Pen to Paper: Incoming Mail & Month of Letters Wrap Up

 

So I know February I not quite over yet but I figured since this was the last Thursday of the month and there are only 3 more mailing days after today, it wouldn't hurt to have my Month of Letters Wrap Up today.  

 

As I have said throughout the month that February is set aside for a Month of Letters Challenge (April is also a Letter Month I guess).  The challenge for the month is to mail something out each business/mail day throughout the month and to respond to every letter/card you receive.  So I utterly fail at sending something each day, with the way my schedule is, I write and send mail in spurts, some days I will be sending out 5 or 6 pieces of mail but then not send anything for another several days.  But honestly I don't feel like it really matters, it is more the challenge for me to send out 24 letters/cards/snail mail in a single month.

 

So I posted last week with my own personal challenges this month, and here they are again. I have starred (*) the ones that I have completed 

1.  Postcard *

2. Handmade Mail * (colored postcard & Pocket Letter)

3. Letter to an Extended Family Member*

4. Letter to an Immediate Family Member*

5. Birthday Card *

6. Valentine Card*

7. International Mail*

8. Fan Mail Letter*

9. Long Letter (5 or more pages)*

10. Short Letter (1 page or less)*

11. Send from a Different Mail Dropbox*

12. Letter to a New Pen Pal

13. Thank You*

14. Package*

15. A Thinking of You Card

16. New Baby Card*

17. Renew Contact with a Long Lost Friend

18. Reply to Letter*

19. Use a Not Current Forever Stamp*

20. Make Own Envelope*

 

So my long letter was dropped in the mail this morning, and I have a new pen pal letter going out tomorrow, a thinking of you card for Saturday and Monday will see a letter going out to someone I haven't had contact with in several years.   With those going out I will have met all of my challenges! I think the hardest one to send out was the letter to immediate family, it is hard to think of something to write when you talk to someone multiple times a day, and honestly I never heard what this person thought of it either. The other hard one to send was the Fan Mail, I get so nervous and giddy about authors so it was insanely stressful, I worried about the spelling, the grammar, making it unique enough to stand out in what I am sure are tons of fan letters, and most stressful off all was the fact that I may never hear what that author thought of the letter!

 

I had meant to be able to post the cost of the entire month but forgot to keep track exactly in my rushes in and out of the post office and quickly throwing a stamp on an envelope or postcard to beat the postman, so I will have to save that for next time.  I also wasn't the greatest about keeping track of everything sent but here is a rough idea of what I mailed out (with a few pictures).

8 postcards

4 birthday cards

3 valentine cards

2 pocket letters

2 response letters

1 new baby card with package

2 notecards

4 letters

Fan Mail to Kristin Cashore (author of Graceling, Fire & Bitterblue) and I used a new drop box

A hand colored postcard

Handmade envelope

Post card for PostCrossing

 

 

So far that is 26 wonderful things to brighten someone's day sent out and the month isn't even over yet! It really wasn't all that difficult to squeeze in either, some of the longer letters took some time to write and I could only do one on those days but the cards are so simple and quick but thoughtful.

 

It was very nice to be able to send things to friends and family to make their trips to the mailbox a little more exciting.  As for my mailbox, it was a little sad this month with only 2 things, a letter from a pen pal in the UK and a pocket letter from Canada.  But that is okay, it seems my mailbox will get busy every other month.

 

 

Check out that awesome postmark from the UK that seems like it was special for Valentine's Day! And the beautifully decorated envelope for the pocket letter.

 

 

Did you send out mail or receive some wonderful mail this month? Please share if you like!

Pen to Paper: Outgoing Mail

 

 

Hello my friends! As you may know I have been participating in the Month of Letters Challenge for the 3rd time.  The goal is to send out at least one item of mail each business day and respond to all incoming mail.  Well I am not so great at mailing something every day but I have been getting the equivalent out, plus some.  Now unfortunately I haven't managed to take a picture of each of my mailings but I have sent out 17 pieces of happy mail so far, including Birthday Cards, Valentine Cards, Pocket Letters, Post Crossing Postcards, New Pen Pal Letters and Responses.

 

 

Here is a little bit of what I have sent out so far (you may have already seen a couple of these since I posted about PostCrossing last week).

 

I have a few more things to mail tomorrow morning, but it has been so fun sending out these little bits of mail to make others happy.

