Spring is coming! (at least in the mail;) )

Heyho,

how are you all? :D

This month I got some mt washi tapes as a gift so 

I couldn't help but use them for my mail art :D

The magenta colored thin tape is not from a japanese brand and doesn't stick too well,

so I didn't really use much of it.

But I really really like the sakura styled ones :D

Super cute~ <3

So even though it just snowed a few days ago I felt like doing something spring themed^^

Found some clear and rubber stamps that went missing a long time ago~, 

while I was renovating my bed room

I did buy some new stamps in the beginning of the month and the cat and snoopy were part of it :)

I'm not sure where I got it from but heard that making the number of 

elements uneven makes the cluster more harmonious.

And I know, I've been saying that I don't want to really decorate notebooks, but I decided I'd go ahead and do one book with all the field trips and special days (so not a daily activity). I usually

procrastinate if it's something I want to do daily but occasionally decorate some pages is relatively stressfree, I think.^^

So I've called this chapter positive vibes as I've noticed that I mostly write about worries and negative experience. But I've read somewhere (can't really recall where..) that rereading and remembering positive experiences makes you happier than you can imagine, The memories fade with the time so writing about them will definetely help :) Especially when having bad times it may become difficult to remember that there have been really good times. So yeah~ that's the idea behind this :)

I've got some ideas for using kawaii mini memos, can't wait to show you all ^^

~Use It Or Lose It~

I've noticed I have too many craft supplies. Wait! What am I saying? Really? One can never have enough of them right ! ^^ No, seriously I have heaps of stickers and cut-outs and masking tape samples. But somehow never get to use them as I buy new ones. Also I don't have enough space to sotre them all if it just grows :P So I'm challenging myself to only use what I have and make purchases only seasonally if I don't already have too many of them: spring, easter, summer, fall, halloween, winter, xmas. So that's less than a month - I think I can handle that^^ I hope~

So... how am I gonna use them up? By crafting of course! And I will be sharing some of the creations with you on this blog :D

So stay tuned as I will be posting my first ideas soonish :)

New Beginnings~

Hi~ hello~How are you all? So it's been pretty silent the past year. As I do write and receive a lot of letters, postcards and swaps I couldn't really catch up with uploading images and all so I decided I will be posting incoming and outcoming mail in my instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/striffy1412/

I will be using this blog to occasionally post about new mail (art) ideas and wips :) I hope you'll enjoy them :)

So stay tuned and check back from time to time :)

Striffy

Incoming mail ^__^

The last two weeks were a bit busy with finishing papers and uni starting again^^

Some of the letters/swaps I received: 

I swapped Pokemon ATCs with an indonesion friend from postcrossing forum ^__^

They are sooooo cute <3

The Pikachu on the back is a food package postcard :D

I started collecting food package postcards with cute characters so this one fits right in ^__^

I participated in the Offers&Request RR and received these cool cards from Detective Conan :D

The one on the left is from the Japan - Other countries Tag. The Japanese are usually very 

fast tagged so I am only able to tag once or twice a year. I especially love the soft pastel colors :)

I think it's made with water colors.

The postcard in the middle is from my postcard pal from Japan. Do you recognize Mr. Fuji.

I love calling Mount Fuji Mister Fuji as he's called Fuji-san in Japanese and san could

 also mean  Mister or Miss. :D

The card on the right is from a Lithuanian friend :D The cat is sooo cute, right? Right :D

And here's a letter and postcard from my new penpal from Japan. ^^

She has a german boyfriend so she also learns german and mixes 

some german sentences with english sentences^^

I was looking for one who enjoys art so I was happy to start a new friendship with her.

And I also received a letter from a penpal in Japan I already write to for about a year and a half^^

I was very surprised when I read some German sentences in the beginning :D

And this is a reply from an america penpal I met through the penpal RR ^^

I also send some replies to my penpal pals:

The postcard is from the Manga 31 I Dream by Arina Tanemura, I like the story so far so I wanted to share something about it ^^ I read in her swap-bot profile that she likes Chai teas so I sent one to try. :)

As she likes cats I send her a roller friend. It is something to roll cables on e.g.ear phone cables^^.


I'll be sending my replies very soon :D

Incoming ^o^//

Recently I'm slowing a bit down with swaps and tags from postcrossing 

and swap-bot to focus on my studies but also on my penpal letters and sending some happy mail to my former classmates ^__^ (but I'll still do some swaps & tags from time to time ^__^)

Last Saturday I received a lovely little package from a japanese postcrossing member, who I tagged for letter paper, memo sheets, washi, sticker flakes and Pokemon postcard and joined a RoundRobin group (for another Pokemon postcard^^). 

She used some cool Doraemon stamps ^^

A while ago I hosted a Pokemon ATC swap on swap-bot and received these three lovely Pokemon:

Plusle, Cyndaquil and Cubone

And I also received a very lovely package from my penpal in the U.K.

The envelopes have very fun colors and design and I really enjoyed reading her letter ^__^

You can see her blog here

Outgoing Mail~

While I was going through my swaps I found some plain brown envelopes
I recycled to make Air Mail tags

One of them I used on this postcard for a RoundRobin on Postcrossing ^__^

And here's another one of the snail mail envelopes I made out of the

Manga pamphlet^__^

I also send out some birthday mail a week ago^__^

She is a member of the Anime and Manga club on the postcrossing forum

I found it more and more fun to decorate postcards and envelopes ^^

I wonder.. how do YOU keep track of friends' birthdays^^?

I'm happy one of the forum's members created a thread in which everyone could post their birthdate :D

Outgoing Mail~

Last week while buying a birthday present for my brother I saw a manga preview 

(advertising) pamphlet and I used most of it for decorating my outgoing mail:

I was amazed by the adorable pictures that I didn't get read all the advertisement 

for new manga but.. oh well, I sure had fun doing the envelopes xD

I'll be uploading the other envelopes when I mail them out ^__^

Also I mailed out a swap to a Postcrossing member ^^