How to make envelopes (Quick tutorial)

Hello everyone! Thanks for passing by! Today I'm here to make a very quick tutorial about how to make envelopes/homemade stationery. I've been getting some requests on my Ask.fm about how I make my own stationery, so I think it'd be cool to make my own tutorial explaining how I do it. The reason I started with this was, there isn't a huge variety of letter sets/envelopes in Barcelona. The sets they sell are rather plain and very boring haha, so I decided I could make my own without spending a fortune in kawaii stationery on Internet :)

It recquires a bit of practice and imagination I have to say (the first ones you make always look terrible haha), but once you get used to it you won't stop making more and more :) Just be patient and use your imagination a little bit!

Step 1: Pick two paper sheets from the same color/pattern. I use decorative/origami paper from the Danish brand Tiger.

Step 2: Fold one of the paper sheets in 3.

Step 3: Put some glue in one of the borders of the paper sheet and fold it again.

Step 4: Fold the right side of the paper.

Optional: Cut the two corners and glue it back so it looks more like a real envelope!

Step 5: Fold the other side of your (Almost finished) envelope

Optional: Cut the corners again so it looks more realistic :B

Step 6: Cut one of the sides of the paper so  you can put the letter paper in!

Step 7: Pick the other paper sheet and fold it twice.

Step 8: Now cut both sides of the paper, so you get four small paper sheets to write in :)

And you're done with your handmade stationery! :) Ah! You can always leave the envelope under something heavy for a few minutes (a book for example) so the glue sticks well to the paper. You can leave it plain or decorate it a little! But as you all might know by now, I always prefer to decorate my stationery a bit ^_^

I usually use brown paper, paper gift wrap, washi tape and sometimes stickers or plain name tags.

And TA-DA! There you go, your lovely handmade envelope finished :)

PS. Sorry for the low quality pictures! :( I'll try to make a better one eventually, but as I said, this is just a quick tutorial on how to make them.

Hope you like it anyway and don't hesitate to give me some feedback or comment :)

Much love from,

CL

Special update: What snail mail means to me

Hello my beloved followers! How are you doing? ♥
Today I'm gonna write a special post about snail mail, one of my hobbies since I was 15 and actually the main reason why I started blogging, hehe! It's something that means a lot right now and a hobby that I take very seriously, so I really feel like sharing and describing what snail mail means for me to you all (Plus, many people seemed to be very interesting in my point of view on snail mail, so I said "Why not?"). For me, penpal friendship is more than someone writing you a real letter. It's what you read in that letter, what this person is sharing with you! Haha well, I don't want to get too romantic at the beginning so let's start! Hope you enjoy this post :)


I have to say I don't really recall how did I get into this penpal world... But what I know is I've always been a very creative person. I've always loved doodling, scrapbooking and arts&crafts! As far as I can remember, I think it all started when a Korean penpal in the first penpal website I started visiting told me she wanted to exchange letters with me. Not emails, just old school letters! I said to myself "Oh well, I've never done something like this before, and sounds like a good idea! Let's give it a try!" I loved writing stories since I was a kid and the idea of writing a real letter to a stranger and getting to know her like that sounded cool to me. It worked for a few swaps, I was fascinated about those tinny little papers and polaroids she used to send me. Then she stopped writing for some reason... She must be busy, I thought by that time. 


Also I had another Japanese penpal who stopped writing as well. I had another one (Ayumi) who sent me the first postcard I have ever got (way before I started collecting postcards!). I still have it of course, it's from the Tower of Tokyo. But again, we lost contact... I really miss her I have to say, she was such a lovely girl to talk to and a great penpal!I emailed her not to long ago but it seems she might have closed that account because Hotmail said that address didn't exist. It's so sad when this things happen, but it's part of this snail mail world! :\

Later (around 2009?) my Chinese penpal from Interpals Xianxian asked me if I wanted to swap postcards. I had never considered it, as I wasn't used to swap postcards and such, but again  I gave it a try. That's how my obsession over postcards started :) I'm happy because I'm still in contact with Xianxian, we talk every once in a while on WeChat and Interpals, although we don't swap postcards anymore!

Almost 5 years later, I'm happy to say I still enjoy snail mail just like the first day. I love my penpals I have now, I love the things they send me and nothing's gonna change that :') Now, so you know how does it feel to have a penpal, let's check some pros and cons of this snail mail world I'm in...!

