freebie friday XXVI

I NO LONGER POST ON THIS BLOG, PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT MY NEW ONE!

Hi guys, as you probably know I've been to Paris a couple of weeks ago and I'm still feeling inspired by that city.. so for today's freebies I've got something themed!

click here to download

Enjoy and please let me know your ideas for future printables!
ƒ.

Back from Paris (part II)

Hey guys, I'm back today with the second and last post about my Parisian adventures.
Thank you all for your patience and for sticking around even tho I haven't been really posting anything mail related in a while, but I promise this will change in a timely matter, and will also come with a fresh and exciting news for ya all ☺

Day 3, March 15th~ 
Through the Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt, I had the chance to meet a lot of new people, and one of these happened to live in Paris! Terah, that's her name, and I talked for a while on twitter and via email and decided that it would have been nice to meet up while we were visiting, and we agreed on March 15th.
We met outside our metro station and walked together towards Montmartre, and obviously stopped at the Sacre Coeur to enjoy the breathtaking view.

Back from Paris (part 1)

Bonjour guys! I'm finally (not that I'm completely happy about it) back in Italy from my trip to Paris. We actually came back on the 19th but I was busy catching up with Uni and re-painting my room (my stuff is currently still in boxes so if you're waiting for a letter from me, please be patient a little longer :c) that I barely had the time for anything else.
Anyway, I'm here now, and I'd like to share some snippets of my holiday with you ☺

First off, our trip didn't start with the right foot at all. Our flight was due at 2PM of the 12th, but once at the airport we were told that it had a 2 hours delay due to the snowstorm happening in Paris.
A two hours delay was a real bummer, we had a lot of stuff planned for the afternoon since we would have landed at about 5PM and had the whole afternoon free, but at least our flight wasn't cancelled as some others flights departing from the Orly Airport.
After two hours our plane wasn't ready yet.. and long story short, after 8 hours waiting at the airport, we finally left for Paris and landed safely despite the snowstorm at 10PM.

Are you looking for a penpal in Australia?

Hi guys! Today I want to introduce you to a fantastic artist from Australia who's looking for a snail mail friend :) here's her penpal ad:

"I'm Amelia from Adelaide, South Australia, and I'm 25 years old. I'm a librarian and an artist and I'm looking for a pen friend, perhaps someone who is around the same age, and has similar interests: painting, drawing, crafting, cooking, reading and dreaming. But really I'd just like to find a new friend to send and receive nice things in the mail with. If you're up for an exchange, message me on tumblr!
www.ameliabirve.tumblr.com"

So, are you looking for a creative penpal in Australia? Contact her then! Or if you don't have tumblr, feel free to send me an email and I'll get you in touch with her :)

Have a nice day,
ƒ.


{picture © Amelia Birvé ~ acrylic painting}

Inspiring People: Flow Magazine

Welcome to another inspirational post;
Today I want to introduce you to Flow Magazine, a Dutch magazine for paper lovers that recently launched their first International edition (that I, of course, grabbed as soon as I found it out).

happy birthday to me

Can you smell the sweetness of the freshly baked cake in the air? No?! Me neither!
But that's because I'm in Paris, breathing French air at the moment, and it makes me quite happy. Jokes aside, today's my birthday. I'm turning twenty two years old today, which is more than a 1/3 of the age of my grandpa and it's freaking me out.
I may write a post about about how ageing scares me, or how very unsatisfied I am about what I've accomplished in two decades.. but I won't! Instead, here's a gif of my Guinea pig munching a carrot~

Sorry for the very random post, but birthdays make me sad.

Have a great day!
ƒ.

(I'm aware that he cage looks super disgusting.. I was about to change it but couldn't resist the urge to film his little muzzle in action *onomnomnomnom*)

BRB!

Inspiring People: AnkePanke

Every artist needs sources of inspiration, so I decided to dedicate a few post about inspiring people, new and old acquaintances of mine or just bloggers that I admire from the shadows.
I want to start this series with AnkePanke, a Dutch illustrator I had the chance to meet through instagram (@ankepanke).

The perfect way to introduce her to you, in my opinion, is to show you what I received yesterday in the mail:

smash sunday: packaging inspiration

Don't you just love wrapping presents? I really do! I'm the family member in charge for present wrapping during Christmas, and I always enjoy picking up pretty wrapping paper, ribbons and what not; But it doesn't have to be Christmas to beautifully wrap a present, right? So today I'm going to share a bit of packaging inspiration featuring some lovely people that joined my swap ☺

1.  Bright coloured tissue paper: you can't go wrong with that, especially if you tie a pretty tag with thread around it!

pic © jolien

freebie friday XXV

I NO LONGER POST ON THIS BLOG, PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT MY NEW ONE!

Hi guys!
For this Freebie Friday I have something different for you.
I was thinking about what is something I often send to my penpals and "a list of favourite books" popped in my mind, so I decided to make a printable to send them in a much nicer and fun way ☺

click here to download.

Please let me know if you'd like to see more of this kind of printables or not, and feel free to suggest more things I could make in the future!
Have a lovely weekend
ƒ.

EDIT: Thanks Em for letting me know I messed up the link! It should be OK now!

Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt reveal day part 2

Hi guys! Finally my partner for the SPSH received her package and I'm able to reveal who she was and show you what I sent her!
I got Miranda from The Love Parcel as my partner, was I excited? Yes, you bet! As I told her, I always wanted to send her something for her project but eventually never did, so it was nice to get in touch with her thanks to my swap.

