Going Postal

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Today's Outgoing: February 11, 2015

After giving some very specific directions, the intrepid Pusheen gallantly set off into the unknown in search of Nikki's mailbox. Good luck, little guy!

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

DIY Happy Giraffe Card

I gotta start using a better camera.

I whipped up this cute card a few weeks ago just to use up my last giraffe sticker, but not gonna lie,- I'm pretty impressed with the results!

Today out of the blue I felt like I should drop something in the mail again for my cousin serving a mission in Mexico. I never heard if his birthday card survived the iffy Mexican postal service, but I decided to try again anyway. Maybe it's just a meaningless whim, and maybe it will never get to him, but a little happy mail never hurt anybody.

I'm told that his family has had luck with the pouch system (AKA the ugly mail system. Seriously, you can't even use envelopes!), but I'm not going to give up on regular mail just yet.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

DIY Pen Pal Kit

The DIY Pen Pal kit isn't a new idea. (I was originally inspired by this post over at Making Mondays.) In any case, this is a very easy, inexpensive project that I would highly recommend for both children and adults. This is the third time I've put together a kit for someone, but I am always surprised at how different each kit looks from one to the next. The contents are basically the same (paper, envelopes, pens, stickers) but there's a ton of room for customization.

This kit was specifically designed for my sister-in-law, Lara, so there's a few tweaks I put in especially for her. For instance, since Lara is much younger than most of my other pen pals, I figured she'd mostly be communicating with her family and friends. I included a dollar store address book, but customized it by filling out a list of her family member's birthdays, as well as the address for my husband and I since we live far away. My hope is that this way we can still keep in touch even though we don't get to see each other often. I also whipped up some brightly colored envelopes using scrapbook paper and a template. I cranked out about 20 over a couple episodes of LOST. The different patterns of paper do a lot to make it unique, but that's not actually my favorite part.

With all these random little pieces, I knew Lara would need a way to keep everything together in one place. I was lucky enough to find a fairly flat-shaped box so it could be easily slid under a bed or stacked up when not in use. Since I acquired the box from work and it was covered in ads for contact lenses, I decided to get crafty and dress it up a bit. Three colors of craft paint, a stencil, some glitter glue, and a couple evenings later, we're done!The paint job isn't perfect, but I think everyone will agree it looks much better than the plain box. flat

All in all the entire kit only cost me about ten bucks, because I had a lot of the supplies (the materials to decorate the box, the patterned paper to make envelopes, and the plain white envelopes) on hand. I actually started assembling it back in June and added to it little by little over time, so it was really easy on the budget! Since this was a Christmas gift I decided to wait to post it until now so that the secret wouldn't get out.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Zentangled envelopes

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my earliest attempts at a Zentangle inspired envelope.

I'm not going to call this an easy project. The concept is simple and straight forward, but it really relies on precision and detail to be any good. Naturally, high precision + detailed details = lots of time spent creating. I did this one in my down time over the course of three days at work, so I don't have an exact estimate of the time involved, but I would guess at least 3 hours. I also was armed with only a simple bic ballpoint pen which makes darkening large areas a tedious task, but I think those are really the only negatives to this project. On to the pros!

Despite the somewhat tedious feeling, Zentangle is actually designed to be a relaxing activity. I find it enjoyable on those days when my brain just won't shut up about all it's inane reminders every other second. It actually reminds me of the beautiful and amazing mandalas created by Buddhist monks. I was once lucky enough to see one in an art museum that was painstakingly crafted by carefully pouring colored sand to create the intricate design. (Can I just say I would hate to be the one monk who sneezed?) Being so deeply focused on making a precise pattern feels meditative and can ease all that brain noise.