INCOMING MAIL: The cutest package in the history of snailmail

The past week I have been a bit under the weather, something I thought was 'just a cold' turned out to be a jaw sinus infection, I was not feeling well at all. I suck at being sick, I can't stand just lying around and not having the energy to do anything at all. So when this FAT envelope fell into my mailbox, I was soooo incredibly happy! It was such a joy to unpack everything, every page held a little surprise. 

This snailmail folder my dear Philippine penpal Joeylyn sent me has everything I love: pink, kraft, polkadots, lace, a button, it's just gorgeous isn't it? The envelope was also super pretty!

But the best was yet to come! Look at this beauty. Can't put into words how happy this made me. Look at all the work and love that went into it. This is exactly the reason I love snailmail so much: someone on the other side of the world puts love, effort and time into creating something beautiful for someone else, selflessly! Who needs social media when you can have a hobby like this? Sorry for being so melodramatic, must be the last flu symptoms speaking ;-)

Moving on! Let me show you the pretty surprises every page held. On the first page I found a, Captain Obvious alert, cute earphone holder. Oh and take a look at the neat stitching!

The second page held some Philippine recipes, because in my previous letter to Joeylyn I mentioned cooking to be a huge hobby of mine. These dishes all sound yum, will give them a try soon! I love receiving recipes from my penpals, and I send some of my own favorites around every now and then as well. It's an easy and fun personal touch to a letter I think.

On the third page I found a nice long letter, which kept me busy during my time on the sofa sipping tea and blubbering away kilos of tissues. Love the washi and all the cute decorations.

And then the last pages held some cute stationery and goodies, I especially like the wreath stickers! I already have a little project in mind I am going to use these for.

Bonus: a closer look at the cute charm bracelet Joeylyn made me! I loved the charms she chose, I guess the most fitting was the one on the left: "Made with love". 

Well, this whole post basically is a huge THANK YOU to Joeylyn, your package definitely made my day!

Love,

Anne

OUTGOING MAIL: Birthday booklet for Silvia

Something TERRIBLE happened to me last week. Somehow, I forgot my penpal Sylvia's birthday! To make up for it, I made her a happy birthday booklet in pink and teal. Let's have a look!

So, I took a piece A4 cardstock with a teal patterned outside and a blank inside. I folded the paper in half widthwise, there we have our booklet. I decorated the inside of the booklet with paper; on the left page I used light blue blank paper, on the right page I used patterned Flying Tiger paper. I made a pocket from plain white paper for the left page, to put some gifts in, and I stuck a transparent bag for my letter onto the right page.

For my letter, I used a page from a Flow notebook that came with the magazine once. It's naturel colored checked paper, the thin lines are pink. I used pink and teal washi from HEMA to make the writing sheet super happy, and I wrote my letter with a teal fineliner.

A close up look of the way I used the washi tape. And proof of my terrible mistake: writing my penpal a day after her birthday.

As mentioned, on the left page I made a little pocket for gifts. Some time ago, I received gorgeous polaroid-like cards, and those pictures are definitely birthday-worthy! I also made Silvia some personalized address labels on my typewriter.

I went a little overboard with the decorations. Like I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have a thing for bunting. So I made a bunting with Silvia's name and stuck it from one side of the booklet to the other with pink washi tape.

Just to sum up some other things I used for decorating the inside of the booklet: I made fringe out of paper I gave rainbow colors with watercolor paint, there's an overload of washi tape (but hey, what's new about that), some kraft paper flowers, watercolor heart-shaped stickers and a light pink label with an awesome birthday quote: "Keep calm and be crazy, laugh and live it up, because this is the oldest you've been and the youngest you'll ever be."

I kept the outside a little less over the top: just two watercolor heart-shaped stickers and a ribbon. Because, you know, ribbons are just awesome. I reinforced the fold of the booklet with pink polkadot fabric tape.

As I said, ribbons are awesomeballs.

Hope you liked this peek into the booklet I sent Sylvia!

Love,
Anne

OUTGOING MAIL: Squash card

Sometimes you come across a tutorial you want to do over and over and over again. The squash card tutorial below, by Craftinggeek is one of those (subtitles in English are available for this video).

Although I do not speak a word of Spanish at all, the moment I watched this video, I wanted to make this card myself. Again, and again, and again. And so I did.

Although I very much like the idea of a squash card with different segments to decorate, I wanted to write a long letter. I used three squares of green paper, 15cm each side. When you fold the paper, you are left with squares of about 7,5 cm each side. I used washi tape in different pink/green tones and patterns along the sides of the paper, but other than that I did not use any decorations so I had a lot of writing space left.

The folding is SO MUCH FUN! Seriously, when everything fits together, great feeling! Anyone can make this, I have two left hands and managed to get it right at the first try. Now try applauding yourself with two left hands.

Anyway, since I did not have any patterned/colored cardstock that I liked enough for this project, for the squash cards' covers I cut two 9x9cm squares from plain cardboard. When I glued them onto the 7,5x7,5cm letter, I had nice edges of about 1,5cm.

As you can see, I left the inside of the covers blank, just because I like the natural look of brown cardstock. I did decorate the outside though, with cherry-patterned paper. It has the same colors as the inside of the squash card; green and pink.

I finished this cute little project with a light pink label and some bakers twine. This also made me realise I probably need bakers twine in all possible colors. I love how this squash card turned out, and I will definitely make many, many more of these in the (near) future.

Love,

Anne

OUTGOING MAIL: I just love my typewriter

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently bought a typewriter. It cost me a whopping three euros, plus a new ink ribbon (which will probably last a lifetime). I decided to give my 'new' gadget a try in my letter to Mariska, and I can honestly say typewriters are addictive!

Still in love with all of the pretty patterned paper from Flying Tiger, I chose an orange sheet with cute pink hearts to type my letter on. The paper is also quite thin, which works great in a typewriter. I still have to figure some things out (especially the spacing), and I definitely need to get used to not having a backspace! Let's just say I am happy I bought correction fluid a couple of days ago.

Oh, I just love how letters written on a typewriter instantly have this retro charm about them. Finally getting the hang of it, I wanted to get a little more creative. I 'decorated' two kraft labels, which was quite a challenge. It's close to impossible to put tiny pieces of paper into a typewriter, so I used some washi to stick the labels to plain A4 paper. With a little patience (not my best quality) I managed to get this into the typewriter. I typed 'hello' repeatedly (how inspirational, right?) on one label, and the alphabet on the other. I quite like the result!

So far so good. For an extra retro feel, I selected a small postcard from the Flow Book for Paper Lovers. It physically hurts everytime I tear something out of this book. Seriously. Who else experiences this? I used the Postfabriek tutorial on how to make an envelope with a front pocket to make a pink envelope. I found out my spatial ability is not developed that well, it took my quite some time (and paper) to get it right. But I figured it out eventually, so I patted myself on the back for that afterwards. I put my letter and the decorated labels in the envelope, and the postcard in the front pocket.

Last but not least, I put the envelope in a transparent cellophane bag. The bag was a bit oversized, so I used another sheet of the pretty Flying Tiger paper as a background. Sealed the bag, put a stamp and an address label on it, and sent it off to Deventer!

Love,
Anne