National Card and Letter Writing Month

It’s time. Time to get my ass in gear. I’m using April’s National Card and Letter Writing Month as another excuse (as if having letters written and received in December sitting in my pile wasn’t enough) to tackle my 15 deep reply pile. How big is your reply pile?

National Card and Letter Writing Month was initiated as a month long initiative by the USPS by  extending its week long April holiday. They thought it was a good idea, and I for one agree. 

So today was me writing to a longtime pen friend Karen. She and I have a “thing” of referring to each other by pet names. Today was Pookie and Snookums. I look forward to letters from her because they are full of life and make me feel like we should be sitting side by side drinking a cocktail. I’m glad to have a pal like her.

Do you have a pal like Karen? Do you ever refer to your pen friends by pet names, or is it just us? I’d love to know!

Today’s mail brought an unexpected postcard surprise from Chris in the form of a tip for my upcoming trip to Puerto Rico (still 10 months away). Who knew that I’d be able to spend time in a feral cat colony in Old San Juan? The trip just went from awesome to EPIC!

If you’re interested in a postcard pal feel free to drop me a message, I’d be happy to oblige.

 

I LOVE Postcards

I've collected postcards for many, many years. At first, I wanted to have my postcards brought back to me from wherever the person who gave them to me had gone. But since I have joined Swap-Bot and have been a pen pal with League of Extraordinary Pen Pals I have wanted to swap them "naked". The first time I heard that term I was like WTF, really? And like a total noob I had to ask, "What's naked mean?" I certainly didn't think that they were going to want me to write them while I was naked because no one but my boyfriend would want that! So what does it mean?

NAKED: Mailed to the recipient written on, stamped and sent through the mail. You do NOT put the postcard in an envelope. 

Normally I buy my postcards on Ebay, Amazon, yard sales and thrift stores. I have been known to sneak into a local Chamber of Commerce and ask if they have any postcards that they are giving away. Sometimes they will give you as many as you want for free; sometimes you end up paying a nominal fee. I prefer the FREE way as it is one of my three favorite four letter F words. If you would like to know what they are, leave a comment below and I'll fill you in.

Just recently I was searching Google for something pen pal related and came across someone's blog post (I should have saved the link, so sorry guys - but I thank that person for the information) that described this service called AmazingMail.

Disclaimer: I am NOT getting paid to write this post! Not one red penny. I'm not getting a percentage of sales, or a kickback of any kind. This is my unbiased review of something that I am in LOVE with and wanted to share with you.

When I found the site I noticed that they gave you 5 FREE (there's that word again) cards to try out; who wouldn't want to do that? Then if you take a survey telling them about your experience you get one more free card to send. After a few days, I had a follow-up email from a guy named Chris, *waves HI CHRIS*, who wanted to make sure that I had found everything that I was looking for. I realized then that this service was mainly geared towards businesses; I was a little sad. But I emailed Chris to see if he could send me out a sample pack of cards so I could see the quality of what I was sending out to my friends/family. He sent the info pack and I realized yet again that maybe I wasn't in their target market. Don't fret my friends, I got over that fact quickly.

After reviewing their site more closely and looking at the price (I hadn't even bothered until then) I saw that you were able to buy the credits for the cards in quantities of 1-9 or higher. So this product could be for me. I just had to use it properly. Click HERE to see the full pricing and the discounts you get for each level, you'll have to scroll down about halfway to see them.

Here's a list of what buying a credit will get you:

• Postage
• Full Color - Premium Coating
• Next business day print & mail
• No minimum order

What more could I ask for?

• International postcards? GOT THEM!
• Greeting cards? GOT THEM!
• Great customer service? GOT THAT TOO!

Call me skeptical, but I'm still digging around to find a fault in these guys, but so far this pen pal hasn't dug up any dirt on them. I even looked them up on the Online Better Business Bureau and they have a flipping A+ rating and they are accredited. 

So here's the deal, try these guys or don't - but know that I'll be using them. And if you do decide to use them Chris was able to get us a promo code for 20% off on your first order but only if the discount is $200 or lower. :)

The promo code for that my dear readers is: PENPAL17

But another disclaimer make sure to check their website first for a banner on the top of the page that may be showing any promotions that are currently going on. Because at the time of this blog post there was a discount of 25% on your first order with a max discount of $250 (for you ballers out there with some dough in your pockets).

The promo code for that is: POOLPARTY17

Now, for those of you who are a little skeptical of what's going on, and the quality of their cards, if you comment below and send me an email to penpaladdict.blogger (@) gmail.com (don't use the (), I just don't want nasty spammers emailing me, I'll send you the sample card that Chris was able to send me. You'll be absolutely awed and amazed by the quality of these cards. 

Well, off to send out some postcards in swaps that I have going on right now. That way, I can finish filling up my photo box with postcards and start another.

I look forward to your comments and emails.

Huggles to you all, and have a great day!

