Letter Writers Alliance

Spider Printable from The Postman's Knock

Lindsey of the always awesome Postman's Knock blog has up a new printable for your Halloween mail needs. I don't even like spiders, but these are gorgeous and creepy. Creepgeous? Gorgeepy? As a bonus, she also walks you  through how to build the envelope and do calligraphy on the front. She does such great work and is so generous. Remember to tell her thank you!

Don't Put Cats in Mailboxes

Rather, don't put LIVE cats in mailboxes. At least we know the boxes get checked daily, but man, why do people gotta be jerks? The kitten in this archive photo was rescued by the postman, but just think of the trauma to the poor kitty and the damage done to mail in the box.

You can, however, put all kinds of cat inspired stuff in the mail. Why not use the fun printable template for a cat-shaped envelope while you're at it? The Paper Pastries company (-Hi, Margaret!-) has you set up for cat-themed stuff in their shop and inspiration on their blog. Check the #catmail and #sendmorecatmail for tons of awww and ideas.  

Bluebird of Mail Happiness

Hey guys! Did you know we have awesome, creative members as part of the Letter Writers Alliance? We totally do. And they are super generous as well. Check out this great, free download offered over at Torta Gialla for your adorable letter writing needs. This is the second time the lovely Linda has shared her talents with us. Please remember to tell her thank you and consider supporting the shop there. If you like things to print out, she's got you covered!

Letter Writers Alliance Artistamps

Kevin of the always amazing Philosetlian Post designed these artistamps for all members to use! How great is that?! Members can get them in our downloads section. Kevin is way cool. Also, he's offering a free perforation of a sheet of the stamps for members. 

Here’s what to do:

-Download and print a sheet of LWA stamps on ungummed or dry-gummed paper. (Do not use sticker paper! Stamps printed on self-adhesive labels or stickers will be returned unperforated.)

-Fold the sheet along the lines labeled “fold here” and insert it into a #10 business size envelope. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope in which your perforated sheet can be returned to you. (If you prefer, you can place the unfolded sheet and SASE inside a large envelope.)

-Mail the envelope containing your LWA stamps and SASE to:
Kevin Blackston
PO Box 57622
Jacksonville FL 32241-7622
United States of America

Your sheet of stamps will be perforated and returned to you for free!

Please note: Free perforation offer is limited to one sheet of L.W.A .fantasy stamps (designed by Kevin Blackston) per member per calendar year. If you wish to submit multiple sheets, or if you are interested in having other L.W.A. downloads or stamps of your own design perforated, you may be interested in Philosateleian Post’s printing and perforating services.

And if you take him up on his offer, remember to thank Kevin for his amazing services! And thank you all so much for your contributions to our community!

Write_On Reminder

Welcome to April! It's National Card and Letter Writing month and time to participate in Write_On! The goals: send a letter/card a day during April. Share your sent and received mail with the #write_on tag. That's it.

The tag is truly inspiring. Check out these awesome downloadable stickers made by L.W.A. member Jessica J which she has graciously shared with us. Thanks Jessica!

There's a number of events that they have going on: socials and swaps. Check out their list. If you attend any events, be sure to share photos of them with us and your fellow members. (All 10,000 free kits have been spoken for, but you can still purchase supplies in their shop.) Happy writing!

New Free Download: Envelope Stationery

Awesome member Linda, of Happy Print Club, has created a fun download just for L.W.A. members! I'm loving the fun envelope/notecard set. Read more about it and download it on Linda's blog.

Thanks Linda for your great design and for sharing it with our community.

-Kathy

New Free Download: Post Card Love

Lovely member Franziska of Emadam created two different postcard designs especially for our community! Each design has two variations on one sheet. Pick one (or both) for your pen pal's pleasure. Thanks again to Franziska for such lovely designs.

Download postcards here. (Member exclusive.)

Welcome to Ingress

If you're a pen pal of mine, you've heard this confession already. I am heavily involved in an ARG (that's an Alternate Reality Game) called Ingress. It works with your smart phone and Google maps. To play, you have to be physically present in specific geographic location. The elevator pitch is that it's "Like Four Square, but with space noises." I like to tell people that it's a combination of geocaching and capture the flag. In past couple years of playing Ingress, I have walked over 2,700 km, visited parts of my city I'd never seen*, and I've met my neighbors. That's the thing about having to be physically present; you end up interacting with people who live near you.

There is a storyline to Ingress all about space aliens and evolution and government conspiracies, but most everyone who plays will tell you that it's really just Blue Team (the Resistance) versus Green Team (the Enlightenment.) CNET has a good article that calls it "Earth's friendliest turf-war." You start playing by picking a side. Full disclosure, I'm on the Blue Team (and I think if this sounds cool to you, then you should be too!)

There are points on the map called portals. These portals are all public art, statues, locally-owned businesses, historic buildings, et cetera. The goal of each team is to control the portal by making it either blue or green. The portals can then be linked together to form fields. Fields make whole areas of the map blue or green. Those are the basics. 

"Hey, Donovan," you might be asking, "what's this have to do with the Letter Writers Alliance?" I'm glad you asked. What I like most about Ingress is how it blends the digital world with reality. Sure, the glowing lights aren't in the real world, but that cool mural I never noticed before is definitely there. That's a lot like what we're trying to do with the Alliance. We want to use the Internet to interact more with our tangible space. We want to make connections with people, not just their screens. We use email to make more real mail. They use gamification to make people explore their environment. 

I admit, the connect is a bit vague, but look, I made free stationery and notecards! You get a gift for listening to me talk about it. It is what I'm doing when I'm not doing all that other stuff that I do. *If you follow my Instagram feed, that's what all the #ingress is about. I take those photos when I'm out exploring for the game.

As an additional bribe incentive, I also have special artistamps for the Ingress available. There are two ways to get them:

1- (For new players) Send me an email with a request for an invitation to the game. I'll send you an invite. Sign up as a Resistance player and send me a screenshot of your Ingress Agent Profile along with your address and I will mail you stamps.

2- (For current players) Send me a screenshot of your Ingress Agent Profile along with your address and I will mail you stamps. If you're Enlightened, I will send you stamps, but they are pro-Resistance. (Feel free to faction switch and join the good guys!)

The world around you is not what it seems! Join me in the fight to save humanity from alien corruption, or, you know, walk around outside for a bit and maybe see something new in your neighborhood. Whichever seems more likely.

Free Download: Black & White Illustrated Envelopes

Graphic Designer Liz Mosley has released a set of three downloadable envelopes from her website. That was sweet of her. The fronts have a blank space left for the address which was also considerate. Thanks Liz! Now we'll have a great answer to the old riddle "What's black and white and read all over?"

Envelope Guidelines

Neenah Paper has a really handy listing of downloadable PDFs of envelope template guides. They've got lots to choose from, stately Baronial to utilitarian commercial styles and more. Not all are to scale, but these give you a good place to start if you were interested in making a whole bunch of envelopes. I wouldn't know anything about the desire to make a whole bunch of envelopes though. Nope. Not me.