(PS: This is just based in my personal experience and point of view, I don't mean to offend anyone!).

Good things about snail mailing

-You learn to get to know people in a different way. Letters are a very personal thing, even more than emails I'd say! But there's a big difference: A letter is a small tiny package that someone has prepared specially for you, and only for you! He/she has taken his/her time to make it look cute and sent it so you can see it right there in your mailbox :) The feeling of making people this happy, it's just irreplaceable!

-Letter decorating is just addictive! <3 Specially now that I live in Korea, there are so different kinds of stickers, letter papers and washi (mask) tapes! I'm gonna take a ton of tiny things like this back home, haha. I love making my penpals happy! 

Decorating this envelope for Bianca, a new penpal from California (US)!

-You get surprises every once in a while :D Thanks to my penpals I've got adorable things like, special postcards, notebooks, agendas, stickers, bracelets, photos... Maybe that doesn't mean anything to you at all, but just the fact of getting something cute from someone else in the other side of the world make my heart melt! <3

Letter from my penpal Jennifer (from New Mexico, US), received in September. She wrote me a super cute & doddly letter instead of the average text one explaining her trip to Spain... And I loved it! <3

Beautiful giveaway I won last April from Yina, a blogger friend of mine from Dominican Republic. Everything looked so cute and adorable! :) 

Bad things about snail mailing

-It implies money. Haha, that's why many people don't want to get into it. Some of them just think it's a waste of time writing something in a paper when you can write it online for free. I respect that though, I can't pretend everyone shares the same opinion I have! :)

-(Rather than a bad thing, it's an advice): Don't do it if you don't have time. What I mean is, don't make your penpal wait needlessly. It is true that we all go through some moments when we don't have time to reply or write back. In that case, people should email their penpals to explain the situation! But quitting writing it's the worst thing you can do. Penpalling means having friends as well, and as friends we want to know when something's going on. It avoids lots of worries and bad thoughts, trust me! :\

-If you're not careful, you tend to lose contact with your penpals in one way or another. After those 5 years penpalling it has come a point where I'm not in touch with my first penpals anymore. They stopped writing at some point (even though I sent them messaged or I emailed them) and we just lost contact... And it hurts because you see they keep updating their stuff and you just wonder "Why isn't she replying to me?". But it's just how it is!

-It can be addictive, and by addictive I mean "saying yes too many penpals"...! That happened to me a few years ago and I just got crazy accepting new people that don't really wanted to be my friends (we don't really had much things in common), so I politely told them I had to quit writing them :\ My mistake, I know! Now I don't do that anymore, I have my list of beloved penpals I love with all my heart and they're all very special to me :)

-You send tons of non-replied letters... Just a waste of time, stationery and money that never will come back. But it's part of this penpal life I guess! We can't be too pessimistic about it ;)

Despite both good and bad things snail mail has, it's something you need to take seriously. You have to be 100% committed to reply to that special someone who took his/her time to write to you, and once you do it... You love it! Trust me, the feeling of getting home and receiving a letter from a friend it's too special to describe it with words. I enjoy writing to my friends and receiving news from them, and I'm happy I can fulfill my hobby in such a special and beautiful way. I'm proud of them and happy to say many of them I consider them my real friends :) I have a very nice and decent list of penpals, which you'll find in the right bottom bar of this blog. You want to get to know them?  I'm gonna introduce em to you all ;)

USA

Anna (Maryland): My boyfriend's best friend and my penpal bestie ♥ We just have too many things in common for not to be penpals haha! Future bridesmaid in my wedding as well hehehehehehe ♥♥ Love you my sailor senshi!

Michelle (Idaho): Met her almost two years ago, we've been in touch for a long time now :) She works at Starbucks and she's a very loyal penpal! (Although it seems her last letter got lost in the way :\). She reaaaally reminds me of Zooey Deschanel. And ah, she's a blogger too! ;)

Jennifer (New Mexico): I was her first penpal and I'm very proud of that haha! She visited my country last summer and she just loved it, so we usually talk about trips we've done recently or our favorite serie... Breaking Bad! Before flying to Korea she sent me a beautuful package with BrBa merchandising and omg, I felt so blessed! I'll repay her someday haha, that was just too good!

