Mail from Zalifa, the snailmail collective

This beautiful package arrived from Zalifa.
We were matched in the snailmail collective in November. We were emailing a bit to one another to get to know each other. Zalifa works in accounting in Singapore and is a real busy body. She also loves organising events. Well, she definately organised this beautiful package well! I would book her for my party if I lived in Singapore! I can't show yet what I have sent her, since she's away backpacking in Japan at the moment, but when she returns and hopefully finds my package, I'll post what I have sent her.

On the package, that was beautifully wrapped by the way (triple points for that!), were these really beautiful stamps. When you turn them to the light, the water cider on it started shining! pretty cool!

Inside the package was this shiny black box. This was making me really curious!

When I've opened the package there was a card folded on top with a note from Zalifa.

Underneath the card, it was all pure beauty what came out.

Check this all out! Two stacks of cards, a card and a bag full of wonderful craftstuff!

The first pack of cards is a game called Snap. We have something similar over here called Halli Galli. The prints on the cards are full of vintage cuteness! I can't decide if I'm going to use it to play games with the kids, or use it for snailmail. Think I'm going to go for playing with the kids. How great would that be, that in a few years I'll still be playing a card game that Zalifa has sent me.

The other deck of cards are city views of Singapore. I was totally off by thinking Singapore was the capital of Malaysia. Zalifa and Wikipedia set me straight right a way. Thought I was really good at geometry, but maybe I missed that class. Well, now I can see all of Singapore in this really lovely tin full of cards!

Inside the plastic bag full of craft stuff, all this came out! Love love! Like like! I'm totally into ribbons, applications and crafty stuff! Shiny gold beads and shiny gold flowers, so tacky that I really like them! And a cute telephone sticky note pad, some purple (leather?) lace and a pink lace application, and tiny clothes pegs on a rope. All so cute! Cuteness galore!

I could even make a bunch of flowers with all this, just by holding it all together!

Mail from Tanja

Last week I've received such a sweet mail from Tanja. She contacted me on my blog and asked if she could exchange snailmail with me. I think that's so special, if people contact me, I feel really blessed that people actually read my blog, and actually even some people like what I'm making and sending off to my snailmail friends!
This beautiful postage stamp was on the envelope by the way.

Well, Tanja herself is such a sweet lady who has set herself a challenge. A 365 days challenge to be exact! She is making a drawing every day for a whole year. I think that's pretty amazing! I'm way to lazy to set myself a challenge like that ;-)
This is what Tanja has sent me: a letter, two origami harts made from pages from a book, a postcard, a December calender and tree angel doilies.

This December calender (in Dutch) is really full of positivity! Every day of the month a quote for me, to cheer me up or to motivate and full of positive life quotes! I really like this! Today, the twelfth of December it says: To worry, is fantasizing in the wrong direction (it sounds way more beautiful in Dutch by the way) and so true. I think this is really original this calender, and I really like it! I've put it on the door of our computer room (that's what we call it, before that, we called it "our library", but after some people started to look funny when we mentioned our library, we decided that it sounded maybe a bit to pretentious for a room with a huge cabinet full of books). I've used washi tape to stick it on the door. I'm totally taking over that room with all my craft stuff lately, since we are doing up my studio, Yes, I'm going to have a real studio! One day, when it's finished. But untill then, I have this beautiful calender to look at to think positive.

Tanja also made these really cute angels on gold doillies! After a few days of my wallpaper I wondered if I would get the washi tape of my wallpaper without ruining it, so I've carefully taken the off (no harm was done to the wallpaper in case you wondered) now it's on the side of an in-build closet, next to my over the top, but still very classy white Christmas tree (decorated by the kids by the way), and they look really cool. My daughter thinks they are so sweet!
I'm sort of realising lately that maybe I'm a bit overdoing my mails. That's going to be something for the next year to look at. Keeping it simple is sometimes way more effective. I keep on learning and discovering lately.

Mail from kalwina

Mail arrived from Kalwina! She contacted me on my blog! How cool is that! Since I'm quite busy at this moment with lots of end of year style mail and swaps (more about this later :-) she had send me her package first. And I'm very grateful for that, I'm swamped at the moment! But all will be all right in the end :-) After a few emails we discovered we had an Indonesian connection! She is from Indonesia and my great uncle and aunt used to live there! But now she lives in Singapore by the way, not my great uncle, but Kalwina does!

Really cute postage stamps on the envelope! Stamps are like small pictures, I love them!

For Divali she spent her time at her family in Indonesia and collected things to send me. This is what was inside the package! Out of the package came this really lovely smell! It reminded me of my great uncle's house, which was full of sandelwood boxes and teak furniture. An instant mie and a pink and gold bag. I had to laugh about this instant mie, this is so funny! It was all crumbled since it came alle the way from Singapore, but she had written something on the back of it, that made me laugh. Gonna try this next week! When there are no kids around! Or boyfriend for that matter, it's going to be my lunch some time next week (I'm not allowed to eat at this moment due to an intestine inflammation, that's why).

Check this all out!  A letter opener (in style of a Wayang doll), a satin (or silk?) handkerchief with a batik print ( I'm definately not going to blow my nose in it! That would be such a shame!), a small purse (cute!), a hairpin (my daughter wore this today!), a cute batik card, a small tin (that's were all the really nice smell came from!), a small christmas card, oil, ginger drink, a cleansing powder and white coffee.

