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.

Smiles Sent Saturday~1/23/16

Just one interesting envelope to share this week.  Should have more to share soon with the Month of Letters Challenge coming up next month.

I loved how I was able to find the stamps to coordinate and the penguin turned out cuter then I expected when I colored it in!

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

Smiles Sent Saturday~1/16/16

I only have one envelope to share today...the envelope we sent a birthday card to a great aunt in.  Kind of simple, but the vintage stamps really make it pop!

I'm also working on writing a multi day/page letter.  and trying to get organized for the A Month of Letters Challenge and Easter cards.

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

Smiles Sent Saturday~1/9/16~New Year's

I really liked this Charlie Brown stamp.  The only way I could figure out how to work it in to an overall design, was to decorate the envelope upside down!  That way the address & stamp were in the right places.  This is how it looked when being mailed:
This is how it looked with the illustration right side up:

And here's my New Year's envelopes:

For a card with fireworks 

Another envelope design for the same card design 

For a balloon card

Here's just another couple envelopes of birthday cards I've sent recently:

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

Smiles Sent Saturday~12/19/15~Christmas packages & mail

Here's some Christmas themed mail I've sent lately:

 This paper had a horn on it, so I decided to go with musical stamps.

Smiles Sent Saturday ~ 12/12/15 ~ Christmas Cards

Here's our Christmas Card envelopes for this year.

This was our main one-the card was navy blue with a silver town of Bethlehem embossed on it.  I had bought them on clearance around last Christmas, and was excited that the stamps released last year matched, but when I went to buy them around the first of the year they were gone, so I had to buy press sheets and cut it apart.

This one I used a different stamp for the same card.  This card is one my sister and I mail to the widow of our childhood mailman.  We were homeschooled, so were always home when the mail came, and when we'd see him coming down the road my mom would let us run out to wait (safely off the road) for him to come and he'd hand the mail to my sister and I.  He retired, and we grew up, but we reconnected a few years ago at the funeral of another mailman who went to church with us-we posed for a photo.  He said ours was the only house he'd hope for junk mail at, so he'd have something to hand to each of us.  We started sending him Christmas cards with a little note/letter updating him on our lives, and after he died, we continue to send them to her.  I thought the stamp was great as it matched the card and was also mail themed which was perfect for how we knew her.

And this is a different card we sent.  It had Christmas lights as the cover.  I tried to copy the image for the envelope and then I saw the Charlie Brown stamps!  I was thrilled-like the movie and the stamps coordinated SO well!

We also did alternate stamps on some of these-this was for a family some of whose children's came to the family through adoption, so the corner stamp was perfect, the rocking horse was cute, and the Tiffany lamp was kind of like colored lights.

I also helped my grandmother get her Christmas cards out.  She's to the point where all she can do is sign them, but I get cards I know she'll like and get the envelopes all addressed and stamped for her-she really liked the pretty stamps!

I think between the cards our family mailed, our family sent through our church to homebound members, and the ones I helped my grandmother send I can account for over 100 cards!  So fun!!!

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