Woodland folder snailmail

I've been looking at different penpal letter styles on Pinterest and got inspired by some 'folder' syle letters so I decided to try and make my own. I made it from a reusable sticker booklet. Since it had a forest theme I decided to make something with a woodland theme.

I made the outside of the folder by simply covering it in pretty dotted paper, adding some masking tape to the fold/crease and going through my cut-out images for some woodland themed images. I also added a cup of coffee ;-)... I used my letter stamps to stamp the words "Snailmail for u" on a sticky note and added it to the front page. To make a pretty way of closing the folder I punched a hole through the pages and closed it with a gold bow (not shown on the images).

The inside of the letter folder included a letter in an envelope of the left page. On the right page I enclosed some goodies: a mini notepad shaped as a leaf. A bunch of green polka dotted masking tape. There are 10-15 stripes on top of each other so plenty to play with. I also added a see through bag of purple items (my penpal loves purple). And lastly I added a green envelope with questions for my pal.

I am really happy with this letter folder and will definitly be making more in the future! 

What do you think?

WritePretty GOTM: June 2015

This giveaway is closed. View the winners here.

Yay, so now it's time for something new here at writepretty. Since I know how all of you love pretty
papers and making, sending and recieving cute mail I wanted to make a monthly giveaway that you can participate in.
Every month I will put up a post with the GOTM (Giveaway of the Month) and you have one month to participate. The rules may differ from month to month but so will the prizes so be sure to check by the blog at least once a month to participate in the GOTM. And without further ado:

The WritePretty GOTM June 2015

In this month I have two prices that you can win:

1st place winner: The great outdoors

 

The prize includes:
3 stamps - a bird, a firefly and a flower, a bunch of sticky strawberries, a cute little notebook just like the one I use for organizing my sent/recieved letters, two sticky notepads shaped like pretty leaves, a painted notecard inspired by the Danish scenary and a bunch of printed out mini quotes about being outdoors.

Doesn't it just look awesome? :-)

2nd place winner: Awesome stamps to help you stay organized

I am crazy about these stamps myself and I use them in my planner and for organizing my letters. The posibilities are endless. The design is really practical and ensures that the stamps won't dry out when not in use. The prize includes: A blue set of stamps: Original, Copy, Draft and a pink set of stamps: Approved, Urgent, Paid. The scissors and stickynotes are just on the picture for show ;-)

Rules June 2015: Please read :-)
To participate you must write a comment below with your email address so I can get a hold of you.
You don't have to share, pin or anything like that - feel free to do so if you want but it is not necessary. So easy right? ;-)
When participating you are both up for winning the 1st or 2nd place. - One person can't win both :-)
You can participate from anywhere in the world as long as you comment before Friday 26th of June. I will use random.org to find winners.
The winners will be announced on the blog and will also be contacted directly by email so I can get your adress.
Good luck and have fun!

Do you want to sponsor one of  my monthly giveaways? Drop me a line at email@marieholm.dk

Happy mail recieved in May

The month has almost passed and it's time to show you a few of the letters I've recieved this month.

Love that I not only send out a bunch of fish this month but also recieved fish stickers :-p

Sensing a theme? So fun.

Cute yellow monster notecard from a new pal in Australia :-)

Great butterfly themed letter from a pal in the US. I love the letter in the top of the picture with questions - such a cool detail :-)

This colorful kawaii letter was from a new pal. I love all the happy colors and look forward to sending her a reply.

For some reason this image insists on turning the wrong direction.The camera doesn't really give justice to the pretty, pale purple paper. (4 P's in a row that will be hard pronouncing :-p).  I love the gardening / spring themed stickers she added to the paper and also enclosed for me to use. I put one of the stickers in my planner almost immediatly :-p

Did you recieve some great letters this month?

Stuff I Love #2

I love social media but I also love this patch - 'cause sometimes you just have to remind people not to live their life via websites.

(via thesearethings)

I love Moo and I really like these "Human Landscapes" postcards.

(via moo)

I always have heaps of wrapping paper laying around - I buy way more paper than presents ;-) 

I would love to have this in my pile:

(via giftcouture)

I love superheroes and as you know I really love anything mailrelated so this T-shirt featuring Supermans part time job is awesome.

(via flyingmouse365)

This stamp set is perfect for all happy mailers out there:

(via Andrea Gomoll)

As you might now I am a bit of a garden geek. Obviously I would fall in love with this awesome poster

 (via Hannah Rosengren Illustration)

Happy mail sent out in May

May was a great mailmonth. I sent out some awesome letters.

Did you see the Swimming blue fish package I made? See more pictures by following the link :-)

Here are a selection of some of the other letters I sent out:

Michelle and Stephanie are both new pals. I found some great shining gold envelopes in my stash and dressed both of them up with some magazine cutouts.

This blue sky themed letter is on its way to my new penpal in Australia.

My 6 basic handwriting styles for snailmail

A big part of penpalling via snailmail is to have a great handwriting that is easy to read to the reciever. Most people who write often have a pretty decent handwriting -practice makes perfect.