Washi Tape Addiction

Much like pen pal letters, washi tape tends to grow like weeds. I feel like sometimes they grow like bunnies. I swear I don't go to the Dollar Tree, or to Michaels or any other store that carries it and blindly put it in the cart because "it's on sale" or "I have a coupon for that". They have their own little cute babies.

Being a pen pal most likely involves a bit of mail art, even if it's only through a bit of washi .I've gotten some mail that makes my mail art look like a kindergarten school kid made it.

My envelopes will sometimes have the washi tape on the bottom, or in times of real inspiration, I'll go diagonally. You can see that these envelopes have address windows on them. When I get a bill in the mail I take the envelope that comes with it and put it in a pile. Supplies for this hobby can get expensive, so I save as many envelopes that I can so I don't have to buy them for as long as possible. When I get them I make sure to cover any barcode that happens to be on there (you can see this on both tops of the envelopes) so they won't go through the mail and get to the recipient looking too much like a bill coming in. 

Now back to the point at hand, washi tape! 

Some of the places that I find the best washi tape are:

• The Idea Owl
• Wish.com
• Dollar Tree
• Michaels

I do quite a few swaps on a website called Swap-Bot. And in these swaps people will send along wonderful little extras. Some of those extras are washi tape samples. Most of the samples that are sent are about 18" long so that you're able to get a few good uses out of them. Many people place these samples on playing cards or other forms of study material in which the tape won't stick and peel the delivery method.

I enjoy putting them on:

• Playing cards
• Fake credit cards that are sent to you when credit card companies want you to apply for their cards. I put packing tape on them if the card is not made of a plastic material.
• Or washi sample templates that I get from blogs that I follow. Check out this one: Click Here I will take these templates and put them on heavy cardstock and then laminate them.
  
  

I've found that there are two types of washi tape. There is the type that is very much like masking tape and the one that is more plastic like. My favorite is the masking tape kind, I'm just not quite a fan of the plastic kind, just makes washi seem "off".

How much washi do you have? Which is your favorite? Give me a link to where you buy your washi tape. I'd really love to know. You can never have enough.

My beginning to pen pals began with Swap-Bot

My beginnings to pen palling (paling?) began with my Swap-Bot membership. It's a great place to get to know people and to swap things that mean things to you. I'm learning about people's music "ear bugs" by hosting a swap there entitled It's Stuck in My Head. I thought you might be interested in hearing what's stuck in my head this month.

Places to Find a Great Pen Pal

It's been about two years since I started my pen pal journey, and I swear I am not addicted to it at all. It started out so innocently, 5 pen pals here, add another 5 there, until today I have 35 pen pals.

Yes, I do write to them all, and mostly I remember what it is that we are talking about.

Many people ask me, "Tami, where do you find your pen pals?" And when I tell them, they look at me with this look of complete bewilderment because they have never heard of the places that I am talking about. So I thought for the addicts out there that want more, or want to start pen palling (doesn't that word look silly?) I'd help you out with a few links.

The first place I got my pen pals was on Swap-Bot. When you're on this site you are able to find interesting swaps that are not pen pal related, and also swaps that will have you swap a letter with one person. Hopefully this person and you will click and they will write you back. You will send a letter to one person, and another person will send a letter to you. So you have the opportunity to have two pen pals if you'd like. The only downside is that you must search the listings for pen pal related swaps, but when you find them, it's well worth it.

Another site you can find great pen pals is Lettersets.com. You place an ad describing yourself and people inbox you with responses. It's a great system. While you're there, you can go to their main page and order some stationary to start writing your letters. The only downside I've found on this site is that if you want to keep your ad going and get some results on a regular basis you need to place your ad again. It's tedious, but it's doable.

There are plenty of Facebook groups that you can find and join. My favorites are Snail Mail Pen Pals Ladies Only which you have to join and be approved. The approval status is relatively quick. You can do one of two things:

1. Sit around a lurk to see if you find someone that posts for a pen friend that seems interesting to you.
2. Do a quick intro right away and ask for pen friends.

The only thing that bugs me a bit, but I have learned to get over it, is the fact that most pen friends want to be your "friend" on Facebook. I've been trying to weed my list down for a while, and adding pen friends immediately after they've asked if they want to be pals is a little daunting, especially if you are one to post things that may be not quite PC.

My other favorite Facebook group is Lots of Crazy Pen Pals (No Men). They are a group of very active pen pals. If you're not one for a LOT of notifications, you may want to turn them off for this group. It is very well managed and one person a day runs the show by keeping the girls talking about things like, "Did you get mail today?" or "What's for dinner?" and other topics that keep the group talking. I think my favorite thing that they do are the word games. You'll have to join to find out what games they play, I can't give you all the information first.

This group also has people that want to be your Facebook friend right off the bat, but like I said, I've gotten used to it. Could I hit the decline button - of course, But I've always had a problem with saying no to people. So another Facebook friend it is.

How do you find your pen pals? Please leave a comment below, I'd love to find some more places to look.

Huggles to all, 

Tami