Crazy Cat Lady Ephemera

Now in the ETSY shop- hand cut cat ephemera in various floral patterns and gold glitter. This ephemera set is perfect for the crazy cat lady in your life (probably yourself if you're anything like me haha.) A gorgeous embellishment to add to scrapbooking projects or snail mail packages.

I'm so smitten with these beautiful shapes. I obviously have to add them to all of my outgoing mail now! Shop- here.

xoxo,
Laura

How to Put Together a Gorgeous Letter

In case you missed my original post on Gossamer Blue, I'm sharing it here today, on my blog. (In honor of this weeks post about sending more pretty mail in 2015.)  Hello gorgeous people! I am super excited to show you guys how to put together gorgeous outgoing mail today. We all love receiving beautiful letters in the mail. When all you’re expecting is bills, mail like this is such a wonderful surprise!

My elements for the perfect outgoing snail mail package include:
-A personal letter/card
-Some fun elements and goodies for them to use
-Mail Tag
-A gorgeous envelope

 

Supplies: September 2014 Main Kit, September 2014 Life Pages Main Add On Kit

First, you’re going to start by taking a plain sheet of colored cardstock and use your paper trimmer to trim down your 12×12 sheet into something card-sized. I chose to trim down to 5×12 size. This allowed me to have two 5×12 cards for my letter from the same sheet of paper.

Next, create a trifold card by folding your card at the 4 inch and 8 inch marks. Now you’ve got a good base to start your letter. I chose to embellish the front of my card and the greeting inside using gorgeous stickers from the kit. You can make an envelope using a 12×12 patterned cardstock paper from the Main Kit. (If you don’t know how to make a homemade envelope, you can find plenty of video tutorials online!)

 

Playing “Mail Tag” is a great way to learn new things about your pen pals or to stay updated with your long-distance friends. Ask questions like what their favorite summer recipe is or what is one major project they hope to take on this season. These questions are great ways to stay involved in their lives. Sometimes, when you’ve been lifelong friends with somebody, you don’t know what to write about- it feels like you already know everything about each other!

I always like to include gorgeous extras for my pen pals like pretty paper or Life Pages cards. Most of my pen pals are also avid crafters or scrapbookers, so they enjoy receiving pretty scrapbooking goodies with their letters. I took some of the extras from my Life Pages Main Add On Kit and included those.

Keep your letter color-coordinated throughout to make sure it’s beautiful and simple, even though you’re sending quite a bit of happiness in one letter. This letter has a simple teal and pink color palette with a few gold and pine colored accent pieces. I love how the kits simplify this process; pull any number of items out from the kit and they will look fabulous together!

Beautiful Mail is the perfect way to cheer up somebodies day and let them know that they are often though of. What will you be making with your September Gossamer Blue kit?

xoxo,
Laura

Pretty Snail Mail

Oh 2015, it's a marvelous year to write even more gorgeous letters to the nicest penpals a girl could ask for.

Each month, I plan to share photographs of some of my outgoing letters. I hope you'll enjoy seeing these gorgeous bits and pieces from my desk. Will you be sending hand written letters this year?

xoxo,
Laura

Gorgeous Hand Written Letters

It's been less than a month since I shared news of my Lovely Mail Exchange and I could not be more thrilled with the overwhelming response! I've gotten so many emails and have started friendships with so many gorgeous ladies from all over the world since then. I just wanted to share a sneak peak at a few of the many letters than have been sent out or received since then.

Every day that I receive or send a gorgeous hand-written letter, I am introduced to more creativity and kindness than I had imagined when I put out the casting call for new snail mail friends.  It's even inspired me to create some beautiful stationary packages I will be adding to my ETSY shop soon! The best part? I get to make new friends from all over the world who I have tons of things in common with- and that's an adventure all in itself!

Happy Friday, Will you be writing a friend a letter this weekend? I will be!

xoxo, Laura

The Lovely Mail Exchange

Hello gorgeous people,

I hope you've all had a splendid New Year. I've been a little absent around these parts lately because I've been working on fulfilling those resolutions I made for the year! One of my resolutions was to make some of my existing friendships stronger and to make amazing new friends. My first step towards this was to start a lovely mail exchange and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

The Lovely Mail Exchange

The lovely mail exchange is all about sending small packages and letters to friends. Not just any letters or small packages, but ones filled with gorgeous stationary, handmade touches, and whatever fun goodies you can think of. The idea is that we create stronger connections with people instead of just saying "hi" in passing. In this technology savvy day and age, it's so easy to depend on social media to keep our friendships alive. We don't have to ask our friends how they've been or what they've been up to because it's all over facebook for us. Many times you can keep up with a friend's activities and daily life via social media without them even knowing.

Well, I say "no more!" While I love social media and how it's allowed us to reconnect with people and keep long distance friendships strong and going, I miss the true bonds created with old fashioned communication. Hanging out, writing letters back and forth, making memories and staying involved with one another. Plus, it's a great way to get to know amazing new people who have things in common with you. I mean, who wouldn't LOVE to receive a package like this? Filled with inspiring messages, questions about yourself and your life, learning a little bit about the sender, all while staring at a thoughtful, gorgeous letter.

 



I've already taken on quite a few pen pals for my new Lovely Mail Exchange, but if you're interested in taking part feel free to send me an email. You can save the image below and fill it out using the paint app, or you can simply send the info in an email. I am excepting a limited number of women to exchange with because it's all about the quality (not quantity) of the letters and friendships we're creating here. I can't wait to hear from you!

 

ps. since everyone has been asking on instagram where this gorgeous greeting card is from- you can find it at The First Snow on ETSY.

What do you think of The Lovely Mail Exchange? What are you doing in the New Year to make your friendships even better?

 

xoxo, Laura