Letter to Crane & Co., as per their pen pal request

Remember the notice that Crane & Co. wants pen pals? Of course I did write in a letter, though we all know I don't need any more pen pals... I somehow doubt the lovely marketing lady really intends to correspond long-term with anyone, but it's a nice thought and I wanted to send a supportive gesture. And hey, the possibility of winning some goods from Crane & Co. paper was a nice incentive, too. So I had to make my letter nice and pretty, since I'm sure she's getting quite a deluge of pulchritudinous post. I used some washi tape, Japanese decorative masking tape, and my own Missive Maven-designed stamps and stickers, with white ink on a red envelope.



That's my dandy new return address sticker (a la moo.com) on the back.

I know of one person who said she'd heard back from the official pen pallers at Crane. I know a lot of us have written - anyone else heard back? I have a feeling that they didn't quite know what they were getting into when they asked for handwritten mail on the Crane blog, but I hope they are enjoying the letters that are coming their way. Read the details of their offer here.

Crane & Co. wants pen pals

The Crane Insider, the blog of the venerable Crane & Co. paper company is looking for pen pals. Check out their blog post, Pen pals wanted, for the full details. They offer to write a letter back to anyone who writes them.

I would caution them about that promise, since I do not even make it myself anymore, but I am but one gal and not a company that employs quite a lot of people, and makes paper, to boot.

Oh yes, and the icing on the cake is that "every pen pal will be entered in a contest to win an assortment of Crane & Co. paper goodies." Hmm... I certainly don't need more pen pals, but I will most likely send a letter for that entry!

Pictured at the top of this post is some of my favorite Crane stationery, Snail mail correspondence cards, made in their Kate Spade line. I did a blog review of these cards way back in 2008.

Sparkle zebra on orange Crane envelope

I just love the look of this excellent die-cut sparkle zebra sticker on an orange Crane envelope!



Here's a closer look: smashing! This came from Rusty in Oklahoma... thanks, Rusty!

Wax seal: gold sun on Crane envelope

My wax seal envy continues. Here's a really fine sun with a sharp, clear impression on beautiful gold sealing wax. I love the concentric circles of the wax, and am proud of myself for successfully capturing the embossed "Crane & Co" logo. I'm a great fan of Crane's 100% cotton papers.

On another note, thanks to all my viewers, new and returning, for making yesterday the highest-traffic day I've had yet. (Gee, I wonder if it was my review post on FPN?)

Finally, a mail nerd moment: I have planned a trip to the post office this afternoon to pick up my new Simpsons stamps!! Today is the release date. Don't forget: postage rates go up on Monday. First-class letter rate goes up to 44 cents.

Treasure map letter!

This wonderful letter from a very creative correspondent carried a pirate theme. I have to note that these are not stickers or stamps - this beauty is all hand-drawn.



Part 1 beckons with a bloody knife and a skull-and-crossbones warning.



Inside, part 1 is a fabulous treasure map. Not only are all the edges decorated with doodles (the legend to a treasure map, really) and witty spellings, but she also creatively crumpled and "aged" the paper. Was it coffee or tea spilled on the paper to stain it? It's a VERY cool effect, and I'm afraid a lot of it was lost in my blurring out the words for privacy. For details, view large.



Gotta share some close-ups of my favorite corners. Love that octopus.



HA! Widow's Peake!



Part 2 (page 2) is a message in a bottle.



Finally, a hand-drawn cut-out skull glowers from over the Crane marker on the back of the envelope.

What a treat!!

Did you ever win a giveaway you didn't even know you entered?

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that my email subscription to the Letters & Journals magazine newsletter entered me for a chance to win the monthly giveaway. But mostly I forgot. I do enjoy the newsletter (called LetterNews, which I also won a previous contest to name!) and seeing the pretty graphics with the well-done letter-writing info in my inbox every month is a joy in and of itself. But lo and behold, imagine my surprise when I won the September stationery giveaway! This isn't just any little giveaway, as the large box above shows, but quite a lot of sponsored goodies come every month to some lucky LetterNews subscriber.



Wow! What a box of letter-writing goodness!



Here are the goodies all spread out. You can find out about each item with its own link on the L&J page about this giveaway. I will note for the record that the Sakura Stardust gelly roll glitter pens are the glitteriest pens I've ever used, and I am now addicted to them and never want to be without one. I'm already a huge fan of the Quo Vadis Habana journals, and of course Crane cards are always welcome. Pennant magazine has awesome photos and info about fountain pens. Lots of this stuff is right up my alley!

A couple of things I won are items I know I will never use, but someone out there is going to love them, so I plan on doing a giveaway of those items sometime in the next month or two, in order to keep that good karma / pay-it-forward spirit going.