The secret list was the following and we had to find/craft 5 out of the following 10 objects:

the City Explorer's Kit: take a day off and collect little things of your city for your partner. Can include, but not limited to: maps, flowers & leaves, postcards, tiny souvenirs, photos, interesting newspaper's clippings & pamphlets, etc  - just don't grab a bunch of random junk within arm's reach, put some effort in it;
 Something that represent you: for example - are you an artist? Send your partner a little painting. Do you love to knit? Send your partner a hat.. and so on;
 A mix CD with your favorite tunes. (Pro Tip: create a cover for it);
 the Postal Freak's Kit: Can include, but not limited to: postal goodies such as address labels, used stamps, envelopes, stationery etc.
 the Bad Day Survival Kit: assemble a kit of nice things that may help your partner to feel better when they're having a bad day. (Ideas: your favorite candy, a poem/story, bubble bath, a list of  happy songs/movies etc);
 Something you can wear;
 Something not square or rectangular;
 Something shiny;
 Something with animal(s) on it;
 Something seasonal;
+ extra from the list, a gift(s) for your partner that you'll have to buy based on their preferences. The minimum spending/value is about 3€/4$/2.50£

For her I picked the Bad Day Survival Kit, which inccluded: coffee, sugar, a chocolate, a colorful bandaid, some heart charms, a bubble bath, emergency confetty and an handcarved stamp, which was more of a prompt for a crafty project then else:

Postal Travel Magazine

Hello guys! Lately I've been really busy working on a project with some friends, and I thought it was about time to share it with you all! Tee & Karina, started an online magazine about snail mail, crafts, penpals and all things related to mail, and I'm in charge for the layout and graphic.
It's the first time I'm doing something like that, so I'm not completely sure that I'm doing it right, so please, feel free to give me your feedback about it!

The magazine is called Postal Travels, and is published the first day of every month. It is free to read, and has lots of interesting activities to do! You can submit your penpal ad, penpal story, ideas and what not! Head over to their Tumblr to read more about it and submit your own content ☺

The March issues is out, and you can read it here.

Let me know what you think of it, and if you enjoy it, feel free to share it with your penpals and friends!

Have a good mail day,
ƒab.

Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt reveal day!

Hello guys! I've disappeared for a while, I know, but besides being sick, my Internet connection decided to die when I needed it the most. For this reason if you sent me an email/message and I haven't replied yet, I'm very sorry and I'll get back at you asap!

So, as the title says, it's finally the day when we reveal who were our partners for the Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt! Aren't you excited? Because I certainly am!

My package arrived yesterday and my secret penpal was Manon (her blog here: lucky-birdy) who did a wonderful job to say the least!
When I opened the package, that's what I saw:

Imagine my excitement to see this gorgeous wrapping paper.. even if it was the start, it was already awesome! She wrote me a letter to explain in detail what she sent me and why:

 The first package contained the City Explorer Kit, with postcards of her hometown, business cards and train ticket (guess where they're going? ☺ If you thought "smashbook" you win a hug!)

The second little package was Something That Represent Me, and Manon has a (lovely) webshop called luckybirdy (which you should totally check out because she has some amazing pieces of jewelry!) and sent me a piece from her collection:

I can't even describe my face when I saw this because a) I love jewelry, b) I LOVE crosses, c) this is just gorgeous and I never wanna take it off now.
The 3rd package was The Postal Freak's Kit, and she sent me some PaperChase goodies, which I don't even think I need to say it, but I loved!

 As Bad Day Survival Kit, she sent me various flavoured teas and an inspiring quote:

The picture I took of the quote was too bright, but anyway, it said: "I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope you find the strength to start all over again" -F. Scott Fitzgerald

The 5° packet, contained Something Shiny, a golden hair pin! I honestly never wore something like that before, but I really like it (and it also reminds me of the one that Mulan has), so I could totally try and pull it off!

Last but not least, she sent me the gift. I asked for something crafty or vintage, and she combined the two and sent me these chipboard stickers and brads, look how gorgeous are they:

I wouldn't find them anywhere here, so I was super happy and I can't wait to use them in my smashbook and crafts!

I probably jumped up and down a couple of times from the happiness after I unwrapped everything.
It really seemed like she knew me and selected the perfect things to send me, so I couldn't be happier that I got her as partner ☺
Thank you so much Manon! ♥ I will get in touch with you via email very soon!

My partner still hasn't let me know if she got the package, so I'll be waiting a couple of days before blogging about what I sent.

 If you received your package and wrote a blogpost about it, you can link it below.

Also, I'm very interested in hearing your opinion abou the swap, so can you please take a moment to vote for these polls? It will help improve my future swap and make it better for everyone:

online survey

In order to avoid scammers from joining my swaps:

surveys & polls

Also, feel free to suggest new objects for future scavenger lists, or swap topics so that I can host a new swap soon enough!

Have a lovely mail day,
ƒ.

freebie friday XXIV

Hi guys!
Lots of you thought my latest illustrations would have made a lovely letter set, so I created one:

click here to download

I also made an expansion pack you can buy, featuring two more little creatures.
{This expansion will soon be available for free for the subscribers of my newsletter service!}

buy

Let me know if you like them, and have a nice weekend!
ƒ.