Yanill (Florida): My favorite and flawless American/Latina penpal!♥ We usually write each other in Spanglish haha, and I l love it! We both love vintage stationery, and she's always been a very sweet penpal (despite our letters have gotten lost on the way sometimes) >_< We never lose touch! 

Gaby (New York): What can I say...? I LOVE GABY! She's a super crafty and attentive penpal who I really look up to. I love sending her the most flawless stationery I have, and this winter I sent her a beautiful package from Korea full of cute stuff for her! ♥ Hope we can be in touch for a long long time!

Jenne (DC): American (raised in Thailand) penpal who I could talk for hours with :) I'm still waiting for her letter, hope I can get it on time!

Kimlee (Virginia): We started penpalling not so long ago but feels like ages now! :D Kimlee is super sweet, we're both very talkative and we have this kind of special connection that I love She sent me a special Xmas package to Spain, can't wait to get it >_< 

Piper (Massachusetts): She's an adorable penpal too! We met each other in summer on Tumblr and we've been in touch till now. She sent me a lovely Christmas package this time, and I can't wait to go back to Korea so I can send her sth back! ^_^ She loves manga, anime, Ghibli and food as much as I do! ♥♥

Canada

Robyn: We just did a letter swap so far (we started being penpals not so long ago), but she seems like a great girl to talk to! :) Can't wait to get to know her better as time goes by!

Kelly: She was my first penpal when I started taking this snail mail thing seriously, circa 2010. I'm glad we're still in contact, she's a very crafty penpal and despite she's gone MIA at the moment I can't wait till I get her next letter again :') ♥

Singapore

Corey: One of my best penpals too, super punctual and talkative. We always have things to talk about and we love talking to each other. Definitely the kind of person I'd like to have a coffee with in real life!

Vivien: One of my youngest penpals, very sweet, kind and talkative! ^_^ She got me a Starbucks tea tumbler for Christmas as she's been super busy doing an internship in China. Thank you sosososo much!

Faiza: We talked on Interpals in summer and we switched to letters when I moved to Korea. She's 6 years older than me so I love hearing from her and her projects as a graphic designer. 

Thailand

Ploi: Met on Interpals two summers ago now, feels like she's my sister from far away sometimes haha! I follow her on Instagram too so we both know about each other very often :) We swap letters very often and she's super punctual! We also swap little stickers, postcards and we talk about our boyfriends and our daily lives.

China

Judy: A very special penpal for me, we met on Intepals as well and we've been swapping letters and postcards for... Almost two years now? She's kind of busy with school sometimes so I don't get to hear about her that often >_<

Japan

Ai: A new Japanese penpal I just met. She loves Europe, specially Paris. We started writing to each other two months ago, and she's very patient with my Japanese haha. Thank you so much! ^_^

Hong Kong

Viola: One of my first penpals hen I started using Instagram to meet new snail mailers. I love her so much, we swap tea bags everytime but it's been a long time I haven't heard from her :( I need her back in my life, haha!

Russia

Nadya: A super kind girl, very sweet and punctual penpal! ♥ Met her on Interpals and we've been penpalling for almost two years now too ^_^ Very attentive, she's always sending me adorable Christmas cards or postcards from Voronezh (the region she comes from). We usually share anecdotes about our everyday lives or we talk about special traditions or holidays we have in our countries. 

Masha: Beautiful young married mommy who writes me every once in a while. She loves owls and floral stationery. Her letters are always beyond flawless! ♥

The Netherlands

Jennifer: We met on Instagram a long time ago, and even though she sends me letters from time to time it's always a pleasure reading them ^_^ She's visited my city and she's a very nice penpal, she's into arts and crafts and very good at it!

Finland

Dede: Probably the most adventurous person I have ever met, haha! Chinese born girl, she was raised in Vietnam and when she was a teenager she moved to Finland. She's studied in Austria, and now she's in Germany. Amazing, right? She's super nice and I'd love to meet her this summer when I go to Vietnam :)

UK

Nilafa: My Muslim/British penpal! ♥ I admire her so much and I love talking to her about our everyday lives and such! She's been through some problems recently so I haven't heard from her for al long time >: I miss her so much!

Ana: Spanish girl living in the UK! We have many things in common and we always have things to talk about :B She loves all the stationery I send her along with my letters! 

