Mail Roundup

So I've been really busy recently writing letters, and postcards with a few swaps thrown in. Now it's getting closer to summer and holiday season I'm slowing down and focusing on my pen pals mostly. I've done one last big batch of posting then I have some postcard swaps this month and a few travelling journals to complete. 

First the outgoing mail, just one big picture this time as I spent a week getting this mail ready to send in one go.

I had to go to the post office for stamps so some of the envelopes didn't have them when I took this picture. There are two flat envelope swaps and the rest are postcard swaps, some for the January to June RR and the rest for a Write Back My Postcard RR.

I received another fantastic letter from my pen pal in Germany, I was really pleased to find some chai tea to drink while I read the letter and a postcard of an anime I haven't seen, yet ;) I'll be replying soon!

I received my first letter for the International Geek Girls Pen Pal Club and I couldn't be more excited! It was a really fun letter to read and had a really unique (in a great way) questionnaire which you can see on top of the letter. I can't wait to reply to this letter but I am waiting until my first letter arrives - we sent at the same time roughly.

Finally another exciting letter this time from my pen pal in Hong Kong, as you can see she sent me a "Greetings From" card, these are designed and sold by Postallove and this is the first of my collection! I'll be replying to this letter soon too, I'm going to have a busy few days!

Secret Pen pal Scavenger Hunt 2015

After two months of travelling my parcel finally arrived at it's destination - South Africa! Now I can reveal the items I sent as part of the Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt.

The topics I chose were; something that represents you, the postal freak's kit, the bad day survival kit, something quirky and something to read.

For something that represents me I chose to send some postcards of places that mean something to me with a little something written about them on the back, 

and an ATC made by me.

The postal freak's kit was easy to do, I made an folder, the green rectangle in the back, on the inside I used map paper showing South Africa and the UK, I then filled it with the flat items and wrapped the bigger items individually.

For the bad day survival kit I made 2 mix CDs one with heavy metal music and one with more mellow tunes, I also added a teabag in a handmade folder (the green square) and of course some chocolate!

For something quirky I choose some Waldon Pancake postcards and a coaster.

Finally for something to read I sent The Pig of Happiness, as I love Edward Monkton and I wanted to share some happiness :D

Pen Pal Swap

I recently did a private swap with someone on swap-bot. We had to send each other memo sheets, stickers, tea and a letter. 

I wrote the letter on some Sailor Moon paper as she is a fan, I also enclosed some washi tape samples and a postcard from my English Heritage box set.

I received some delicious chai tea, some cute stickers - I love puffy stickers, and some really cute memo sheets - a character I haven't seen before.

It was a fun swap to do as we have similar tastes and interests, I hope to continue writing to her.

Incoming Postcards

Recently I have been taking part in a Round Robin on Postcrossing where you can find various themed groups, it's a good way to find certain cards for your collection and sometimes discover a new collection.

These two cards are Les Chats Enchantés came from someone who I hope to swap with further, this is a new collection that I discovered and these are my first two cards, I just love them!

A Studio Ghibli card - this one is from the film Spirited Away.

Another Studio Ghibli card - this one is from the film Howl's Moving Castle

These two cards are from one of my favourite animes - Bleach 

Do you like to collect postcards, do you have any themes you like to collect?

Outgoing Easter Mail

As it was around Easter time when I replied to some pen pal letters I decided to send some Easter themed replies, who doesn't like a bit of chocolate in their mail every now and again.

This envelope went to my pen pal in Germany, she mentioned previously liking the flavoured Mocha available, usually around Christmas, I happened to find some recently so added it to her letter, plus a chocolate bunny and some Rilakkuma memo sheets.

This letter went to my pen pal in Finland, some Easter themed stickers, that chocolate bunny again, a spring themed postcard and an Egyptian themed FDC as I know she is interested in Egypt and stamps. You can find her blog here

6 month RR (Part 4)

As promised the final part of my 6 month round robin cards. If it's something you think you might enjoy taking part in keep an eye out for sign-ups around May on the Postcrossing forums. I am hoping it will be running again from July to December and I'll be signing up again for sure!

