MailART Monday: INCOWRIMO outbox edition

My hopes to update about my Incowrimo weekly mailings haven't really panned out. Though I have been quietly but diligently writing a few letters and more postcards to my friends these pasts weeks. And with still a week to go, it's a good time to share a couple of outbox shots of my mailings for InCoWriMo.

I love using Vintage Postage to jazz up the envelopes.

You've seen the first couple of envelopes being made on my Mailart Monday post last week. The back envelope was a special posting and I will do a post on how I made that envelope soon. What was inside that envelope I will be revealing in a few months time from now... :)

As I said, a lot more fun postcards were mailed as well! I've noticed that this month has been great for postcard sending!! I'll be sharing a tutorial on how to jazz up your postcards with some fun snaimail stamps in a future mailart monday. 

How are you getting on with InCoWriMo this month? 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Pens and Ink: Currently inked for InCoWriMo

Hope you have your pens inked and stationery ready, because it's feb 1st and that means that InCoWriMo has officially started! It's going to be a challenge to write and send out mail every day, but preparation is half the work. To start I have inked up some nice fountain pens with some fun colors. Below you can see my currently inked list.

From top to bottom:

• Visconti Wall Street Red c/c, 23k pall. M, Montblanc Velvet Red
• Pilot namiki VP raden galaxy, 18k B, Pilot Iroshizuku Kon Peki
• Lamy Studio Purple, 14k B, Cross Violet
• Parker 45 turquoise, steel B, Parker Penman Sapphire
• Pelikan Ductus P3110, 18k M, Diamine Salamander
• Kaweco ARTSport "samba", 14k F, Kaweco Summer Purple
• TWSBI Al Green, steel B, Montblanc Jonathan Swift
• Franklin Christoph model 31 Blue Italian Ice IPO (Massdrop), steel B, Montblanc Blue Hour
• Franklin Christoph model 45 Italian Ice, 14k B stub, Lamy Dark Lilac
• Momiji leafs falling in night sky (handmade by 18111 on etsy), steel 1.1, Robert Oster Peach
• Pilot 78G, Steel BB, Parker Penman Emerald

The list is written in a gorgeous bound notebook with Tomoe River paper made by paper for fountain pens. 

A couple of my favorites of 2016 stayed inked, but a few of them are on their last drops. I hope to be emptying them out fairly soon :) A few others will have their own Pens and Inks post up as well with more close up shots of the pairing.

What do you have inked up at the moment? And are you ready for the snail mail social? Post your pics on Instagram with #incowrimo to show your mailings :) I stared off on a good run...

These went out in the mail yesterday and hopefully one of them will be received today :) Hope to post more weekly round up's of snail mailings in the coming weeks. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Giveaway: InCoWriMo letter writing starter packs! (open until january 24th!)

The month of February is slowly but surely approaching and that means that InCoWriMo is nearly upon us! To celebrate this fact, I am doing a little letter writing starter pack giveaway for my followers here and on Instagram :)

First, what is InCoWriMo? The International Correspondence Writing Month, for short Incowrimo is a phenomenon that started in 2013 and the goal is to connect with people through, as they call it "vintage social media" - ie writing a letter, postcard, note etc the old fashioned way and mail it to that person. And the pledge is to do this for 28 days, so the whole month of February! Yep, 28 letter/mailings in 28 days! See more on how to participate on the official site. It's all about using your stationery, pens and inks more and of course connecting with people the old fashioned way!

Seeing I have waaaay too much stationery I will ever use up in my lifetime, I wanted to share some with my followers here and on IG. I have compiled, not one, but two starter packs to giveaway! That's right, two lucky people will receive a starter pack from me so you can participate along with so many others (including myself :) The starter packs contain one letter set with sheets of paper and envelopes, a vintage fountain pen (a piston filler) and 5 different ink samples.

Set one consists of midori letter set, Herma 56 piston filler vintage fountain pen and ink samples: Montegrappa bordeaux, Platinum mix leaf green, Pilot Iroshizuku Tsustuji, Pelikan Edelstein Amethyst and Montblanc Blue Hour.

Set two consists of kamio Engrish letterset, Liberty piston filler vintage fountain pen and ink samples: Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri Same, Organics Studio Join or Die, Omas Turquoise, Platinum Mix free earth brown and Diamine Grape.

What you have to do to win one of these packs: 

Set one will be given away to one of my blog readers and all you have to do is comment on this post and let me know who you would write a letter to and why. That is it! Set two will be given away ion my instagram and you can also enter there (same question) if you want to try to win that set. Just look for the giveaway picture on my instagram and answer there. 

RULES of the giveaway:

Open internationally, Only one entry per person per set (so once on instagram and once here) and the giveaway closes on January 24th at midnight CET, I will announce the winners (which will be chosen at random) shortly after in the following day or two so they can get the starter pack just before International Correspondence Writing Month starts. 

So what are you waiting for? Leave me a comment and tell me who you'd write to :) 

Also if you'd like to be on my InCoWriMo mailing list; leave your address here at my POSTABLE. (disclaimer: While I will do my best to send mail to people on my list, which is now half full, but if there is a high demand I might not be able to respond to everyone's request.)

Thanks for stopping by and looking forward to read your answers below :)  Have a great day!

