Snail Mail Sunday: Pocket Letters

Pocket Letters are a snail mail approach developed by Janette Lane that essentially uses collector card pockets to organise different treats for your pen pals. Above is a pocket letter I sent to penpal and fellow writer Karen who I met through the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club.

This is what it looked like on the reverse. In each pocket, I try to put something I think my pen pal will appreciate. One or two of the pockets hold the letter itself – it’s supposed to fit in one pocket but I ramble on and ON so I sometimes have to split it into two parts and take up two pockets.

Part of the challenge is coming up with flat-ish things to put in the pockets. So far I’ve thought of: stickers, tea, small bookmarks, badges, stamps, recipes, writing prompts, maps, washi samples, shampoo samples, puzzles, colouring sheets, craft embellishments, a list of facts, ribbon and buttons. Happy to hear anymore suggestions!

If you fold it twice, a pocket letter will usually fit neatly in a DL envelope. I hand-made this one out of paper I bought from Paperchase and then decorated it with various stamps and stickers.