Hello all, I am back (and I am getting really bad at keeping up with these posts, but thankfully I hear there is a blog-ahead challenge coming up). As I promised a couple of weeks ago I will talk about envelopes when they don't come with your stationary.
But first, how did you do on your challenge? Did you find something lovely, unique or fun to send with a letter? I sent my grandma a beautiful blue jay feather I found in our yard. She is a big bird watcher and has tons of bird houses in her yard. So I sent her the feather and told her about a few of the birds in our yard (not like when I was growing up when it was mostly just sparrows, black birds and an occasional Meadowlark) including the beautiful blue jay, a couple of woodpeckers, some swallows, robins, and of course those sparrows and blackbirds. A neighbor recently saw some hummingbirds but I have yet to see one.
So anyway, on with our subject matter of the day, envelopes. Usually when you purchase stationary they will come with matching envelopes, but that is not always the case. As with the subscription I mentioned in the last post, sometimes you just get the beautiful stationary paper. This isn't as much of a hardship as you might imagine, here are a few different options.
Option 1: Purchase Envelopes Separately
You can always go with the standard envelopes you can get at any grocery or big box store (business or card sized). Often at staples you can get envelopes in a variety of sizes and colors too. Another option is craft stores, in the paper crafting section you can find blank card and envelope sets, but they also have boxes of fun themed envelopes (ie. I purchased a box of vintage christmas themed ones one year for holiday letters).
Option 2: Decorate Your Own
Many times we already have those standard envelopes on hand for the dreaded bills, etc. but they can seem so boring and don't jump out at the recipient right away for that rush of joy and excitement at receiving a letter. So you can always decorate your envelope with stickers and doodles. I have found it really fun to browse Pinterest looking for mail envelope art, there is some really beautiful mail art out there. A couple of things to keep in mind though that the recipient's address must be on the front of the envelope and be clear (you might want to familiarize yourself with the postal service's regulations before decorating). I have yet to do this myself, I am too nervous about my art being out there for anyone to see.
For your viewing pleasure some awesome examples I found of mail envelope art
Option 3: Make Your Own
Now this has been on my to do list for a while, if you are anything like me you have loads of pattern paper hanging around and will never be able to use it all. So there are tons of tutorials out there on how to fold any paper into an envelope (even those pretty calendar pictures from years ago that you just can't part with).
Here are a few of the more simple tutorials I could find
So there you have it three simple solutions for when you don't have an envelope to match your beautiful new stationary!
Your Mission for the Week: One of your pen pals fall of the face of the earth? Send them another letter. Sometimes a letter is received and set aside with every intention of respond but well we all know life gets away from us (I am totally this person lately, even with text messages and phone calls). So maybe you wrote to some one and they are normally good about responding but you haven't heard anything yet. Maybe send them a new letter (no need to mention the lack of response) to re-establish a line of communication.