Shelley: She's still not my penpal but I sent her a special Christmas package last week :) We exchange emails once a week and we talk about our every day lives. Can't wait to get to know her by letters! ♥

Spain

Miranda: My 17 year-old penpal from homeland! I've known her for a long time now thanks to Instagram, but when I moved to Korea I decided it would be the best excuse to become penpals with her. Miranda loves reading (just like me) and she's a very good crafty penpal too! I wish I would be as good as her when I was her age ><

Sweden

Raquel: One of the most special penpals of mine, as it's the only penpal I write to in my native language (along with Spanish), Catalan. She's married with a Swedish man and they live happily together in Stockholm. I met her in real life last week and it was awesome! It's the first penpal of mine I meet in real life, she's super sweet! ♥ Hope we can be in touch for a long long time!

Australia

Flick: Someone I will never regret meeting :) Flick is an amazing and very creative penpal! We both love indie music and due to distances we don't get to know about each other super often... But it's always a pleasure getting her letters!

Hope I have the chance to meet all my snail mail penpals in real life someday. But until then, mail will keep doing that job for us!

Hope  you guys liked this post, and sorry if it's too long haha! What about you, though? What does snail mail mean to you? :)
I'll be more than happy to hear back from you! Please feel free to leave comments if you want, hehe! ♥



CL

Snail mail update

Hello lovelies, you might miss my snail mail updates, don't you? Haha well, sorry I've been kind of out of this world, but I've been updating my incoming and outgoing mail in my Instagram and I preferred to leave my blog for daily life / Korea stuff. However, I feel like I should write a little something today explaining how's my snail mail life here in Asia. First I'll start with my outgoing:

Anna's parcel came not so long ago. She sent me all this because I prepared a huge package for her in summer and Peter gave it to her in person (Good thing your penpal and your boyfriend are best friends hehehehe ♥♥♥). I missed her letters sososo much ;_; Also she knows how much I love notebooks... So she got me a vintage huge notebook I automatically fell in love with >_< LOVE YOU ANNA!

 Judy's letter arrived with this adorable bookmark, this Chinese papercut and a postcard She told me she moved into a new campus and things are going better with her ♥

I found out that Ploi from Thailand writes to a classmate of mine here in Korea! She knew both penpals of her were moving there as exchange students, but she never expected we would go to the same uni (and most importantly) we knew each other personally! XD What a coincidence, right?

 Taeko's letter from Japan arrived super late, since I couldn't contact her on Interpals to give her my Korean address, so she sent the letter to Spain and my parents had to send it back to me in a package (along with some winter clothes). Luckily we're in contact again now! ^_^

 Jennifer's letter from New Mexico (US) arrived the first week of October. She told me her trip around Spain and her visit to my hometown. Also we talked about our favorite series ending... Breaking Bad! ♥♥♥♥

Corey's letter from Singapore was the first one I got once I was settled in my dorms in Korea. 

Also when I moved to Korea I started penpalling with new people :)

Raquel from Barcelona but living in Stockholm, Sweden. I'm very happy I'm exchanging letters with her I speak with her in my native language, which is Catalan (along with Spanish, of course). I don't have many chances in Korea to speak it (since I just have a few Catalan friends) so her letters are always great to receive <3

Miranda from Alicante, Spain. We knew each other on IG for a long time, but when I moved to Korea we decided to become penpals. She's a very mature girl for her age (17) and we have many things in common! ^_^

Robyn is a Canadian (with Japanese origins) who loves Disney above all. I really liked her first letter, hope she gets mine soon!♥

Kimlee from Virginia is also one of my newest penpals. We had time to swap twice already! Haha. She sent me a first letter and then she sent me a tiny parcel with candies and Halloween stuff ♥ Thank you so much sweetheart!

Fariza from Singapore is one of my newest penpals too. We had been talking on Interpals since summer and when I moved to Korea I decided to ask her if she wanted to be penpals. She's 5 years older than me but we seem to get on very well, I'm so happy I met her!

Also I've done some postcard swaps (not many though, because I don't have many chances in Korea to buy postcards), but there you go:

I got this one from my cousin Esther living in Regensburg, Germany. We miss each other so much, but luckily we're gonna see each other in Christmas in Spain :') 

Ahreum from Korea (living in Japan) sent me this gorgeous view of Ginza, the "posh" neighbourhood in Tokyo. I'm so happy I'm still in touch with Ahreum after all this time talking on Interpals. Good thing is, we're gonna meet up in Tokyo when I visit in January! >_< ♥♥♥♥ I'm sooooo excited!

