Smiles Sent Saturday ~ 7/16/2016 ~ 4th of July

Well, it's been a while since I've posted...in part because I've got to share some of my smiles in person...in other words I got to visit many of those I send mail to!

For the 4th of July I made my own cards this year-it's hard to find 4th cards, plus it saved money, and turned out supper cute if I do say so myself! :)  I started with plain black cards-and drew fireworks on the front.  Then I made "Happy 4th of July signs to paste on the inside with some clipart I found online (here) combined with a font.

I also had some stamps I was really excited to get to use on this:

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~5/14/16

Got some fun mail sent out recently!

A Mother's Day card to an aunt-flowers matched the card plus "love" was perfect and the Washington stamp was just to fill out the amount. 

Another aunt Mother's Day card, this card had day lilies and stripes on it.  The stamps all seemed to hint at stripes plus I put stripes on the side and the day lily sticker. 

 This card had a butterfly on it, and was purple and tan like the windmill.

This was a card I sent "for" a dog "family member" to her "mama" for Mother's Day. 

 This was a birthday card to an uncle, the card had the stars and dots.

This card had quilted birds and flowers.

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~4/30/16

I haven't had much time lately to decorate envelopes, but I have had some fun with stamps matching them to themes.

This was a spring one, the paper and envelope were the same and had spring bulbs and rhododendrons on it.  I put spring stamps on it-stawberries, baseball, flowers, and nesting birds. 

This one was for a typewritten letter-printing press, letters, and paper boys.  It was a letter to my grandfather to thank him for giving me my late grandmother's typewriter. (see below)  It's so exciting to have it! 

It's a Smith-Corona Silent-Super. He actually brought three, his grandfather's-a 1927 Remington, this one (that they got early in their marriage), and an electric one she got later.  My sister will probably use the 1927 Remington (which seems to work, but we're trying to get the musty smell out of), and I haven't got a chance to check out the electric one.  This one was jammed up, the , most everything would work, but the keys wouldn't type.  But with some work, and info, especially from My Old Typewriter blog, I got it working.  Seems it just needed some cleaning.  After a few hours of cleaning off where the type bars pivot with a toothbrush and denatured alcohol it's working pretty good now.  I still need to clean the outside of the typewriter, but at least it works for now!

...and here's a sneak peak of the other two typewriters:

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~4/2/16 ~ Easter and other

I did simpler envelopes for my Easter cards, a mix of flower rubber stamps, and various postage stamps:

To get the muted colors on the rubber stamp I inked it once with bright colors, used it (like on the top one) and then inked it with a very light pink marker, it made the colors really coordinate well with the  colors on the card.

I really liked the petrified wood stamps, not only did it match color wise, but the wood evoked the cross, the shape the stone in front of the empty tomb, and that's what I celebrate at Easter

We sent more than one kind of card, so I used two different flower rubber stamps and color schemes

...and finally, a card I sent "to" a family member's dog who either ran away, or someone picked him up and was missing for almost a week, before coming safely home-so it was a celebration/congratulations card for being safely back.  I thought the stamp was just perfect for  his "adventure".

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~3/26/16~St Patrick's Day

I made some fun St Patrick's Day envelopes this year and thought I'd share:

 

This was for a letter, I printed the envelope.  I used online font from "Gothic Leaf" from FontSpace for the name and a simpler one from my computer for the address.  Combined with green and font stamps.

 Green envelope-loved how the horse-car stamped coordinated with the colors!

In the absence of true St. Patrick's Day stamps, had to go a lot with color.

 This St Patrick's Day card had a rainbow Ireland scene, so the  Expo '74...which I didn't really expect to use that much...matched perfectly.

And finally a random card I sent to cheer up an elderly women through From the Heart on Facebook.

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~March 5, 2016

For the fourth straight year I successfully completed the Month of Letters Challenge.  Such a good motivation to write people!  Here's the envelopes for the last day of that

Butterfly and flower card to a friend.

 Birthday card to a great aunt with quilted flowers and birds.

