Growing up I used to have pen pals whom I wrote to regularly. They tended to be people I met on vacation in Florida. Throughout high school I wrote faithfully. Part of the fun was decorating the envelopes with all kinds of stickers. My friends always knew when it was a letter from me.
Here I am years later when everyone writes via e-mail and social media. Every once in a while I think about how much I loved just writing a letter and then receiving the reply in the mail. Now there is a new thing that lots of crafters are enjoying: Pocket Letter Pals! It combines our love of crafting with writing letters. Here is the concept that started with Janette Lane: put together a page with inserts to swap with someone else. You can add little gifts in the pockets or not - depends on the expectations of the swappers (something to discuss ahead of time). The most important insert is the letter because this is to get to know someone else. You can decide to do one swap or you can decide to continue and be pen pals. I have done 2 and sent them out:
For the first one we decided to just do what we felt like doing. For the second we decided on a Halloween theme because we both love Halloween. I had fun putting these together, but have to admit that I was nervous about sending them because I only had a few goodies in them and they are not as elaborate as some of the things I have seen people post.
I also received my very first one in the mail from someone in England. We have decided to continue writing to each other :)
So pretty! And there were some nice goodies included which I will definitely use. I still have 3 other people I promised to swap with, so here is the next one that is about to go out:
I was feeling like spring, so went lighter than is usual for me, but still is very me. I tend to be more simplistic with my creations, so I hope that's okay with my swappers.
The size is nice (it's a regular sheet that you would store baseball cards in), so I can keep everything I receive in a binder. I look forward to continuing to swap with people and creating more pages while getting to know new people around the world. I feel like that kid who loved writing to pen pals all over again!
