This Little Mail Man...Snail Mail Postal Theme

Who Wouldn't Like to receive this cutie in the mail? 

I absolutely LOVED receiving this super creative , vintage postal themed envelope and long, chatty letter. This was from a pal  I met at the DC Postal Meet Up, organized by Global Pen Pal!  Carrie is a great creative talent in the snail mail community.  You can follow her work on Instagram:  

Carriejojo212. She pumps out mail like no one's business, and ALL of it good mail!

Urgent!!!  I needed to get something out to Carrie...and I decided to  continue the vintage postal theme!  I grabbed one of my vintage children's readers and  was thrilled to find a picture of "Mr. Postman"!!   Then I had to get out my post office stamps, and vintage stamps...and here you have it!

And this cute photo  as a pair!  Yay!  We LOVE our post women AND men!

Happy Snail Mailing,

Pam

*Available In My Shop*

Pen Pal Kit

Pen Pal Letter Set

Pocket Sized Flip Books

I did a couple smaller flip books recently, and they were pretty similar that I thought that I would group them together in a single post. The lighting in some of the photo's is awful, so I will apologize now! I don't really have many comments to make, so I'll just let the photos do the work.  Enjoy!

 I enjoyed passing on some vintage post cards that I had!

Here is another cool vintage postcard  of a cathedral.  

Birds and eggs...

Happy Snail Mailing

Pam

Vintage Unused Stamps

Edelweiss Post

Do you like interesting stamps?  I do and I especially  have a hankering for older stamps!  Edelweiss Post (Etsy) is a great place to purchase  interesting unused stamps .   I went ahead and placed a small order...here is what I received in the mail.   I love everything about the front of this envelope...the stamps, the rubber stamp markings, and the beautiful calligraphy!

The back side didn't disappoint either.

Isn't it clever to use an old book page (in German, of course) and pen a bit of a note?  How personable...great customer service!

And here is my tiny order...aren't the stamps lovely?  "Letters Lift Spirits".   I couldn't have said it better myself.  Thank you Edelweiss Post for making my tiny order so special!

Write letters,

Write Often.

Lady Pamela

A Pocket Letter Response!

Pink And Kraft Vintage...

Pocket Letter

I received my first Pocket Letter from a dear friend, Elaine.  If you need to know details about Pocket Letters, check out Janette Lane's Blog at:  Blog

If you want to see Elaine's beautiful, cheerful Pocket Letter that she sent me, you can see it  here  

It took me one crafty session to knock this out.  I think I had to mentally get into the gear of this project, but I could see that you could do some of the steps  separately before hand.  For instance.  You could definitely cut your "background" papers  in a separate session.  That would eliminate quite a bit of time with that one step.  Arrrgghh. I'm a terrible cutter.  But it is rather simple, cutting 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 inch rectangles.   Elaine sent me a cute little "cover" card----where did you get this cute thing , Elaine?  I had some large tags which were about the same size, so I just used one of these.  I used the pink bling factor...

This is the front of my Pocket Letter...my theme (because my, oh my, you MUST have a theme for these Pocket Letters!)"Faith , Hope and Love" in the style of  Vintage, or shabby chic.

 This is the BACK of my Pocket Letter.  Hmmm....looks a bit bare, doesn't it. ?

I went ahead and added some items that were not glued down so that she could use them  in future projects.  Elaine is the "Queen of Crafts" so I know she will know exactly what to do with these items!

This little pocket holds a folded up letter for Elaine.

All tucked away nicely in a business-sized envelope...but has to be sent as a parcel when you have lots of goodies in it.    But still, it is not too expensive and I think rather worth it , don't you?  

To carry  the  vintage style through I had to get madam Victorian boot wax stamp out and finish the job. 

OK...your turn.  Have you  joined the Pocket Letter Craze?  Give it a try! You just might get hooked.  

Write Letters,

Write Often.

Lady Pamela

Vintage and not so Vintage finds...

Snail Mail Tools...

I love when I find a product that is just right.  Here is one, if you like vintage sort of embellishments for your snail mail adventures...or perhaps journals... you might want to give Littlejenstore over at  Etsy a look.  I was very pleased.  It took a little bit for delivery (ships from Hong Kong), I had forgotten I had ordered it.  But it arrived safe and sound.

I purchased two sets.  Most of them are perforated for the individual stickers.  Some of the sheets are not perforated, but could be used with punches.

Here is some ways I have used these cute stickers  on some of my envelopes recently...

Don't forget the B-side!

 And here is Miss Piggy...Vintage style!

Oh, I do love Mr. Rooster!

Write Letters,

Write often.

Lady Pamela

Letters As History: 1885

1885 Letter...a peek into the past!

Here is one of the envelopes  that I purchased at Packard's Stamps and Rocks some time back.  It was in my pile of very interesting envelopes . When I got home I realized that  it had a letter in it!  This was written in  a town a couple hours from where I live, Martinsville, VA.  It is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The sender is the wife of Mr. Wythe M. Peyton , Esq.  He , the receiver of this pencil written letter is an attorney -at- law, in Martinsville.  Evidently there was some outbreak of infectious disease that claimed an acquaintance's  (Mr. H) children .  Mrs. Peyton, evidently had been continuous contact via the mail by her remarks.  This reminds me of the scene in Jane Austen where Marianne is sending John Willoughby several letters a day in Bath.  