So you've seen all my goodies, which I just happened to win. There are different goody giveaways every month. Do check out the excellent Letters & Journals website anyway, just for fun... and I highly recommend you subscribe to their newsletter. Not only is it beautiful, informative, and interesting, but you just might win awesome stuff, too!

Homophone peeve

I've almost posted about this a million times, and this morning I'm just going to fire it off: the misuse of stationary absolutely drives me batty!

I know, it's one little letter, but I just gotta say it.

stationery
   /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛri/ [stey-shuh-ner-ee]
–noun
1. writing paper.
2. writing materials, as pens, pencils, paper, and envelopes.


stationary
   /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛri/ [stey-shuh-ner-ee]
–adjective
1. standing still; not moving.
2. having a fixed position; not movable.
3. established in one place; not itinerant or migratory.
4. remaining in the same condition or state; not changing: "The market price has remained stationary for a week."

(Definitions and pronunciations courtesy of dictionary.com)

Here's a fun pun:
"No matter how you push the envelope, it's still stationery."
But maybe that is even more confusing for some people.

OK, that's my rant for the day... I'll leave you on a positive note, related to this homophone peeve: PostMuse is doing a very fun giveaway of a tote bag with both of these words defined.

Update: Thanks to reader JP in CA for pointing out this fun post on the Crane blog. True 'nuff, people in the business should know how to spell their own product!

Hand-painted peacock stationery

The amazing artist over at All My Hues has done it again - she sent me this gorgeous hand-painted peacock stationery!



See the gold glitter in its tail? Isn't it AWESOME??



I just had to do a close-up on that glitter because I love it so much.



I'm very fond of peacocks, and this is one of the finest representations I've seen. I'm so floored that it was painted just for me! She blogged about it in detail when she made it, in case you'd like to learn more about all the wonderful materials she used; I'm not an artist, but I do know she did this on Crane paper.

I am SO honored to receive this gorgeous work of art - and she wrote a really great letter around it, too!

Gilded

I was feeling golden in my decorative mood for a recent (well, November) letter to Donovan. I combined some large plasticky deco tape with a Martha Stewart Crafts label. I think the stationery is Crane something... it's certainly cottony.



I went with a simple vintage label on the back.



I used a couple of vintage stamps - Abigail Adams, known as a writer (corresponding with her husband, President John Adams), and that lovely rainbow-edged United Way stamp.

Only a few more days where two 22-cent stamps = the current 1st class domestic letter rate...

My G. Lalo binge: a French paper extravaganza

You've probably heard me bemoan my stationery-buying habit. It's a bit of a problem, and I am quite the hoarder. Combine this tendency with a really fantastic sale on high-quality papers I love, and that gets me a ginormous box of paper. Woo hoo!

I've just discovered Distinctive Stationery. How did I discover them? I can't even remember if it was a google search or if someone on the Fountain Pen Network recommended them. But they're having a big sale right now, folks, and I did succumb. Oh yes, I did.

They carry some Crane's, and I am pretty well set on that so I was able to resist, but I gave in to their selection of G. Lalo papers. Zowie. Here's my haul:



All of these were right around 50% off, which is a fantastic deal. I always have some of the Verge de France tablets around; they make excellent second (or third, or fourth, etc) sheets in letters when I'm using my beloved fold-and-mails or decorative paper/envelope combinations. I had never tried the others, though, because I found them just too too expensive. Half price, though, I can swing. The Opera and Diane de Poitiers papers seem very much like the white or ivory Verge de France tablet sheets, except they're a slightly different size and they have deckled (kind of a pattern-cut) edges. One of these days (yeah, yeah, I know) I'll take a photo of those. The envelopes are really lovely, also with the pattern-cut flap and lined with crinkly tissue paper. The Borghese and Mode de Paris are heavier flat cards, and smaller. Writing a letter on any of these babies feels positively luxurious. I'm sure you'll all be seeing some of these wares in your mailbox from me at some point.

I will again plug the big sale, AKA the Clearance Closet, at Distinctive Sationery, for anyone looking for some fine papers. Their packaging, as seen above (they bubble-wrap PAPER??), is very secure, and these arrived extremely quickly. I'm satisfied with the service AND the prices.

Just for fun and for the curious, here's a little bit more about G. Lalo.

Guess I'd better go dig into that letter pile now and write me some letters!

Kate Spade Snail Mail notecards

I finally splurged and ordered these Snail Mail notecards, which I've been coveting for ages. These are so luscious. Made by Kate Spade partnered with Crane, the paper quality is extremely high. I think they're cotton. They take fountain pen ink gorgeously with no smudging - and who can resist the adorable green and gold snail??

They're pricey for me, but you gotta have a little high-end "treat" stationery around for special letters.



I got mine from Paperstyle, which has the same price as everybody else but the service is really fantastic.