green trim.

I feel like I should know this, but I think the waves of the postmark should be going the other way, right?

This is the very first letter from Santa to Trevor, who was born on Monday, 12/10/12.  This letter is more for Preston's benefit, who is his big brother.  I thought it would only be appropriate for them to both be receiving mail from Santa.

This is a silver letter for Sylvia, who is the daughter of my favorite masseuse.  I don't get to see her {my masseuse} very often, but she is the only person I will see when I want a massage!  She sent me an email with what Sylvia asked for for Christmas and included that she always has Santa encourage her to eat new foods.

I don't think I mentioned it before, but the font in the letters and on the envelopes is called the King & Queen font.

The back of the envelopes from Santa.

Lastly, to feel like I am getting my money's worth out of the stamp sets, I used them to decorate my Christmas Card envelopes.  I printed the addresses on with my computer using a font called 1942 Report.

This is the stack of outgoing cards.  There are a few addressed to my pen pals in there!

"Official Nice Certificates" ~ from Santa

Here is another post on the Santa swag I have been working on.  I hope I am not boring you all with them.  I am having a really good time with it and I thought it was time I took some proper {read: not cell phone} photos of them.

Tonight I finished up all of the Nice Certificates for some students of my future-sister-in-law.  She is a special education teacher in a town near where I work.  I wasn't satisfied just making stuff for Preston & Hailey, so I asked her if she wanted to have her students write to Santa.  Each of her students got a personal reply letter and an Official Nice List Certificate.  I also opened it up to my friends on FaceBook.  Anyway...  here we go:

It's safe to say that I am adoring the stamp sets that I bought {blogged about here}.

The airmail stripes have to be done twice, once red and once green, but I like it so much better with the double detailing.  That stripe, and the postmark waves and the green stamp frame, all came from the postal-themed stamp set.

Looks legit, right?

I am using some Crane stationery and envelopes that a friend had bought me for Christmas two years ago now.

I wrote the name myself.  The letters are not perfect but calligraphy takes a lot of practice and I have not been practicing.  Over the summer, as some of you know, I took a calligraphy class from a wonderful fellow dog-lover by the name of Jane Parillo.  She has a shop called Scribe {website here}.  

This is the actual "certificate".  The center black text is all on one stamp and I wrote in Preson's name.  The bottom right is two separate stamps.  The Naughty / Nice boxes & text are one stamp, the checkmark is a second, and "You've been:" is a third.  You can actually make a note to Santa by changing to the stamp that says "I've been:"

On the top half, so that it didn't look so plain, I stamped Santa's face and what is intended to be the bottom of Santa's letterhead.  I still much prefer the letterhead by the LWA, so I used it this way instead.  To add some color, I rubbed in some chalk colors that I already had using a q-tip.  

So that's it on the certificates.  I will feature some "real" photos of the mail from Santa in the next few days.

Letters from Santa

Here are two letters from Santa. These are in response to letters written by seven of my future sister in law's students. It's safe to say that I love the stamp sets that I purchased!

Santa Mail 2

This is what the Santa Mail looks like. These are the first two letters to Hailey.

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!