Translate

31 March 2015

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.

27 March 2015

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!






22 March 2015

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.

20 March 2015

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?

19 March 2015

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!

18 March 2015

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!

16 March 2015

Handmade card with a theme (February)

I am hosting a series of swaps on swap-bot where you make a handmade card representing a celebration or festival celebrated in your Country for each month. 


This is the card I chose to make and it represents Imbolc/Candlemas a festival representing the Sun returning, the longer and lighter days.


This beautiful card is from my partner and represents Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is widely celebrated in America even down to the children sending friendship cards.


15 March 2015

Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt 2015

It's the big reveal day today for the Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt. 
I heard about it on a blog called SnailMailLove and signed up for this year's round. Participants each get a partner to send to and have to chose 5 things to find or make from a list, plus a gift for your partner.

The Scavenger Hunt List

The City Explorer's Kit 
Something that represent you
A mix CD with your favorite tunes. 
The Postal Freak's Kit
The Bad Day Survival Kit
Something quirky
Something with - your partner's - monogram on it
Something oddly shaped
Something old fashioned
Something to read

Here are the items I received from my partner. She sent me some lovely items some of which I have already used in my outgoing snail mail.


From left to right
The Postal Freak's Kit - Some address labels, an airmail envelope, some postcards and washi tape. Something Quirky - A funky magnet. Something That Represents My Partner - A coffee themed postcard and notebook, something we have in common as I love coffee too!


Something Old Fashioned - She sent me drawstring bag with a pink and white hanky, I'm not sure if she made the bag but I am guessing so :)


City Explorer's Kit - Some stunning postcards and equally stunning bookmark plus some stickers. I'm  not too sure what they are but they look familiar please comment if you know what they are :)


A Gift For Me - A hand painted owl bookmark (gorgeous!), cute sticky notes and some printouts that she made for me.

My partner hasn't received yet, but her parcel has to travel quite far, I'm nervously waiting for an email to say she has received.  I'll post what I sent when she has received.

Have you done anything like this before, how did you find it?



14 March 2015

Penpals and mail art

I host a penpal round robin on Postcrossing and I have joined in a couple of the rounds recently. I've been lucky enough to find some new penpals. How do you find penpals to write to?



This is a lovely letter from my new penpal in Germany, she also happens to be a member of the anime fan club I am in so we have "met" before. Check out her blog here.


This is a lovely letter from my new penpal in Hong Kong, they have recently celebrated Chinese New Year. The envelope is a First Day Cover for Year of the Ram - so cool!

I also received another cool piece of mail from a member of swap-bot, I did a mail art swap where we had to make mail art using three out of five themes, the themes were; a superhero, a hippo, blue, children's illustration and stripes.


 I sent an envelope decorated with Big Ears from the Noddy stories, I also happened to have a Noddy stamp so I used that.


This is the awesome envelope I received and the goodies which were inside. The front is decorated with Flash Gordon comic strips written in German.


And the back has a cute superhero hippo ^_^