Incoming Mail → Mariah

Hey! It's been a while, I've been very busy lately. I sent my sister a letter a little while ago and got her response today! It was very cute! It was also her first time making mail art and she definitely put her personality in to it! I also got 2 postcards from Postcrossing! It was a good mail day. I'll be making a response to my sister in a few days. I also went to London recently and visited Artbox in Covent Garden, so I will post what I got there! Hope everyone has a good Thursday.

Rainy Day's & Monday's

Hello! A few days ago I decorated an envelope for my sister, Mariah. It's just a letter, but she's been going through some rough times and letters always bring smiles. So hopefully she likes it. I also received a letter from my friend Ali! I'm sending her back a few little things, I spent the most effort on a little book I made for her. She's always complaining she's bored and since it's summer I can only imagine she's saying it every other sentence. It's filled with silly questions and prompts for drawing, as well as crooked pages :)

Words, rhymes and phrases

We share so much of ourselves on the internet. What we're doing, where we are, what we're eating or wearing. How we're being attacked by a bee or what film we're interested in seeing.

Letter writing is precious in the fact that we must pay for or words, so we make them more valuable. We send a letter carefully thought out in pretty articulate writing and buy a stamp and send it. These words are physical things on paper, they're living thoughts or ideas. They last as long as you want them, if you keep them they could have a long life in a shoe box, being read every now and again on a rainy day. Or they can have a short life span, and all you have to do it set flame to the paper and they're gone. That's it. They're not backed up on some super computer to come back and haunt you later, they're completely and utterly gone.

It just amazes me how no one writes letter or sends trinkets any more. It's just bills and Amazon boxes. I hope more people begin writing letters, even if it's only the odd year or two. Send a piece of yourself out into the world. Go on.

Artbox

I've had my eye on Artbox for a while now. I am a patient person except when it comes to packages. They're very affordable for them most part, and I just couldn't help myself. They have 2 official shops in London (Selfridges and Covent Garden). The company started in South Korea but have since expanded all over the world. They have very cute supplies, and like I said they're quite affordable(Letter sets shown here were £2.00 and £1.60). I was also sent a free I heart Artbox pin badge as well as an Artbox postcard! Shipping was also quite cheap at just £1.75 second class shipping (arrived in 3 days). They also ship internationally too, and they're international rates aren't outrageous.

I'm off to London next month so I will for sure stop in at the Covent Garden location. I also adore the packaging! The little stamps with the Yen price are just so sweet.

Removing Stamps From Envelopes

I don't know about you, but when it comes to instructions I am a very visual person. Following recipes from blogs that have a step by step guide is wonderful, even though most of the time I'm panicked at the thought that their photo looks nothing like what I'm cooking. Anyways, I removed some stamps from envelopes yesterday and made a play by play.


1. Cut the stamps from the envelope and leave a fair bit amount of 'edge' of envelope around the stamp.

2. Grab a small shallow dish (I used a small container you normally find at deli's), fill it so there's just enough water for the stamp to float on without grazing the bottom, you also don't want it to be totally drenched. Use cool water, not hot or warm! Think of laundry, colours get a cold wash and whites get a hot wash. You don't want any ink to run.

3. My stamp upon touching the water started to curl, I panicked but it's okay. Just remove it with tweezers and just lightly flatten it out as best you can then place it back in the dish. Different envelopes and stamps will have different soak times so don't rush.

4. After about 10 minutes my stamp was ready and I removed it with tweezers, I peeled off the envelope with tweezers, it should almost slide off like a knife through butter. You might have to hold the stamp down as you peel away the envelope, but if you find that you're having to pull or it's not sliding off easily then stop and let it soak some more.

5 & 6. Let them dry completely before doing anything with them, if they curve a bit put them in a book to flatten them out. Now you can use them to decorate mail art or put in a stamp album.

Hope this helps in your snail mail needs!

Magazines and Letter Sets, oh my!

When I have scissors in my hand, nothing is safe. If it's paper and just floating around I will hack it up. I tend to only read things once, and that's that. So books and magazines tend to add up and sit around my house. The books for the most part, are safe. But magazines are not so lucky. I cut up my magazines and put the images I like in a scrap box to use when I'm making letters or envelopes. It's fun to do while you zone out while watching tv. Plus so many places give out free magazines so they're super easy to obtain.
I went to Paperchase to finally buy a letter set I've had my eye on. It was only £5, and has an adorable pattern of a little girl and her kitty eating cookies. It came with quite a bit of stuff and it's adorable. I also picked up 2 postcards for future Post Crossing! A little knight and an elephant. The colours are very viberant, and who knows, maybe I'll send the right lady her knight in shining armour.
I also checked out some Charity Shops, most places sell cards of their own that are quite cheap. They also tend to have cards that are donated so I looked through those as well. They had quite a few weird ones, but I decided just to snap up a vintage woman listening to music in some dinosaur age headphones.
Now I'm off to go drown party in the rain for my street's Jubilee party.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

If a genie or a mad man came up to me right now and told me he was sending me into a deserted island and I could name one person to drag along with me, I would instantly reply with "Ali Larocque". She'd probably be mad at me once we got there, but she'd get over it! We'd spend our days drinking out of coconuts and making crude hammocks to laze about in. Bottom line is, I could be stuck with this girl for days or years on end and not run out of things to talk about or have the urge to kill her off.

That's the definition of friendship, right?

Anyways, Ali has just moved out for the first time with her boyfriend, Chad. She came up with the idea of being penpals, and of course being myself, I scoured the internet for creative ways to send her letters. Since I'm into scrapbooking I already have quite a bit of stationary on hand so it was quite easy to come up with. I stumbled upon mail art and artistic envelopes and fell in love.

Basically I just made a circle card with a small (striped, which reminded me of Beetlejuice!) envelope, I tied the envelope shut like a file folder using buttons with thread wrapped around them, then put holes on the edges and tied ribbon to close it. I'm still quite scared it won't make it, or might get wrecked. But bumps and bruises give it character!