I love having chats about pen pals and happy mail, and this is a theme that often pops up over in the Bring Back Paper Facebook group. We do like to have some fun with our happy mail from time to time, so I thought it might be handy to share a few creative ideas for snail mail with you today.
Many of these ideas for your pen pal are very simple to do, they just change things up a little bit for you and for them, when you’re in the mood to do so.
I think it’s always hard to beat a lovely, long chatty letter, they tend to sit at the heart of snail mail, but for those of you who like to get creative, or for those of you who don’t usually but fancy trying something new, here are a few suggestions.
The Pen Pal Letter Itself
There are so many ways to get creative with the actual content of your mail.
Think about what you’re writing on, first and foremost.
You might go with pretty letter sets, or you could get creative with blank paper instead. You could always send a quick postcard sometimes, too, keeping things fun and unexpected.
If you do have blank paper, there are so many ways to decorate it. You might use stickers, washi tape, stamps or wax seals. You could write with bright ink, or perhaps write in a circular pattern rather than linear.
You can check out the easy way to pen pal, if a lot of this is new to you.
The Happy Mail Inserts
You might want to send a few little bits along with your letter, things that travel well by post.
These might be things you’ve bought, received or created yourself.
You could use mail tags (I have free pen pal printables here you could use), as they’re always fun, or grab some of my pen pal printables from my Etsy store.
I shared 65 Things to Send With Your Happy Mail which should give you a few ideas.
Fun and Crafty Mail
Sky is the limit here!
You really can go to town having fun putting together crafty happy mail options.
You could choose to put together a mini book, perhaps craft a flipbook, try a pocket letter or just assemble simple envelope/card booklets and enjoy decorating them.
The video I’ve linked to further down in this blog post will show you some of these options more closely, they’re easier to demo in a video than describe them all. The fun and crafty mail section begins at 11 minutes 16 seconds in the video if you want to go straight there.
The Mail Art
This can be a really fun part of your happy mail.
This can be anything from writing the name and address in different colours and popping a few stickers or washi tape on it, through to creating an envelope from scratch.
You could use stickers, tape, ephemera, patterned paper, wax, magazine cuttings and more to decorate the envelope itself, and then you might try your hand at some brush lettering to label it.
Go with whatever you are comfortable with and have the time for here. Colourful felt tips and stickers or tape turn a normal envelope into happy mail instantly!
It might be worth creating a few envelopes at a time, when you’re in the mood to do so, if you want to get crafty with them.
There are some fabulous ideas over on Instagram if you search the #mailart hashtag, or simply #penpals.
I do expand upon all of these ideas here in my YouTube video, so take a closer look…
What do you think? Which ideas will you try?