When I was a kid I used to hate my writing but I have developed a few basic handwriting styles I tend to lean on. - They are pretty readible and easy. My biggest problem is, that when I get excited about writing something to a penpal I tend to get more and more sloppy throughout the letter so I'll have to work on that. - It's always a problem that the brain seems to work faster than the pen ;-)

1. My basic handwriting
This is the handwriting I usually use when I'm not really thinking. I like the spacing between the words and the easy to read letters - but it's a bit boring.

2. Capital letters
The capital letter handwriting is actually my favorite basic handwriting. As you can see in example 6 I like playing around with it - developing it. One of the other things I like to do with this writing is writing extremely small since it's still pretty easy to read.

3. Double First
This is a bit more elaborate and I usually use it in headlines, hello's etc. - It takes a bit longer to write it because you have to go over the first line of every letter twice. It looks great when colored in, in a contrasting color though.

 4. One leading to the next
When I get excited I sometimes can't wait for the pen to leave the paper before I begin the next letter. This results in a handwriting style like this. This was actually the way I was taught to write at school and therefore I find that it looks really childish - but it's easy and super fast to write like this ;-)

5. Lazy and flat
This is a handwriting style I like to use on bigger sheets of paper and when I don't really have that much to talk to my pals about but just want to send them a little greeting. If you compare number 1 to this it is basicly the same thing but this handwriting style has bigger spaces between the letters and often the letters are also 'flatter' or 'stretched' a bit. For an example of the stretched letters take a look at the "mps" in "jumps".

6. Playful capitals
The last basic handwriting style is a developement of #2. Here I play around with the last part I draw on some of the letters letting it swoop up/down or to the sides. Look at the "s" in "Jumps" or the "WN" in "brown". This is really fun and looks different every time I write it.

That's all for now. I hope these handwriting styles have inspired you. I am not a master writer but I have fun with my handwriting and I love playing around with it. I hope you will always be practicing your handwriting to make beautiful letters for your penpals!

Stuff I Love #1

I bought this planner a couple of weeks ago for myself and I absolutely love the bird cover.

(via Paperchase)

I love both the color and the artistery on this awesome poisonous plant print. 

(via Lisa Grue Big Cartel)

Who doesn't love the amazing artwork of Disney in their golden age?
To me it's childhood memories at its best :-)

(via modcloth)

These amazingly cute kawaii bunny face stickers
- I will probably have to buy some of these just after posting this ;-)

(via MyPaperShoppe)

This awesome notebook mentioning unicorns, confetti & Pinatas on the cover!

(via A Beautiful Mess)

5 tips on being a well organized penpal

When having a bunch of penpals I find it important to stay organized. Here are my top five tips to being organized in your "friend/penships".

1. Sent/recieved notebook
I keep a really simple log of in- and outgoing mail in a small notebook. The notebook fits in my planner so I carry it with me always. In the top corner I stamp/write whether we are talking sent or recieved and which month. Then I write the names of the sender/reciever as I get/send the letters. I also write little comments such as what was else included other than a letter - and as you can see on the picture - on the sent lsit I mark the price for the letter: In that way I can tally up every month and see how much money I've spent on postage.

2. Remember birthdays / other important dates

What is better than recieving a greeting from your penpal on your special day? Write down birthdays, children's birthdays, anniversaries etc. in your calendar and send your pal a little note to celebrate the day with them!

3. Who shall I write next?

I try following the 'FIFO' format - First In First Out. That means that I try to reply to letters in the order I recieve them. To make sure I don't have a huge pile building up I always keep unreplied mail in the back of my planner. That also means I have them with me everywhere and can write a reply if I get a little extra time.

4. What have we written about before?

Sometimes I need inspiration or need to check up on a certain detail that I know I've read in a previous letter. Therefore I keep my letters in a folder where every 'pocket' contains letters from one of my penpals. This makes it easy to find the previous letters from that particular person.

5. Indulge in the memories

After having had penpals since I was a young child (around 6 years old) I have recieved hundreds of letters. Obviously there isn't room for them in a folder. I store them in boxes with years written on the label. It is awesome diving into the old letters - rediscovering old pals - reading about what was important in my life when I was younger and just getting inspired by viewing all the papers, fonts, envelopes and so on.

How do you keep organized when penpalling?

Farm Fun

I did a bit of shopping today. Bought some new writing/drawing supplies from Stadtler, some stamps, and a few cards. I also found something kindda cool in the children's part of the store that I'm excited about and wanted to share with you:

I found this big 'booklet' type of thing that is actually a book with farm themed scenarie and a bunch of stickers. The idea is to add the stickers to the pages and then make your own 'farm story'.
Ofcourse I was inspired to use this for mailart. The pages are awesome for writing on or making envelopes out of and the stickers are awesome quality.

Some of the horsethemed stickers in the book.

An example of a page in the book. Don't you think it would look great to write a letter on this page? I think so! I am bubbling over with inspiration and can't want to bring this new farmthemed booklet into use :-)