Pastels and emoticons

Maybe I’ve just spent too much time staring at ban.do stuff, but lately I’ve been really excited about the 90s girl gang vibe that they emit! So went I sent of this letter to a friend in Australia, I might just have used it for inspiration.

I know, the ban.do influences aren’t necessarily too clear for others to see, but I stole the pink and gold largely from there and of course the emoticons which I drew throughout the letter.

Since Jane commented on really enjoying the sticky notes I put in the last letter, I decided to include some more unconventional stickies this time around.

Finally wrapped it all up in string and sent off to Australia. Hope it reaches her with a smile on her face!

Mixed some new and vintage stamps on the envelope – really loving the pink angel stamp.

And that’s all for now.
May the Postman deliver ever in your favour,
x

Flowery mail for Sunshine

Sorry for disappearing from this blog and most other places online – exam season is upon me and I’ve had to put snail mailing to the side. But here’s a little something I sent out a while ago. Sadly, it was apparently quite badly damaged on it’s journey.

A while back I was contacted on IG by Ayabulela, also called Sunshine, and after having seen her beautiful mail I really couldn’t say no. This was my first outgoing to her, and to South Africa – I love exchanging mail with people from new places, it feels like such a great opportunity to learn more about them.

She’d said she liked flowers, so I thought that would be a good starting point for a theme.

For this letter, I also wanted to play around a little more with stamps. So I prettied up some ruled paper with some flower stamps, and gave my mail tag headings a nice dotted background. I didn’t have any pink ink, so I doodled on some flowers in pencil, and hand lettered the headings. I also used some of my old scrapbook stash chipboard alphas for her name.

I’d recently bought some new washi tape which I was excited to test drive, so I put together the little garland, as well as some washi collages at the bottom of the mail tag sheets for an additional pop of colour.

The flower card is a vintage cigarette card, and I attached my washi tape sample tags to it. The mini-tags are small gold foiled price tags, just the right size to spin some 15mm washi around. The elastic thread attachment also makes it super easy if you want to just thread them to  your planner rings and bring them with you right off the bat.

I included an envelope with some sticker flakes, paper bits and a Swedish stamp with flowers on it, to go with the theme.

Then I wrapped it all up in the garland, trying to get the flags on it nicely spread out.

Finally it all went into a goodie bag envelope. Royal Mail are currently running with an Alice in Wonderland stamp set, and they’re really cute. I’m definitely going to have to head over and buy a few for future mail.

May the postman deliver ever in your favour,
Alex.

Seeing the greenery themed mail

Maria is a pen friend from Poland who I know loves to travel and enjoys the vintage aesthetic. I always try to play to that when I make her letters, personally I love it when my pen pal has made a clear attempt to include things I like but in their own style.

This dotted stamp is rapidly becoming one of my favourites – it just makes for such a nice detail when you want to emphasize something, like a heading. Besides, it’s an extra pop of colour which can be however subtle the ink you choose to use is.

This letter included quite a long mail tag, that covers a few different papers and a long folded up piece of paper. I also included some retro post cards that fit both the colours and the theme – they’re from the Penguin post card boxes series. They’re great quality and I absolutely recommend them!

I bundled all the bits and pieces – letter, mail tag, post cards, a washi sample and a book plate – together with some green yarn. I love a parcel wrapped in string, can’t help myself!

And then all that was left was to pop it in the envelope and add a return address – just in case.

May the postman deliver ever in your favour,
Alex.

A Sprinkle of Happy Mail

I recently managed to get my hands on some sprinkles washi tape which I’ve been eyeing for quite some time. Naturally, I had to put it to good use instantly, and spent an evening catching up on Once Upon a Time and stationery decorating.

I’ve been trying to be a little more adventurous with my decorating, and go beyond my washi collages. A dotted stamp made for a good heading background, and  there are even some doodles to add to the fun.

Since I’m in love with this sprinkles washi and Amanda has told me she likes washi but doesn’t have much of it, it seemed like a perfect little goodie to include.

Several people on IG have been playing around with confetti recently, and I cut up some tissue paper to make confetti of my own and threw some of it into the envelope. Hopefully it’ll be a fun detail when she opens and not cause too much of a mess!

Finally I popped it all into one of my goodie bags and taped it together. I also finally tried out my HEMA wax seal stamp. Perfect for happy mail!

May the postman deliver ever in your favour,
Alex

Butterflies fluttering all the way to Nantucket

I came across Michelle quite early on in her IG letter writing career – which is fantastic, since she was still looking for new penpals and I fit the bill. So far, all the mail I’ve seen from her is stunning, and totally imbued with her own style. If you’re looking for some more happy mail inspiration, I’d go follow her right this moment.