 

Soon I will share with you with you what was sent to brighten my day this month too!  Have you sent anything out lately?

Crafty Times: ATCs

Crafty Times is a new thing I am trying on the blog where I can share some of the art and crafts I have created (you can too of course). I really dabble in a wide variety of crafts and hope you can find something that sparks your interest or inspires you!

 

 

It has been a few months since I last posted a Crafty Times for just me. I guess it is true no matter how hard you try, after becoming a mother that is all you do. Almost everything I do anymore revolves around Munchkin (not that it is a bad thing, but I am one of those people who need some me time).  I have still been making quite a few Pocket Letters and some ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) over the past few months.  I thought I would share some of those with all of you.

 

 

These are a set I made for an ATC swap, I have a recent obsession with birds for some reason.

 

 I made this one for one of my new pen pals, I can't get over how cute this little fox is.

 

 

 These are from a Black Cat Pocket Letter Swap I recently sent out.

 

 

 I absolutely adore this one (and wish I had done something more with the background). I used water colors and cut out each individual leaf to get the fun pile for the mouse to jump into.

 On of my favorite pocket letters I made so far was a Dr. Seuss one, and here are a couple of my favorite ATCs from this one.

 

 

I also made a cute Winnie the Pooh Pocket Letter (almost exclusively to have a reason to use this insanely cute stamp)

 

 

I also wanted to see what I could do with something larger than 2.5"x 3.5" and made a full size paper scene using distress inks blended and then some other stamping. I was really happy with how it came out but had already agree to make it into a pocket letter (it was almost sad to have to cut it into pieces).



 

 

 

 

So there are just a few of my crafty projects I have been working on lately. I have some plans for homemade ornaments, and customized notebooks over the next couple of months. Have you been making anything crafty recently? I would love to see what you have created!

Pen to Paper: Pen Pal Websites

 

Hello again everyone! Did you send out a letter of encouragement last week? I sent out a couple actually. One I sent out was to my Brother-in-law who just graduated from college, while normally everyone sends out congratulations cards, I wanted to send him a note of encouragement as he sets out on this new phase of his life. It can be intimidating to suddenly go from student all your life to now being responsible for a job and adult responsibilities.

 

 

 

Again I want to continue our discussion of the past couple of weeks about how to find people to write and become pen pals with. We have talked about writing to people you already know and have talked about finding pen pal want ads, and today I am going to tell you all about a wonderful thing I recently discovered, Pen Pal Websites.

 

 

If you have already exhausted that address book and haven't been able to find any pen pal wanted ads that suit you, these websites are sure to fulfill all your pen pal needs. Each site has their own downfalls and benefits so if you want to join one be sure to find the one (or more) that suit you best. The few sites I am going to give you are ones that I have either tried or am considering trying, there are many more out there that I am sure you can find as well.

 

Pocket Letter Pal Network

Of course you have all heard me discussing Pocket Letters. This is a fun way to get creative with a new pen pal. This website allows you to sign up for free and participate in organized swaps or find a new pal on your own and have a private swap. There are a couple things to keep in mind, they don't verify anyone on there and some people bail on their swaps (this has happened to me twice in the past few months), also these pocket letters are like little gifts they take both time to create and a little money for the supplies and goodies you put into them (not to mention the slightly higher cost of shipping). I have however found a wonderful new pen pal through this site (even though we have not exchanged Pocket Letters, we have exchanged handwritten letters).

 

 

Letter Writers Alliance

This is a site I have been looking at but have yet to join. The membership is only $5 and lasts forever. It looks like they have lots of information and ideas for continuing your pen pal letters and they also offer free downloadable stationary. You do however have to purchase the membership kit and wait for it to arrive in the mail before gaining access to all the wonderful benefits of the full site.

 

 

International Pen Friends

This is a great website if you don't want to have to start out connecting online with a friend and also finding friends internationally. You have to fill out a form with interests and where you would like your pen pal to be from, it also costs $35.00. It then takes quite some time to get a list of 14 names and addresses. The nice part is that they take the time to pair you up with other people in your age group and general interests. Your name and address will also go out to several other people.  I have gotten my list and sent a couple letters out so far but haven't received one back yet, but my name has popped up on another person's list and we have already exchanged letters several times. It is nice that generally if you are willing to fill out the form and pay the funds, the people are more likely to be serious about becoming a pen pal.

