Everyone loves to find their mailbox occupied by something other than bills. Discovering a snail mailed letter is a highlight in itself, but that feeling is greatly magnified when the sender put a little time into creating a unique or colorful envelope that stands out.
But why should it stop there? Why waste all that anticipation generated by your zesty envelope only to tear it open and realize there's just a boring, white, visually blank sheet of paper inside? Hopefully the words make it colorful and interesting in their own way, but maybe we can do something more to make it come alive.
Not long ago I stumbled upon a great way to summarize or condense a whole bunch of information by jotting down a trail of ideas in little clumps. (I'll also say that if you're like me and have a tendency to get behind in your correspondence, this is a great way to cover the main points without falling behind another week as you try to just get it all down on paper).
Now, what does that have to do with that eye candy we were talking about? Easy! Add some simple illustrations or diagrams to go along with each of your main points, and then you have one of these babies!
I call it a collage letter.
Here's an example. I whipped this up to send to my new (and first overseas! *squee!*) pen pal Nikki in England. This is our very first letter so it's focused on introducing myself instead of sharing news, but you can't deny it knocks the socks off the usual drab, same-20-questions introduction. (And before you decide I'm a complete narcissist, be aware page 2 contains all my questions for her!)
What do you think?