My friend and classmate Ilwen sent me this postcard from Tenerife, the Canary Islands. We usually swap postcards when we travel since we both collect them. What a good way to keep a friendship, right? ^-^ 

Jasmine from Australia sent me this lovely postcard in return from a Ghibli postcard I sent her from the Ghibli exposition I went in Seoul in September. 

Now I'm gonna show you guys the stationery I've been using now that I live in Korea. I haven't brought any of my stuff from Spain since that would imply taking lots of paper with me haha. Plus stationery is super cheap here in Korea, so I said "Let's do a stationery start-over there!" And that's what I did ;)

 New polka dot washi + green washi ♥ Also I bought those Paul Frank color pens for less than a dollar! (0.70€). Everything is so cheap that you literally go crazy! XD That's why I need to be careful. 

Envelope sets

Letter paper sets

My new washi closer

And finally some little somethings I get for my penpals :) Cute pamphlets (like this cafe menu I found in a coffee shop in Gangnam called The Banana&Co), stickers, memos... And free samples! Every time you buy something in a Korean cosmetic store they give you free samples of their products! Koreans definitely love free samples haha, so that's also something I like sending to my friends. Korea is known to be a great, super cheap and high quality place to buy any kind of beauty products, so ... Why not giving them away as well? :)

CL

Summer! Summer goodies + July snail mail update

What does "summer" mean to you? What comes up to your head when you hear the word "summer"? I'd say summer is definitely the best season of the year! Even though you get bitten by mosquitoes all the time, the heat is sticky and unpleasant and everything else... Most of us are also on holidays, we have time to sleep and relax, we can go to the beach with friends, we can enjoy a refreshing beverage in a café... It's just, great! So I just made a list of things that I automatically relate with summer. Do we share any of these? :)

One of the reasons why I also like summer it's (obviously) because it's my birthday! XD This year I got really nice stuff from my family and friends... :

 I finally got a Macbook Air, yay! :) I payed half of it and my parents payed the other half (it wasn't a bad deal after all!). Also I bought myself a new purse (fluor red, my favorite color!) and a floral/Brit-style travel documents folder  <:

 My penpal bestie Anna sent me this Estée Lauder Mad Men blush (I don't use make-up, but I swear to God once I move to Korea I'll start using it, haha!) and Raquel sent me this postcard-shaped bag with tons of postcards on it ^_^ Finally, I bought myself a travel notebook in Natura to write about my upcoming adventures in Asia ♥

Finally Mariona got me a pair of Hello Kitty pajama pants, Esther made a homemade pink purse for me, and my aunt got me a Kath Kidston MacBook case!

Yay, I'm becoming a KH collector recently, haha XD I have her wallpaper...

Also on my phone...

A notebook Anna sent me...

Her theme on Chrome... lol!

I'm so glad I have these friends, really ^_^ They mean so much to me they don't even know <3 Thanks buddies!

Now time for a snail mail update! As I said before, I'm cutting off with penpalling temporarily since I'll be moving to Seoul in a week, so I don't want my incoming to get lost in the way and everything else. But I still have some stuff I got recently that I want to share with you all:

Corey from Singapore told me about his trip to the Philippines, and she also sent me a keychain from there ^_^ 

I wrote Kelly's reply on my way back to Paris It's always nice hearing about her, we just turned our first year penpalling!  

Reika as always, wrote the whole letter in Japanese :) So happy to have a native speaker who you can practice the language with! ♥♥♥

Nilafa is my newest penpal from the UK <: This is her first letter, hope I get her back very soon! Hope we can get close as time goes by. 

My sweetest and loyal Michelle from Idaho (US) told me she just got hired by Starbucks! I envy her so much, omg... T_T'' ♥♥♥

Postcards from Dasvini in Malaysia and Mel from Singapore 

Stinky Tofu postcard from Wang Ting and Spring Festival postcard from Nye, both from China :D 

My last postcard from Miyuki (Japan) until I'm settled in Korea, Matryoshka postcard from Yaroslava (Russia): My favourites! ♥♥ And beautiful postcard from Emma (Indonesia) ^_^

And this is all by now, buddies! I might update this very soon, since I have some plans in mind with my friends and family this weekend. Hope you keep reading my blog and please, don't hesitate to comment or give me some feedback! I'll be more than pleased to reply you:)

Warm hugs from,

CL