52 Weeks of Mail: The Beginning

Hello, poor neglected crafty blog!  I've missed you so much.  But I have a cool new project to write about!  52 Weeks of Mail was started by the Etsy Greetings Team, a group of card sellers.  It's a weekly challenge to handwrite a letter to someone and mail it, with real stamps in a real mailbox.

This was a perfect way to push me into making more cards, and of course, spreading a little love around the world, too.  Back in the Dark Ages of my childhood, we didn't have this newfangled invention called e-mail.  We had to write letters, with a pen, barefoot 10 miles in the snow.  Each way!

I loved writing letters as a kid, and my mom encouraged it.  I wrote to my relatives in India, to other kids I had met at summer camps, and even to a penpal or two I found in Metal Edge magazine, who liked the same cheezy 80s hair metal bands as me.  Mike in Calgary, you rock! \oo/

It started back on Oct 9, and I'm a little behind, of course, so I will be playing catchup.  Fortunately Christmas is around the corner and I've already got a bunch of handmade cards ready! 

Standard personalized stationery with a little zing!

But first, the beginning! It just so happened that my friend G bought one of my handmade copper zipper pulls for her diaper bag in anticipation of her baby's arrival.  So I figured I'd include a little handwritten note to her to kick off my 52 Weeks.  I was scrambling around to find a card, and realized I could make one pretty quickly from some personalized stationery I've had since 2005 (yeah, seriously). 

I used my fancy Fiskars Border Punch to make the scalloped border, then found some coordinating red paper with a subtle pattern and glued a narrow strip to the underside of the front of the card to "fill in" the border.

And that was it. Simple, but just a touch of handmade goodness.  I wrote to wish G and her family happiness and sleep with the arrival of their baby.  Because what new parents couldn't use a little more sleep?

It's not too late to join in!  If you decide to get in on the 52 Weeks of Mail goodness, blog about it and drop me a link here so I can see what nifty things you've sent out!