Interestingly, after expressing concern for Mr. Peyton's safety and interest in him returning home as soon as possible, she switches gears to the dress that is not trimmed properly and the missing basque!

Then all the domestic goings on...all in this simple letter!  What a peek into the daily, mundane life of a family in the 1880's.  

For the philately inclined...I loved seeing  these hand canceled stamps...Does anyone see anything else that I am missing?  

These dried flowers were found it the letter...over 130 years ago.

April 4th 1885

April 4^th 1885

My dear Husband:

You can’t imagine my delight when I received your note yesterday evening but I can’t keep from feeling uneasy about you  knowing your great kindness to people who are in distress; Have you been to Mr H’s house?  And where  were his children buried?  I do feel  so sorry for the family but hope you will not expose yourself that you may without danger come to see us soon.  I hope you can come this evening if you think safe as Aunt A  has invited Annie Watkins who is at Mrs Matilda Penns to come here this evening where her sister Jennie will meet her.  Please accept many thanks for the things you sent me; but I could not wear my dress as Lucy forgot to send me the basque and the overshirt is trimmed entirely different from the model we selected and promised to trim exactly like it; please send or bring the basque this evening as tomorrow is Sunday.  The children are well and continue to wish you were here to enjoy the nice things.  Loulie was delighted to get her basket and send you many thanks for sending it.  Preston walked close to me just a minute ago and said “tell Pa  I am very much oblige to him for writing to you , but I want him to come to stay with us.”  Please excuse writing my pencil is so short.  I send  Miss Lucy A the measures for Loulie & Preston.  Aunt S sends many thanks for your messages and says you must come down when you think it is safe for the children.  (With truest love and kisses from Loulie, Preston & Your fond Wife)

G. W. Peyton

I hope you have enjoyed this letter as much as I have.  I am currently trying to reach the historian from Charlotte County Historical Society to see if they can tell me what infectious outbreak was occurring at this time.   Just a bit of detective work!

If you visit any antique stores, poke around in their envelope boxes, and ask them if they have any old letters.  We can learn much from the past.

Write Letters,

Write Often...someday someone might be blogging about your little letter a century later!

Lady Pamela

Vintage Books Re purposed for Snailmail

I have a Horatio Alger book collection.  But, unfortunately  they were printed on really bad paper...the effect now is that they are disintegrating ...crumbling , each time you open them.  This particular book is so amazing.  I love the cover, but pages are fast falling out.  Now...just so you know.  I do NOT advocate buying up these beautiful OLD books for the sole purpose of tearing them apart.  That would be like tearing apart my soul!  I have hundreds, if not thousands of out- of- print books in my home.  Ask anyone who knows me!  But, I decided to use this one for the purpose of "sharing".  One thing that I have found that is somewhat  of interest to me since I have a love affair with old books, is the  taking from an old book a single page and including it in your snail mail.  This gives others a taste for vintage reading that they may not have ever been exposed to and might even get them "into" old books as a hobby.

Here you can see that I have included a page from the book Facing the World by Horatio Alger on the cover of my envelope.   I will also share a page of it in my letter.  Then I used rubber stamps and craft paper and made some vintage prints,old tickets, stamps,etc. to collage onto the envelope.  

Here are some gorgeous pages I received in a recent swap.  Oh...I love the prints...the pen and ink drawings are just amazing.

I came across this at Pinterest and I am in love!  The web site is :  http://cosmocricket.typepad.com.
and the pictures are from this website.  I just love how she has extended the life of an old book!

Cosmo Cricket has a lovely DIY tutorial on how she made this!  I hope you will visit her site and give this a try.

Write Letters,
Write Often.

Lady Pamela

Stationery Scandals: Vintage Postal Theme

Vintage Postal Theme

Here is some more of my creations for stationery.  I recently visited our RVA stamp store...and what a visit I had!  I will have to share in a later post about my finds.  But among other things I was able to pick up some bulk vintage stamps (already off the envelopes), very convenient for craft purposes.    So it's time to get out your snail mail tools and get to work!  I collect a lot of vintage postal ephemera , so while looking over these and my vintage postal washi tape, I decided that would be my design theme.  The paper, also is a cream color instead of a white.  Do you have some old cancelled stamps?  This would be a good project to use  on  this stationery .  The red label (which I use very frequently in my mail art) can be purchased at the Dollar Tree!  Yay!!! Vintage--ee  looking and cheap!

The paper is just decorated with a few glued on old stamps, sort of scattered on the boarders.  The tag was very simply made by just gluing on some old stamps on a Kraft tag.  The rest of the envelope art is just vintage stickers.

Have fun making and SENDING your own designed stationery to someone who will really be wowed by it.  

Write Letters,

Write Often.

Lady Pamela

Steam Punk, Vintage, Retro Snail Mail....Here We Come!

  

Vintage, Steamp Punk Styled

These outgoing letters have a bit of modge podge with the collage effect.  I enjoy the vintage look and retro feel of some of these letters.  What is your favorite style?