I apologize for the pictures below, they were taken on a cloudy day when the sun refused to come out and give them some bright life.

Butterflies very much became the theme for this letter, combined with earthy hues – greens and soft light browns and beige. While the card looked small to write in at first, and I considered glueing in an extra sheet of paper (I’m a very verbose and rambly writer – and talker, for that matter) I actually ended up fitting everything in quite nicely.

As for goodies I included some of my Project life cards, a mail tag, chalkboard labels, a temporary tattoo and a 3D butterfly embellishment. I also threw in a news paper clipping on stuff that had been recently happening at my university for an added local touch.

I put the card into the envelope, then wrapped the goodies in a green bit of yarn, before sticking all of it in a see through bag, in order to make the parcel fun right from the moment of picking it up. The address went on the inside envelope.

I tried sticking some vintage stamps onto it, but the gumming wouldn’t stick to the cellophane bag and I had to abandon that plan, instead covering the letter in lower denomination stamps with ‘sticker backing’. Lesson learnt!

May the postman deliver ever in your favour,
x Alex.

Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt 2015: Outgoing

It’s the day after reveal day! Which means I’d like to share the packagee I sent out with you guys.

I had so much fun participating in this year’s Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt and putting together a little package of goodness. For other people’s reveals, take a look at the #SPSH2015 hashtag on Instagram!

I’ve split my reveal into two posts – one containing my own outgoing parcel and one with the incoming parcel. For my incoming, please take a look over here!

My outgoing was heading to head honcho Fab herself, and I’m really hoping she liked it! I should probably warn you right now that this is a very long and picture heavy post, but I had too much fun putting the package together to rein myself in.

One of the things Fab had stated that she liked was teal, so I focused on that for the decoration of the different parcels mixing it up with some bright green and my own favourite neutrals. And a lot of string, you know how I love to wrap things in string.

  

The first thing I decided I was going to include from the list was the Bad Day Survival Kit – I’ve always liked putting together small packages like this for my friends. This time it was a little harder, since I didn’t really know what Fab likes to do on a bad day. So instead I reverted back to what I like to do to make a bad day better: I like to hide away in my room with a good, preferably funny movie, some home made cookies and a warm cup of tea.

I designed a handful of mini-zines with some of my favourite funny movies that are profoundly quotable. The zines all contained why I thought the movie was a good bet, and some fun subtitled screen caps and quotes.

And of course tea for two, since most bad days are better with friends.

The next thing to get gathered and packed up was the Postal Freaks Kit, or in this particular case an Airmail themed letter writing kit.

I included some air mail envelopes, address labels and stickers, and a sheet of Royal Mail air mail labels. I’d also saved an old cover for first class stamps, and turned that into a small booklet where I told her a little about Royal Mail and some of my opinions relating to it, with two small unused vintage definitive stamps.

I wrapped it up in double string, so that she should have enough of it to do the same for two parcels going into those envelopes. By now, you probably know how much I love to have everything be matching a theme…

My third component was Something that represents me.

I decided to include some pretty stationery with to do lists printed onto them. I’m crazy when it comes to lists, I keep making them all the time. It’s the only way I get anything done, and if I don’t have a to do list I forget half the things I need to get done. If I’ve just written my list, I don’t even necessarily have to look at it to remember – something about writing it makes it stick for me.

I also threw in a “Choose Happiness” journal card, since I feel this represents me more and more. I’m less willing to accept anything but happiness, and I make conscious choices to bring more of it into my life. On the back is a quote that’s helped me through inevitable rough spots in life: “In the end, everything will be okay. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

For the Something oddly shaped prompt I included an embroidered patch that I’d made.

Since I know Fab likes letters, I went with that theme. The patches are really versatile, and can be either sown onto any fabric, or just attached with a safety pin. One girl I talked to said she was going to put hers as a charm on her Midori closing strap.

My final thing of the list was Something old-fashioned. I got too excited wrapping it up before I’d taken pictures, but I included two envelopes with bits and bobs. On one I’d stamped “Actually Old”, in that one I’d added a number of vintage cigarette cards depicting a variety of different things – including some really old-school inventions. On the other I’d stamped “Fake Old”, and in that were some bits of reproduced vintage ephemera.