And what really made me laugh, Kalwina has put sticky notes on the back of almost everything! This is so funny! Love her handwriting by the way! Turns out that the original white coffee is made from beans which are eaten and pooped out by cats and people pay good money for that to drink! I've never heard about that before!

A letter opener! what a good gift for someone who loves mail! No more tears with a knife, but really neat tears with this Indonesian letter opener. Wayang is a traditional style puppet from Indonesia, check out some information about Wayang puppets here!

This small candle is so damn cute! Such a lovely tin with a rose smell! The whole package smelled like this! A small candle but a great smell!

And how weird is this! I'm sick at home with lots of pain in my stomach, and what arrives from Kalwina? An oil that relieves stomach pain! I've had a lot of these coincidences recently through mail. What's the meaning of that! I've tried the oil once now, maybe I should try it a couple of times. You are supposed to rub some on your chest, stomach, hip and footsole. Well, that's were I went wrong! I'm going to do it the right way this time. It smells like fennel! And that's not a bad thing. It's actually for kids, going to try this for my son aswell, he has a lot of stomach ache. But first I'm going to try this on myself, but I'm going to rub it in is as I was supposed to.

Turns out that inside the little purse was a small bracelet! A turquoise one! Since Kalwina knew that was my favourite colour! It has this cute little triangle on it, maybe it's a Christmas tree, well it could be, since Christmas is near, but it's cute anyhow.

Snailmail with turquoise bracelet

This mail arrived from Nicolette last week. An envelope from Flow Magazine which was in the last issue. An envelope to keep or send. Nicolette chose to send it, to me!

Inside some tea and hotelsoap from Tanzania where she has been on her holidays, a decorated matchbox and a letter.

Inside the mailbox was a really cute turquoise bracelet. My favourite colour! The stationary is also from Flow Magazine by the way.

Sorry for the really bad pictures by the way, think I'm in need of a new phone (yes, I take pictures with my phone! I always carry my phone with me! Everywhere! And I'm not ashamed of it!) Needed to get that of my chest :-)

Good mail envelope

Last week I have received this beautiful mail from Leuke Post! A simple but very elegant mail I thought. Isn't this a cute envelope? Well I think it is! An envelope made from a page of an old book. A vintage book with a page about paper and what to do with it. Well, Janien definitely had some ideas what to do with it!

Inside the envelope was a brown envelope. Inside that one a white one, than an blue, another blue, a brown one, and finally a small white envelope (a seventies envelope by the feel of it). What a unpacking surprise that was! I loved it!! And the colours of the envelopes were stunning! Probably by accident, or intended, I don't know really, but the blue, brown and white, they all match so beautifully!

Inside this tiny envelope was this ever so cute litte artwork! Stamped (but maybe it is a linocut come to think of it). Also a small piece of paper with old fashioned handwriting on it. Wish I could write like that, but my handwriting is almost unreadable. The card is made of the same paper as the tiny envelope by the way. It's a small detail, but I love details, it's all in the detail in the end.

Just to see how small the little artwork is, here are all the envelopes in a row. Have I mentioned already that I adore these colours? Well, I do. So there's that. The idea of this mail is actually so simple, but so nice, that I wished I thought of this, but I haven't. All credit to Leuke Post!

Vintage matchbox snailmail

this mail went out to Anne this week.

I wanted to do something with matchboxes. On her blog, she wrote she was making matchboxes, so I knew she was into those. And after throwing away a few boxes at the hospital were my office is, I've found a small box in the container, perfect for mail size! So I almost had to jump in to get it out, but I managed it at the end! Turned out it was perfect for 8 matchboxes! I finally could use my modpodge for this for the first time! What a great kind of glue that is! I'm hooked!

I have used a few old books (a fairytale book, a book about birds and a book about medicinal plants) to cover the matchboxes and the box. So the style of everything fitted together. And a small magnifying glass, since everything was really small!

And this is what I've managed to fit in 8 matchboxes! At first I found it quite hard to think of things, besides a letter of course, to fit in these tiny boxes, but once I got going I had inspiration enough!

This is what was all inside: buttons, confetti, a letter, felt owls, a garland, a key chain, a tiny woman, tiny stationary (my favourite!), a tiny light (made of an old children's toy) and three wooden hangers.

Classy autumn mail to Belgium

This mail went out to Inge last week. I turned out quite classy, by accident really. I felt like doing a drawing on the envelope in the colours of our beech hedge at the moment. Those colours! Ranging from yellow, orange, brown and a few green leafs.

This was inside the envelope. Two packages. I was so pleased with her mail I could not send her just anything. So I took a bit of time to make it all!

I was so pleased with the little package, it made me laugh. I saw cute tea cutlery made of acorns on Pinterest and thought I give it a go!

And this was the second package. A folder made of cheececloth. And this time I've made an actual plan before I started my adventure on my sewing machine. And it just came out as I intended this time!

This is what I've all put inside. Full of autumn stuff, but all classy. Two postcards, a garland, a necklace. A sticker, autumn craft stuff, two feathers I've found while visiting a castle, sticky notes, a pencil, seeds, a wooden deer and felt owls. And a letter!

I've made a drawing on a piece of wood on both sides and drilled a hole in it to make a autumn hanger of it.

A leaf garland made from old books. I've managed to put it all inside the little bag I've made from baking paper! I never seem to find glassine pape, but then I discovered I had baking paper in my drawer! A really good alternative!

A little craft envelope full of autumn goodies. Some felt stuff, tiny shiny deer and tiny leafs.

An autumn sticker inside a baking paper bag.

And last but not least a necklace with a tiny bead of an acorn. So cute!