Snail Mail // Pen Pal Booklet

I just wanted to post my first Pen Pal booklet that I made for my IG friend Sarah (@sarazorel) from Sarah vs The World! She made me this cute pen pal booklet first, then I was inspired to make her one back!

So I was thinking, what can I use for my pages that won't weigh down my letter (since you know, more weight = more postage! lol), and I remembered I had a lot of vellum left from a pack I bought a long time ago. I printed some designs on some vellum the previous night so I had this wonky heart vellum page available to use! I used some simple black Thickers to spell out her name on the cover.

I had some gold glitter cardstock in my stash so I cut a heart out of it and used some other skinny white alphas to write out "Hi". I love the cloudy transparency of vellum and how you can still see the wonky hearts printed on the cover.

The next spread I used a glue runner and stuck a project life folded journaling card on the left page. I never knew what to do with those cards in my project life, but they seem perfect for snail mail and booklets! I made some vellum envelopes the other night using my silhouette, so I stuck one on the left page to hold my letter.

Here, I used washi tape to stick a watercolored quote card I made awhile ago on the left side. Then on the right side I used a kraft envelope I had and stuck a large tag that fit nicely in it for my mail tag answers. Get it? Mail Tag? hehe..

In the middle of the booklet, I used another project life folded journaling card for the mail tag questions I'll be asking her, as well as my own answers to those questions. Sarah answered her own mail tag questions in her letter to me, and I thought that was a good idea.

This spread contained a shaker card I made for her project life. I am planning on doing a shaker card tutorial soon, so keep an eye out for that out ;). I also used some skinny washi on one page to write her a note. What's nice about writing on washi tape is that if you mess up, you can just take the washi tape off and start over! I had some ink smears on this page for some reason so I tried to cover it up with some gold sequins, lol.

On the next page I cut up a project life page protector and used a glue runner to stick it to the page, then I used it as a clear pocket to hold the project life cards I'm giving Sarah. The next page is another vellum envelope I made, smaller than the first one, to hold any little goodies I would gift her. I had an unfortunate ink pad accident on this page which resulted me in trying to cover it up with the black and white washi tape, lol.

The last page has a small note for Sarah, using another project life card. I used washi tape to stick it onto the page in case she wants to use the other side for her project life. There was some more ink smears (darn!) but it's ok, lesson learned: if you print on vellum, give it ample time to dry before handling!

In case you were wondering, I used my sewing machine to bind this booklet together since it was too large for my tiny attacher. I had fun putting this together and I will probably experiment more with booklets!

A small little detail I loved from this booklet are the "tabs" I made. I will post a tutorial up about this soon! :)

DIY heart tabs!

If you liked the paper design I used for the cover, I made it available for download here! If you end up using it, please tag #ughiloveitblog so I can see it in action! :)

Friday Favorites

As someone who has always been a lover of paper and stationary, yet is fairly new to snail mail-ing, here are my most recent loves that I would totally buy if I didn't give up shopping for lent. lol

1 // I love this little mail pad, so perfect for those quick letters. (via Urban Outfitters)

2 // Kraft paper envelopes are so cute when paired with white ink or stamps! (via Etsy)

3 // How adorable is this library themed notecard set?! Also comes in its own cute little drawer themed box. (via Modcloth)

4 // Totally new to snail mail-ing and have nothing to get started? This Stationary case includes all the essentials (and a cute whale too!). (via Kikk K)

Happy Friday my lovely readers! We have a play date in the park later this afternoon, so now we're going to have sushi for lunch (yummm!) and take a nap before the park. Did I mention, I love the weekends? Have a good one and hopefully you get the chance to soak up some sun!

Snail Mail // Deconstructed

I’ve recently entered into the world of snail mail and I never realized there was such a large community of modern letter writers out there! I became interested in doing some kind of exchange with someone and I eventually found someone I could write to. I guess the words snail mail, pen pals, swaps, and RAKs are interchangeable, but the basic idea is to get to know someone through writing letters and perhaps exchange some goodies if you feel like it. I felt like this would be an interesting experience, and a great way to share some crafty love and things I might have too much of.

I got my first letter for @paperpanduh together and it didn’t take as long as I expected! Here is a breakdown of what I sent for my very first pen pal.

1 | The Letter // Probably the main/most important piece. I took a plain card I had extras of and jazzed it up with whatever paper, embellishments I had on hand. I also decorated the envelope (shown below) with stamps and washi tape. Just have fun with it! 

2 | Mail Tag // As an efforts to get to know your pen pal know, most people include a mail tag. A Mail Tag is usually a list of questions you want your pen pal to answer in their next letter to you. This time I used another 3x4 PL card (so useful!) and attached a tag onto it and used some alpha stickers I had.

3 | 5 Things // Since I was the first one to write, I decided to include 5 things she should know about me. I just took a 3x4 Project Life card from the Midnight core kit and jazzed it up with some Thickers on one side, and wrote those 5 things about me on the other side.

4 | Crafty Goodies // This is definitely optional, but I enjoy sharing things I have extra of or might not use or things you feel that your pen pal would enjoy. In this letter I included some samples of washi tape I have on an extra Popsicle stick I had from rub-on's, shared some PL cards, some Martha Stewart home office stickers (because I knew my pen pal had a planner), and some other extra goodies.

5 | Treats // How much more could I fit in here? I knew my pen pal liked tea so I included some tea I had for her to try. I've seen others swap candy they've never tried, which I think is a neat idea. 

In the end, to send all of this out, it took about 5 stamps from California to Seattle. I dropped it off at a blue postal box first thing Wednesday morning and she got it on Saturday. It was fun to put together and I look forward to exploring this world of pen pals, RAKs, and swaps some more!

If you're interested in finding a pen pal/person to swap with, here are couple of ways to find one!

- Swap Bot

- If you have an instagram, you can look up hashtags such as #penpals #penpalswanted #penpalsneeded #snailmail and such, and usually you can find people looking for pen pals or even post something yourself!

Do you snail mail? If so, what do you like to do with your mail?

Big Hug,

Jeziell