Pens and Ink: Recently Inked

While this section of my blog has been on hiatus for a little while, it doesn't mean that I have not been using/enjoying my pens and inks any less. Above is a group shot of pens which were inked up recently. From left to right: Online College calligraphy pen, Edison Nouveau Première LE 2014 summer edition Caribbean Sea, Pelikan Ductus P3110 (recent acquisition), Sailor 1911 Sapporo Starburst Galaxy finish, Pilot Namiki Vanishing Point Raden galaxy (brought back into rotation!), Omas Ludovico Enaudi LE in Milord size (recent acquisition) and the Omas Ogiva Alba Orange.

Some recent acquisitions I'm quite enjoying and one that is getting a second chance, the VP Raden galaxy. I could not get used to the grip section at first, but this pen is just too pretty to keep in a drawer and not being used.

Just look at that sparkle! It's fitted with a juicy B nib and I inked it up with Sailor Jentle Sky High (discontinued ink) The nib sings on the page (Claire Fontaine paper) and I just need to use it more to get used to the clip placement. So it was taken off from my sales section and gotten back into rotation  :)

And sometimes instead of going all matchy-matchy, contrasting colors are super fun too! The ENP is inked with Akkerman Pulchi Pink and I absolutely adore this combination!

But demonstrators/clear pens I just have to match with the ink, like this Omas Ogiva Alba in Orange. I had paired it up with Private Reserve Shoreline Gold before, but Sailor Jentle Apricot (sadly also a discontinued ink) is an amazing match as well as you can see above :) 

Next week I'll show a pairing of one of my newest acquisitions.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

namasté

Mail Art Monday - InCoWriMo envelopes

February has been dubbed International Correspondence Writing Month aka InCoWriMo. The idea is that you write a letter each day of february and I will use this as a good excuse to get my reply pile under control! I hope that I can at least write a few letters a week. And of course I can't send a letter off in a boring plain envelope, so I dressed a few up which you can see below:

Those little envelope stamps at bottom right are from Elke at Craft and Things in Antwerp. The typewriter is from a HEMA stamp set. Wonderland postage art stamps are from 'Stamp Attack' and the Happy Mail font is Start me up Broadway from Technique Tuesday. The hand holding a piece of paper stamp is from Dixi Craft. The Fish poste was gifted to me so not sure which brand that is and other smaller stamps I used are from Artemio stamps. 

Another envie I did in this theme. The letter stamps at the bottom is Fukuro alphabet set from Sakuralala. 

Are you participating in Incowrimo this year? Hope this inspires you to dress up your envelopes for your correspondences :) Thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Happy Fountain Pen Day 2015!

Today is the first friday of november and that means it's time to celebrate a beautiful and versatile writing tool, fountain pen! This day was brought to life 4 years ago and it's been a popular event among fountain pen enthusiasts all over the world! For more information check out Fountain Pen Day site.

My collection of Omas fountain pens, one of my preferred brands of pens.

So what can you do to celebrate fountain pen day? 

Here are a few suggestions from the FPD blog:

1. Write a letter to someone with your favorite fountain pen and ink. Under your signature you can write the pen & ink you used. 
2. Go through your stationery collection and use some of those you have saved for a special occasion. Surprise a friend with that vintage paper. 
3. You can make up a FPD “intro to fountain pens” pack for a friend like this. 
4. Post on your favorite forum or blog by writing it out with your fountain pen. Then take a picture of it and post it. Again, under your signature write what pen & ink you used. 
5. Instead of typing Facebook status updates and tweets on Twitter, write them and upload a picture of them (mention the reason that you’re doing it at well.) 
6. Take one of the pens you don’t use anymore and send it off to a friend with a handwritten note. If you don’t have any pens you want to part with you can shop one of the online retailers and have it sent direct to them. 
7. Make that the weekend you have your pen club meet up. 
8. Turn off your computer and put down the phone and spend some time writing. 

These are really great suggestions and I for one am going to celebrate it by ogling my pretty pens and of course writing with them (pretty much what I do every day, LOL!) 

Another suggestion I have is: introduce a newbie to fountain pens. Lend or give someone who has never written with a fountain pen before an inexpensive FP so they can see if it's something for them to give a go on the long run. Hey, I got my husband hooked on using fountain pens and he was an avid rollerball user. Now he won't leave the house without his Lamy's and Pilot VPs :) 

Also keep watch on the FPD blog for giveaways and deals by the many sponsors of this events! Some pretty sweet raffles going on for great Fountain pens and also many offer sales and discounts on their (web)shops!

So, what are you doing to celebrate fountain pen day? What ever it is you're doing, make sure you have inky spots on your fingers, otherwise it doesn't count ;) 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

namaste!

the art of letter writing...

I started writing letters when I was 13 years old. Over the years I had over a 100 different pen pals from 30+ different countries. There was nothing more exciting then to receive a long letter from a friend from overseas. I kept on writing letters until well in my mid to late 20s and then I just abruptly stopped. I couldn't find the time anymore, to sit down a write a 'proper' letter. And with the digital era making it easier to connect with friends through Facebook, twitter, flickr, messenger and what not, writing a letter seemed redundant... but recently I've really stared to miss it.