Lastly, there was The Gift, selected especially for her with listed preferences in mind. I looked through a number of local shops, but nothing really stood out to me, and the few things that did were out of my budget. Coming up on the final day for send off, I was actually getting a little nervous. In the end, I decided to put together a filofax decoration kit with a bunch of things from my stash – not a bought gift, I admit, but one that was far more personalized to her listed preferences and definitely over the spending limit.

Fab had stated that she like pale yellow and teal, so I scoured my collection for things in those colours. She also said she was using a filofax, and after some stalking I found out it was a pocket size. I’ve seen some people use PL cards as dashboards in those on IG – I only use larger planner sizes, so I couldn’t test it out.

In the kit I included: PL Journalling cards, Washi tape samples, Sticky notes, some of them from Knock Knock, a variety of die cuts for decorating purposes, some paper clips and a PL folder.

And that was it!

My the postman deliver ever in your  favour,
x Alex.

Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt 2015: Incoming

It’s reveal day! And I was lucky enough to receive my package just before the big day, and it was looking gorgeous.

A few times now,  Fab of wreckthisgirl fame has organized the Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt. This time around I was lucky enough to both know about it and have some extra time on my hands to participate.

I’ve split my reveal into two posts – one containing my own outgoing and one with the incoming parcel. My outgoing post will be published tomorrow!

Now let’s get on to the fun part. My no-longer-secret penpal was Lorraine Bell, a mixed media artist from Florida. She sent me a ton of goodies, and I’m so happy about the box I received! Everything was elegantly wrapped in cute kraft based paper bags or fabric pouches. 

There was also this large tissue paper wrapped package.

Having fulfilled my photo-taking duties I felt free to dig into each of the small packages, all of which were filled with some lovely surprises.

I first opened the big tissue wrapped package – unlike when I was a kid, I don’t always feel obliged to keep the biggest gifts for last. The package contained  Souvenirs from where she lives and it was a lovely little set of things – a cap, a shot glass, some post cards and a mickey mouse key ring.

Next up was the Gift just for me, and Lorraine managed to grab just the right IKEA tags. I’ve been wanting to get more of them, and these were exactly the ones I didn’t already have.

For the prompt Something that represents me she sent some stickers and cards with her art on it. Isn’t it all so colourful and lovely? The paper clip has such a fun texture to it.

Lorraine also threw in some of her favourite candies. I’ve never tried this type before, but I’m excited to do so later. I always think it’s a blast to try the candy from other countries, and this seems to be an old classic type.

Next I reached for the canvas pouch, curious about what the Some quirky things tag might be referring to. Inside was a fun mix of things: Matroschka doll pen, glittery nail polish, target dollar spot page flags (yes!), thin duct tape, and a stamp.

There was also this unlabelled muslin bag which had been sown together. Those who know me know I’m a curious and stubborn person by nature. The bag itself was lovely, and I didn’t want to cut it open, but I don’t have access to a seam ripper in my university halls. So I grabbed a scissor and a needle and started at it. My flatmate spent the entire time laughing at me, but I was very satisfied when I got the bag open! Inside was a package of mixed media paper bases, a notebook, some ribbon and perhaps most fun of all, a vintage grapho analysis book. I’m definitely looking forward to reading about the study of handwriting.

Last, but the very opposite of least, was the Some mailing supplies bag. I know you shouldn’t play favourites, but I loved absolutely everything in here – it was perfectly collected just for me. Four for you, Lorraine! Inside were cards, vintage stamps, sticky note labels, personalized tags, chalkboard labels, and my personal favourite super cute library style card holders.

Thank you so much Lorraine for your package, it was a blast to have you as my secret penpal. The gifts you sent me were wonderful, and I’m sure I’ll find a lot of use for them – if I can bring myself to stop hoarding, that is! 😉

Lastly, here are some pictures of my favourites in the package,just because I got all excited opening it!

And a close-up of that Hungarian vintage stamp, just because it’s so gorgeous!

Valentines for Valerie

Generally speaking, I’m not that much for Valentines.

I don’t know why. I like to think I’m a fairly romantic person, but there’s just something about the mandated expression of affection that just doesn’t quite sit right with me.

That said, I’m all for showing some love and affection, and any excuse is a good one, non? Since the timing was right, I decided to make my next letter to Valerie a Valentine’s love letter.

Moving out of my childhood home this Christmas had it’s upsides – digging through all those old drawers and boxes helped me find some cute letter sets that I got when I was about 10. Among them, were these purple heart shaped papers with matching envelopes, which seemed very appropriate.

As my fondness for gold still seems to be on the rise, I used some gold twine to wrap the various bits and bobs into a little parcel.

May the mail man deliver ever in your favour,

Alex xx