 

 

League of Extraordinary Pen Pals

This is another site I have been looking at joining. This one is a little pricey, a one year membership is $36, but they do offer shorter membership (all the way down to one month) so you have the option to join, quickly find a new pen pal and then not renew your membership. The reason I have been eyeing this site is again if you are willing to pay that price, chances are you are taking this hobby seriously and are more likely to continue your pen pal commitments (because lets face it when you agree to become pen pals, you are making a commitment to that person to exchange letters and be that distant friend). I also like the site because it seems fun and would attract people similar to my own personality.

 

 

There are many, many more sites out there that you can become a member of to find a dedicated pen pal (I know one that gets mentioned a lot is Postcrossing - the reason I haven't included this in my list is because it is a post card exchange, more focused on getting postcards from different locations and not so much on the content written on those postcards). I hope that if you really want to find a pen pal and have yet to find the right one through the previous means I mentioned that you can find a site like one of these listed that works for you and can connect you with a special pen pal.

 

 

Your Mission for the Week: Write to someone you haven't written to before and have found through one of these methods (either someone you already know, have found through and ad or through one of the online pen pal sites). The hope is to either find a new connection with someone you already know or to find a connection with someone new. Hopefully you can both become bonded pen pals, because there is really a special bond between you , whether you ever meet in person or not.

 

 



Pen to Paper: Pocket Letters

 

 

 

Did you manage to send out 2 letters last week? I find myself writing to my cousin over and over again, even though she is out to sea on a boat and is only able to come back to land (and check her mail) once every 2 months. She will have a lot of mail to get through next time!

 

 

 

Today I want to talk about my newest obsession, Pocket Letters.  I am sure you have seen me talk about them a couple of times and seen a couple of sneak peeks.  If you haven't heard about this latest trend in snail mail, it was the creation of Janette Lane.  Basically you get to combine art, little goodies and pen pals all into a trading card protector sheet.

 

I have become completely obsessed with these and have participated in several swaps on the Pocket Letter Pals Network.  Now I mentioned art, but I want to be clear you don't need to be an artist by any means, just create something you would like to see, it can be little paintings, stickers, pattern paper, scrapbooking supplies, whatever you like.  You also include little goodies like tea bags, tiny sticky notes, page flags, ribbon, twine, washi tape samples, etc. whatever you can fit into those little pockets. Just make sure you include a letter in one of those pockets!

 

 

Here are a few I have recently created.

 

Dr. Seuss Themed - this was one of my favorites to make

A dog themed pocket letter for a swap

A purple themed pocket letter for a favorite colors swap

A Washi Tape swap pocket letter (each pocket has some washi tape samples)

Another one of my favorites, a Winnie the Pooh themed pocket letter.

 

 

I have so much fun making these, depending on how artistic I want to get with each pocket I can make sometimes 2 or 3 of these in a single night. It has been fun creating these and getting to know people (and potential continuing pen pals) from around the world.

 

 

 

I hope some of you will give this a try (and if you want to exchange pocket letters with me just let me know, I am more than happy).

 

 

 

Your Mission for the Week: Write a letter to someone you haven't written to recently. I can attest to the fact that just like other things (like reading) we get stuck in a rut and continue to write the same people over and over again.  You never know when you might just write to a person who will become the perfect pen pal. So lets all write to someone we haven't written to in the last couple of months.



Crafty Times: ATCs and Pocket Letters

Crafty Times is a new thing I am trying on the blog where I can share some of the art and crafts I have created (you can too of course). I really dabble in a wide variety of crafts and hope you can find something that sparks your interest or inspires you!

 

 

So I discovered a wonderful little thing called Pocket Letters while researching posts for Pen to Paper. I of course was completely sucked in as it combines art (specifically ATCs) with pen pals. I will have a full post about Pocket Letters in an upcoming Pen to Paper post but I just couldn't wait to share some of the art I have been making for them!

 

 

Here are a couple of individual ATCs/ Pocket Letter inserts for one I am currently working on.

 

 

 

And these are a couple of pocket letters I have completed (or nearly).  Behind each card/pocket is a little goodie or a letter for your pen pal/ swap partner.

 

This was the first one I completed, I am pretty happy with it after being out of crafting for so long.

 

 And this was the second one I made, my swap partner really likes vintage style things so I tried to focus on that even though it isn't entirely my style.

 

 

 

So what do you think? Looks cute and fun doesn't it? Would you want to receive one of these in the mail or send one out yourself?