When I think of letter writing as an abstract notion I think of Vermeer paintings. When I think of myself sitting down to write letters I think of particular things such as my desk and bottles of ink and fountain pens. Sealing wax comes to mind and also paper. I can almost feel its texture or its smoothness just thinking of it. These images are always accompanied by feelings of comfort and warmth.
The reality of sitting down to write a letter is often complicated by little things going wrong like misspelling words, crumpling up the paper and starting over. Sometimes, pen in hand, I stare at the paper as though my mind has gone mute. Tonight I sat at my desk to respond to letters. They would be my first letters of the year and all was well. I wrote the first letter easily. Thoughts flowed and letters correctly formed words with no embarrassing misspellings. Filled with the optimism borne of accomplishment I thought I would make an envelope instead of conveniently pulling one out of the box. A handmade envelope is always a nice touch I thought. To make it a sort of celebration I opened a bag of Smarties to eat while making the envelope. I then brought out the glue. Please understand that Elmer's Glue has been a lifelong friend. It has served me well since kindergarten. It was there for me though various and multitudinous craft projects even into my adult years. But tonight...Elmer wronged me. The cap came off the bottle and glue puddled on the paper, ran on to the desk, down to the chair, and finally to the floor. I ran to grab a wet rag and set to work cleaning, cleaning, cleaning before glue could dry. The warm feelings I enjoyed earlier had completely cooled. I am pleased to say that espite this bumpy start I was able to press on and write more letters...but only after eating more Smarties.
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![]() Remember the envecordion? Meet its cousin, the very long envelope, courtesy of Jan. Really, it needs a better name than "long envelope." Perhaps after my tea I will think of something more clever and edit this post. The extended envelope (is that a better name?) is for the letter writer who's letters are simply too long for a single envelope or for the writer who wishes to save trips to the post office by mailing a week's worth of letters at the same time. They can be labeled Monday through Friday, Saturdays being reserved for parcels. Wouldn't it be wonderful to receive a week's worth of love letters packaged in such a marvelous way? The third category of person to use such an envelope is the creative pen pal seeking to delight a friend. (I think it will work!) I sit now on my front porch enjoying what remains of the morning and my cup of tea. Soon I will be driven inside by heat, it's already getting warm but I will enjoy this moment regardless. I am hoping the mail will come soon. I have ordered stamps online and they should come today. This is a brand new thing for me so of course I am eager for the mail carrier's arrival. I saw a mail truck drive by but no sign of the mail man just yet. I also have some Crane stationery on order. If it doesn't arrive today I will have reason to lie in wait tomorrow which, of course, would give me something to look forward to. Hopefully, deliveries will be in the morning. I may have a childish excitement about mail but I am never so eager as to wait in the 104 degree heat. (I'll just sit inside peering out the window.) You may remember my daughter's exhortation to me to make envelopes instead of using only "boring, blue envelopes." Well, I did make envelopes and afterward realized I had made them all in blue...plain, boring blue. I felt this was a bit self-defeating but I thought of a remedy. Out came the craft scissors and more colored paper. Using the envelope template as a guide I made envelope liners of differing colors. I thought the craft scissors provided more visual interest than a straight edge. The result is below. Unfortunately, trusty Elmer's tends to be too wet for this project and crinkles the paper somewhat. I do hope envelope recipients will forgive crinkling. As a final touch, I used the same craft scissors to make a pattern on the top of the letter sheet. I used Clairfontaine Triomphe paper for this. It is oh so smooth and loves fountain pens. I hope recipients will find this stationery as enjoyable to receive as it has been to make.
In the last post I wrote about making envelopes and Peony inquired where I get templates for envelopes and liners. Happily, my source is available to anyone and at a low cost. Find any envelope you'd like to use as a pattern, carefully disassemble it, and voila! A template! Just trace it onto card stock or a manilla folder if it requires large paper and cut it out. In the picture below I used an envelope liner. I made the liner template by tracing the side of the envelope which is slightly smaller than the top flap and eyeballed the rest. If you look carefully you'll notice that the liner doesn't match up with the envelope perfectly but it's close enough to get a passing grade. It also looks like the part I eyeballed, the part that goes inside the envelope, didn't turn out perfectly straight but it's only on the inside and probably won't be noticed. Tip: when gluing the liner inside the envelope, glue inside the flap that folds down and then if you wish to glue the bottom section, do so only after folding down the flap. This will prevent anything wonky from happening when the envelope is closed. Always use glue sparingly or you could end up with some interesting waves in the paper. So, go make a template and have fun!
![]() I have a friend of a particularly generous nature. The last letter I sent her was enclosed in an envelope I made from scrapbooking paper. The first time I saw her after she received my letter she handed me a packet of colorful paper with which I could make more envelopes. What fun! I felt like a kid at Christmas. ![]() Of course I had her in mind when I made the first envelope and wanted it to be special because she had blessed me so much. Two of the pieces coordinated perfectly, one having a sky and cloud pattern, the other sky and clouds with butterflies. This combination was too cute to resist. I hope she enjoys this envelope's whimsical attitude as much as I do. ![]() In this picture you see the finished result. I see I'm getting better with glue as the paper isn't wavy at the seams like it was on the last few envelopes I made. (And I here I thought I had mastered cut and paste in kindergarten!) Even the simplest things take practice. I find that letter writing itself, though simple, takes practice just like anything else. The more letters I write, the easier it becomes to put thoughts on paper and produce a letter that not only communicates well but may even be enjoyable to read. And enjoyment, dear readers, is always my hope in this letter writing adventure. What's yours? |
Letter Matters
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