Advent mail from Mischa

This mail arrived from Mischa the day after receiving my advent swap thing. What a lovely colourful envelope! She painted it herself! Love the colours!

There was a relief from the paint. Mischa described in her letter that she had bought a craft tool (which I never heard of) with which she can make these really cool swirls! How lovely is this!

And what a surprise for me inside! A letter ofcourse, a short one since she was lacking time with what she was doing for her kids, making a home made advent calender. That's probably what I'm going to do next year aswell, make my own! And also a really cool Christmas card in the same colours as the envelope! It's a small detail, but I'm all for detail.

Check out what was inside! An advent calender full of little wrapped gifts! Wow! Here was definitely some effort put into this! Labels, kraft paper, red wrapping paper, all in the same style. Like!

The tiny sticker labels Mischa made are so cute! And well thought of, therefore it made it all come together. I'm going to have fun uwrapping something everyday!

Advent mail to Majella

On a Facebook page about snailmail, someone wanted to do an advent swap. Make 12 items and buy 12 items with a total worth of 10€. First I didn't want to join in, way to busy! But then I got so inspired that I've joined anyway. I got hooked up with Majella (who organised it by the way). And someone else would make me an advent calender. This is what I've made for Majella.

I had this idea to make something with brown bags and labels. It took a while before I've found a place where they would sell these bags to individuals, and when I found such a place I got sick and couldn't get to that place. Well, finally they arrived through mail since I really wanted them so much! Because the whole thing is in the same style, it's pleasant and calming to the eye and it creates a sense of uniformity.

I've made labels with stamps and round pieces of Kraft paper and I used a red tie around each bag. You're not supposed to peek! At Christmas time I'll post what I've made for Majella, had a lot of fun doing it anyway!

Sinterkerst voor Bianca

For Bianca I've made a Sinterkerst mail! Over here we have a commercial from a telecom provider that always makes me laugh. It's about some rich people who got poor but still want to live rich. So they just celebrate Sinterklaas, Christmas (kerst) and New Years eve all in one! That's so funny I thought I'd make a combined mail for Bianca. She had sent me this really cute pink and green box some time ago with this really cute crocheted hedgehog. And since it's the end of the year, why not make a bit of an effort. New Years resolutions are for the new year.

The mail consisted of two packages. A Sinterklaas package and a Christmas package. Two mails in one! And a letter, since what is mail without a letter.

This was in the Sinterklaas package. Lots of Sinterklaas crafty stuff. A traditional chocolate letter with the letter B from Bianca. Some red and white ribbon, red and white hearts, labels, stickers (inside the envie), a dress up Sinterklaas and a note from Sinterklaas (no not really ofcourse, but during this time of year we send notes to one another in name of Sinterklaas, like you do with Santa).

The dress up Sinterklaas was maybe a bit childlike but it's kinda funny! Well I think anyway.

Then I've wrapped the chocolate letter and the other stuff into two presents which I then wrapped into another piece of wrapping paper. Unwrapping is just so cool! Just like when you are a kid, when you get a bit anxious to see what is inside on your birthday or at the night when all the presents arrive at Sinterklaas!

Inside the Christmas present were these white bags with red labels on them made with my really cool Motex letter writer thing. It said: a white Christmas, a vintage Christmas, a red Christmas, a chique (really fancy French word for classy) Christmas and a colourful Christmas.

These white bags were so fitting! Glad I ordered those! Inside was a lot of Christmas stuff!

A red Christmas.

A chique Christmas.

A vintage Christmas.

A white Christmas.

A colourful Christmas.

My origami stars came out great! I've made them when I was lying sick on the couch, gave me something to do besides social media :-)

Sinterklaas mail

I joined in the fun to make a Sinterklaas mail with a bunch of snailmail lovers. I think there were about 32 people or so who participated. We were randomly matched to someone, and someone else would send you something in return. It was supposed to be a creative mail with a little present inside. I got matched with Marjolijn (whom I don't know by the way).
In case you don't know who Sinterklaas is: he's Saint Nicolas (Santa Claus is based on him, yes he's an icon!) He freed slaves and he gave presents to kids, well this is the story in a nutshell. We celebrate this every year. He always arrives on an old fashioned steam boat all the way from Spain with his pete's (the former slaves) about three weeks before the 5th of December. In the evenings, kids put their shoe in front of the fireplace, and hopefully Sinterklaas will come by at night through the chimney and leaves a present or candy. Well, only if you have been a good boy or girl. At the 5th of December he arrives at night and leaves lots of presents! Most of the time they will magically appear somewhere, like in front of the frontdoor, or on the attic, or in the garage, etc. And then he goes of again, back to Spain.
Well, to cut a history story short, this is what I've sent her.

Yes, it was mail from the Good Holy man himself!

This is what was inside! Two presents, a "zwarte pieten muts" (a typical hat of the black pete's) and a book.

This was all in the book I've made. I had found an old book with vintage pictures and poems about Sinterklaas at the thrift shop. My boyfriend thought it was such a waste to start tearing pictures out of that book, but I've bought it especially for a Sinterklaas mail! So sod it! A picture of Sinterklaas arriving on the front. Inside some pages with fitted the Sinterklaas theme.

This is what was all inside the book, a letter M (in style of a tradional chocolate letter), a mini pom pom (from the wool that I had left from my knitting adventure) labels, some cute hearts, 3D Sinterklaas stickers, a letter (on Sinterklaas stationary) and a tiny box of chocolate (which was the small present).

I love these vintage pictures of Sinterklaas from which I made labels. Nowadays he looks a lot more friendly though.

In the big present was this, a flip-flop desktop mini kit! I've found it at the craftfair! And after some negotiating with the guy who sold it, I got a really good deal as well! (It's such a sport to negotiate) (my boyfriend is always really ashamed of me when I do, but then again he's happy when we get a good deal on something) Well the desktop mini kit is for scrap booking but also really cool for use in snailmail! With stickers, ribbon, paper, tags and labels and all sorts of cut outs. The cover of the mini kit can stand up right and can also be used as a photoframe!

Snailmail to Inge

I've made a snailmail to go to Belgium. I used a brown paper bag to put a lot of snailmail goodies in. I even cut the brown paper bag in half because I didn't have enough brown paper! The end result was quite pretty I thought.

In the paper bag I've put some plastic bags I use at my job. I knew they came in handy one day! I've made magnets, mini envelops, stickers, labels, used old postage stamps and a vintage card.