A lone wolf in the snow

A beautiful white tiger. This card was an extra surprise card from one of my partners (she also sent the above wolf) in the round robin. 

Some beautiful butterflies

Another lovely Jetoy

Finally a gorgeous Inga Paltser owl, with a fitting Easter theme.

Outgoing Mail

I've been writing a lot of letters recently and will be sending a big batch out, I love the feeling of sending a bunch of mail out. I have yet to choose some stamps at the post office, I hope I can find some nice ones.

Going out are a few replies to some letters from a Pen Pal Round Robin, 

and a reply to a pen pal.

Here is a reply to someone who sent me a letter from Instagram for a challenge called 30 days of letters, a reply to my pen pal in the Netherlands and a letter to my International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club, more on that later!

All about tea!

I've been doing some tea swaps recently, I love tea and it's been great fun to try out some new teas and discover new brands. It's also fun to swap tea and other hot drinks with friends and pen pals. I am really enjoying Chai teas now, and drinking my nice tea at night when I write letters, I save the PG tips for the day time.

Here are some of the swaps I have recently done.

These teas went to Germany and the USA, I covered a bit of card in paper and wrapped the edges in washi tape so I could protect the teabags a bit and stop them bunching up in the envelope. I taped the tea to the backing with some matching washi tape.

These teas came from the USA in a lovely envelope, no photo this time as I opened the envelope away from home. I received a really nice mix of teas to try. So far I have tried the Salted Caramel tea and the Pumpkin Spice Chai - that was really yummy!

This envelope of tea came from Malaysia, a nice mix of tea and a lovely postcard as an extra. I haven't tried all these teas yet, the strawberry one was nice though.

Do you enjoy a good cup of tea, or do you prefer another drink?

Swaps and Mail Art

I recently took part in some tags on swap-bot and I was lucky enough to receive some really nice items. Some of the tags I took part in were to create something and some were just sending a little something to the person you were sending to.

Outgoing Mail

This is an ATC I made for a lady in the UK, she asked for one with a peacock feather theme. I used vellum as the background, embossed some gold card then topped it with the coloured stamped images and finished it off with seme iridescent gems. I was quite pleased with the outcome.

This was an envelope I decorated for a lady in Austria, I also included a letter and some washi samples. it was good fun making this envelope though I think I'd colour the owl differently if I did it again.

This is an envelope I created for someone in the USA, I filled it with some items I thought she might like, but forgot to take a picture of the contents as it was quite late at night when I finished it.

I continued the theme on the back of the envelope. I had great fun making this envelope :)

Incoming Mail

This was a package I received for the send me a gift tag, the envelope is a cute pink and blue zig zag and has some really nice animal stamps on it, inside were some cat stickers, a pen and a pad of mini memo sheets some of which might find their way into some people's letters ;)

This was a package of pen pal supplies for a tag from the lady I sent to in Austria, she sent me some amazing owl themed items as you can see, some writing paper, washi tape and a Frixion pen which I have wanted to try for ages :) She also recently replied to the letter I sent her so I will be sending her a reply soon.

Incoming Easter Mail and Swaps

I've received some lovely letters and swaps recently with lots of creativity and inspiration. It always makes me want to create some form of mail and the letters I receive are always full of great conversation which I want to continue with straight away. I try to wait a little bit though so there is some space between letters especially when the letter goes to a country where the mail travels quickly.

This fun package was from my pen pal in Finland, she sent me an Easter package with a cute postcard saying Happy Easter in Finnish and a chocolate teabag - which tasted quite interesting and nice. She filled a little metal tin with the goodies you see here which included some great snail mail supplies :)

This was a lovely letter from my pen pal in Germany, she made a little booklet letter which is so cool and a great origami tea bag holder - I drank the tea before I thought to take a picture! She also included a trading card of Tauriel from The Hobbit.

