Outgoing: Festive mail in a small box

I've send out this festive mail to Nicolette. After my boyfriend wrote all the Christmascards (totally forgot to take a picture of him writing them), we were left with the empty box of Christmascards. Since I started this mailing project I seem to look at things with a "mailing eye", always checking if it would fit trough the mailbox. Well, this box was just perfect mailsize! But the lid was made of clear plastic. Wasn't sure if it would survive the Dutch mail, but thought I'd never find out if I don't try! So I gathered some festive cheerful stuff together what would fit inside the box! Some Christmas ribbon, masking tape, some stars, a card, some tags, a peg, stickers and some hearts.

Christmas tree masking tape! Found it at my garden center!

Love the sparkles!

Shiny shimmer, it's all part of Christmas.

Wrapping and unwrapping, is just so Christmas. I've made my own wrapping paper! So much fun and easy to do! Used pages from an old book and Christmas stamps! Stamp them in a pattern and there you have it, Christmas wrapping paper!

Everything just fitted snugly inside the box, I've put some felt snowflakes and Christmas trees on top for some extra cheer. It looked really classy!

Put the clear plastic lid on top, stuck my stamps on it and the address on a label sticker and crossed my fingers it would arrive!

Incoming: Mail from my little girl

Suddenly my daughter appeared in front of me. She had been "doing" stuff in her room. Very secretive. And then suddenly there she was, in front of me, while I was holding the laundry basket. She looked very shy and she was blushing, and then she handed this to me. I melted. That deserved a big big hug! I have the best daughter!

The back of the envelope.

she had made a drawing full of rabbits in a house. And a lipstick kiss. From all the hearts she cut out, she glued them all together as a flower, and the stars she glued to the envelope.

Outgoing: Traditional costume mail to marloes

This mail went out to Marloes. She had sent me this really cool, fun and retro comic style superhero mail some time ago which I really like. I wanted to sent something as original back to her so I've really kept track off all the things she commented on my blog, facebook or Instagram so I got a bit of an idea what she would like. My conclusion was: a bit of everything to do with books, buttons, traditional costume and crafty stuff. I actually wanted to make a book for her, but when I got all my stuff together I realised it would never ever fit in a book. In the kitchen my kids have a hanger with really nice cards of nature pictures and information on them. And suddenly my eyes sort of glanced that way, and there it was, in front of me the whole time! A book (without a cover) on a ring! I've used the size of these cards as a template.

Marloes made a much better picture of the book thing, I kindly "borrowed" this picture from her. She had made really lovely pictures of it! Check it out on her blog!

I've found some nice pictures of traditional Dutch costume in an old book which I decorated with lovely (mostly thrifted) craft stuff, buttons, lace and what not.

All these cards (8 of them) would never ever fit in a normal envelope, so I decided to wrap it all in smaller bags to ensure that they would arrive safely.

They did arrive all in one piece in this envelopebox I managed to save from the recycled paper box! My boyfriend is always throwing away everything, I have a day job saving lovely stuff I want to recycle which he is always throwing away.

Mail from Marieke

Isn't this such a sweet envelope from Marieke? It took the mailman a while to deliver, but when he did, it brought a bit of sunshine to my mailbox in this grey winter weather.

Inside such a sweet card and two small cards. So nice, really cool! Mail from Marieke is always really cheerful and really cheers my up. Really happy mail does really make your day seem brighter!

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.

Wonderful mail from Yves

This is the kind of mail as how it just should be. Simple, elegant, classy and vintage. Just how I like it. Yves is just the guy that does all this mail stuff I'm totally jealous of. He writes with beautiful swirls where as I can only dream of writing this way with an old fashioned ink pen. He collects vintage stationary and ephemera, so cool! And a bit shy I asked if maybe, just maybe, he would write a letter to me. And he did! So amazing! And a really cool stamp by the way.

This is what was inside, a beautiful written letter and a handmade map envelope stuffed with vintage ephemera! Just wonderful!

This handwriting is so beautiful! I think he could even rewrite the phone book or something, and it would still be amazing! And the little details of the curly swirls, so beautiful! Why don't we write like this any more nowadays. I think I'm going to frame it and hang it in my studio when it's finished.

The ephemera is just so great! these lovely flower cards are so beautiful! Okay, I'm going to stop now with saying this is so wonderful, but this is definitely going to be in my top 10 mail of 2013! (Did  I already mention that I really loved it?)