More free printable stationary!

I just came across this today: hot air balloon paper and envelopes! You can download them here.

I think it would be so much fun to ride in a hot air balloon! So much different than an airplane...

30 Days of Creativity

"30 Days of Creativity is a global social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June. 2012 is our 3rd year. We hope to make it a big one.

Your brain is like a muscle. When you exercise it, it gets stronger."


I'm going to attempt it! If you decide to give it a try, tell me!

POSTCARDS!

I received a few postcards recently from new states and a new country. Well, the one from the new country (France) I received a while ago, but somehow it missed being posted... It was from Caddi, while on holiday skiing.

My math teacher Corinne sent the one from Gulf Shore, Alabama, while at the beach!

The 3rd was from Kate, while on a road trip. It was sent from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Haha I just realized that all three were sent while traveling! I would love to take a road trip out west. Where would you like to go?

So, more postcards! For Mother's Day, I made my mom a book out of some old postcards.

front and back covers

inside front cover

inside back cover

How to soak off stamps

I don't know how many of you already know how to do this, but for those of you who don't, it is very easy to remove stamps from envelopes. If it is an envelope you do not want to save, simply cut the stamp off of it, leaving about 1/4-1/8 inch (about 1/2 centimeter) of paper border, and place it with others in a bowl of water. If your envelopes are colored, place them in a different bowl than stamps with white envelopes, and keep an eye on them to make sure they don't bleed. The water should be cool to lukewarm, cooler for colored envelopes. Let them soak until the paper slips off the stamps. Self-stick stamps can take quite a while. Lay the stamps out on a cloth to dry. When dry, if they are not flat, you can press them in a heavy book, or under a pile of books.

If you have a postcard or an envelope you do not want to cut, simply cut a double layer of a coffee filter (I assume other absorbent paper would work well, though) that is slightly larger than the stamp, wet it, and place on top of the stamp. Cover with a glass, plate, etc to keep the water from evaporating. after about 10 - 30 minutes, the stamp should slide off. Note that I have never tried this with self-stick stamps, so I have no idea how long that would take.

New letters! And a couple interesting little facts...

So it's been over a week since I posted anything! I've been getting ready for my finals for few classes, and prom, and a championships horse show, so I've been pretty busy!

I got letters from 3 new people and places all in one day! It's funny how excited I get when I get mail from new people, or more than one letter: I can hardly sit still for the ride home from the post office!

The first letter is from Kayleigh in Basingstoke, England. She included a pretty postcard, too!

Did you know that college in England is the last two years of highschool, then university comes after that. For those of you who aren't from the US, here we normally say that we 'go to college' after highschool, while the 'colleges' that we usually go to are technically a university. True 'colleges' are small, usually community schools, while universities are larger. Hopefully that wasn't too confusing!

The second letter is from Yana, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has a letter writing blog, too found here.

Lastly is a lovely little package from Marlous, in Malden, Netherlands. She has a letter writing blog here, as well a personal blog here.

Notice something a bit odd about the postage?

It did not cost €190 to send the package: in The Netherlands (I think it may include the rest of Europe, but I'm not positive) commas are used in place of points in numbers! So 10.000 would be ten-thousand, while 10,000 would be ten point zero. Little things like that fascinate me!

A shout-out to all of you who read my blog, thanks!! I have reached 50 followers! Thank you for stopping by, and sending me letters :)