This was a letter from my pen pal in the Netherlands she sent me some blank notecards and a cute postcard plus my unfranked stamps which was nice of her as I collect stamps and I thought those were pretty cool stamps ;)

This was a swap from swap-bot, I received some great snail mail goodies including 3D stickers of cats - the pictures all change when you tilt the stickers. They are so cute I might have to keep a few for myself but I will use some of them in my letters. 

As you can see I have a few letters to reply to so expect an outgoing mail post soon!

Outgoing Mail

I haven't done an outgoing mail post in a while so I thought I post a bunch of mail I have sent recently.

A letter to my penpal in Russia and a new penpal in Germany, I've used some of the goodies from my Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt parcel.

Some more mail to penpals in the Netherlands and the UK, and a reply to someone from Sendsomething.

Here are some swaps for swap-bot and some postcards for the January to June RR for March's round.

A few more swaps for swap-bot including a mail art one "Hello Spring".

Finally a tag going out to someone on swap-bot.

Incoming Mail

Another quick mail roundup post of my recent mail. 

I was lucky enough to win a lottery for an envelope of snail mail supplies and these are the lovely items I received. Naturally I have used some of the items already and drunk most of the tea - I do love a nice cup of tea!

This was a swap I received from America for the swap "Notecard With A Small Enclosure". I do this swap regularly as it's a fun swap. This lady sent me some lovely items matching my interests - Japan, Bento, Anime, Owls and Scrapbooking.

Have you been sending and receiving much mail recently?

International Geek Girls Pen Pal Club

I recently discovered International Geek Girls Pen Pal Club  on Instagram and decided to sign up as it seems like fun. The new round of pen pal sign ups has opened for the month, you can sign up from the 15th until the end of the month. When you fill in the form you have to list your top 5 geek loves, this helps you to be paired up with someone similar. You can be quite specific and it's suggested you don't list just "books" but the types of books or Authors you like - the more specific you are the easier it is for you to be paired up. 

My top 5 geeks loves were; 1 Anime - Bleach, Naruto, Death Note and some Shoujo, 2 Supernatural, 3 Dr Who/Sherlock (I couldn't choose between the two), 4 Smash Books and 5 Postcrossing. It's quite hard to chose a top 5 as I have so many more than that! I'm not sure if I could have maybe grouped some stuff together to fit more "loves" in ;)  

So I should hear back around the beginning to middle of April, fingers crossed it all works out!

Incoming Postcards

I recently sent out a batch of officials and I have done some more swaps on Postcrossing and swap-bot so I have received quite a few postcards lately.

These three postcards come from an offer thread on the Postcrossing forums where one of the members is offering 3 blank postcards in return for posting one of his postcards back to him, written of course ;) I chose these, I'm undecided whether I will keep them or use them for the minute the ginger kitten in particular is very cute!

This is an official postcard sent from Poland, a beautiful sunset I think :)

I received a notecard from a lovely lady in America who found me on Sendsomething. She enclosed some recipes for me to try. She has a great blog skiyemail.com where she posts about InCoWriMo and her snail mail exploits. I have sent her a reply hopefully she gets it soon!

This is a postcard sent to me by my penpal in Russia, we like to enclose postcards for each other as we both enjoy Postcrossing.

This was also sent to me by my Russian penpal.

A swap from a talented Postcrosser in Indonesia, she made this postcard to match the Year of the Ram stamp and special postmark. Such a cool combination.

A postcard from a friend and fan club member - if you are interested in anime, manga and Japanese illustrators check out this forum here.

A pokemon card from another fan club member.

A postcard from a swap on swap-bot. I love these trees and would love to see one for myself one day.

Finally another official this from Spain - a lovely butterfly card

Wishing you a full and happy mailbox!