This was a classical mail themed one.  The paper matched the image on the envelop flap, and the stamps coordinated nicely I thought.  I used a wide tip pencil to address it to give it a more classic look.

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~February 27, 2016

Don't have as exciting of envelopes to share this week, but still had fun writing people!

Love how the new little car stamp turned out.

It's always fun when the stationery envelope already has decoration and you can add a stamp that matches-loving the new Botanical Art Stamps.  I got the camera stamp lately and thought it'd be fun to use like this-I'm not sure it will be handled differently with machines and all, but it's fun and will let people know they have photos to look forward to!

And finally, this is my all time favorite stationery for A Month of Letters Challenge.   I put the card in the photo, too, so you can see how it coordinates. It is just small cards, perfect for a quick note or reply and just goes with the theme so well, I often pair it with the Sealed with Love Stamp, but for this one, going to the closest thing I have to a pen-pal, I had fun finding postal themed stamps to use.  I had the PS & Postal Museum one, and was trying to decide what else to use when I "rediscovered" the City Mail one in my stash and thought it was perfect!!  If you are interested in these, I found they are still available to purchase from Graphique and is called Airmail 3" x 5" Flat Note

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile. 

Smiles Sent Saturday~February 20, 2016 ~A Month of Letters

Just completed another successful week of The Month of Letter Challenge.  So fun to have the little "push" to write people I normally wouldn't.

The stamps seemed to work well...the paper had a colorful dot border.

For a birthday (hence the Amethyst stamp as it's the birthstone for February) card with an owl on it.  

A cat card-so cats & birds seemed like a good idea.

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~February 13, 2016

I've enjoyed another week of A Month of Letters Challenge.  One day I ran short on time and inspiration, so sent a postcard to my aunt who I've done that before, I call her my "escape valve" Haha!

This was for a Valentine's card to a family member.  It had a gold border and tulips, so the new tulip stamp was PERFECT!!  I used a gold border for the return address, gold letters for the name, and had a gold & tulip seal.

Another Valentines card, was glad to have one of the Garden of Love stamps to tie together the red card & decorations with the purple envelope.

Another Valentine's envelope.

This is the last of the envelopes for the "across the miles cards" I mentioned last week.

This card had hearts that looked stitched around, so I used this sticky note for an address label, used a stick of glue to attach it, and pink colored stamps.

Another sticky note, glued on as an address label.  The card had quilt looking birds.

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~February 6, 2016

Excited to start A Month of Letters Challenge this week, so far I've managed to send one thing a day! 

One of the first thing I sent.  I thought the envelope turned out so fun!  Love having vintage stamps to pick from!  These were picked to go with the flower/mail/Paris themed card.

This is a card I sent "from" two dogs of a family member to her.  I made up a signature for each of them, and tried to disguise my handwriting and make it look younger.  She'll probably know who it's from from the postmark...and this year the vintage stamps, but the idea was for it to look "like" it was from the puppies.

I found these super cute "across the miles" card at CVS for $0.99 each, and as we had the $3/3 Hallmark Cards Printable Coupon we were able to get them for free!!  (if you want to know more about saving money shopping at CVS check out my other blog SimplyCVS) 

To match the ocean bottle theme, here's what I came up with.  I used labels so the address would be on white to make it easier for the machines to read, plus it looked cute!

 This one went with the theme.

This one was to a great aunt who likes roses.

This matched color wise, and was to a great aunt who I think had traveled in Europe. 

This went with the card theme with a southern slat for my great aunt who lives in Florida.

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.

Smiles Sent Saturday~January 30, 2016

I was so excited when I saw the "From Me to You" stamps were coming, and bought them pretty early.  But...I kept not using them, then this week, I used two this week!

This one was for a birthday card with arrows, I thought the words on the stamp went well with the arrows. 

This card had a cat on it, and I found this old stencil to use...I just picked the stamp for the color...and because I'd been wanting to use. :)

I'm excited to be getting ready for the "Month of Letter's Challenge" starting Monday!!!  I'm also glad to have my sister trying it out this year!

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.