Hi there! I’m Becky, and it’s so nice to meet you. Today I’m sharing a pocket letter that I made with Janette Lane’s  Succulent Springtide printable. Read on for some ideas about how to use simple, neutral supplies plus some cute pocket letter printables to make a spectacular project.

It’s easy to be intimidated scrolling through gorgeous happy mail projects on Instagram or Pinterest. Am I right? Everyone has these cute pocket letters or flipbooks, and all of the paper and ephemera and stickers match perfectly. Before you know it, you’re trolling scrapbook.com late at night, and suddenly you’ve spent more on sequins, ephemera packs and paper pads than you spent on your last car. (Almost.)

Yup, it’s easy to fall into that trap. And the online snail mail world is full of lovely, sweet creatives who make us want all the beautiful things because they make them look so amazing. (I speak from experience, my friends.)

Today, I want to show you that you don’t need to have all those matching bits and pieces to create a perfect pocket letter. In addition to Janette’s printable, I pulled a few things from my stash, but the main ingredients of this pocket letter are things that are always on my desk, and that you can find easily and relatively inexpensively, no matter where you are in the world:

1. Cardstock in black, white and kraft (that’s the brown paper bag color!)
2. Gold glitter paper. Hint: I bought a roll of gold glitter wrapping paper from Paper Source. I have also seen it at Target at Christmastime. It cost about $10, but it will last me forever. I’m still on my first roll, and I’ve been using it for over a year. And I use it A LOT.
3. Washi tape in some classic colors and patterns, like gold glitter and black and white stripes.
4. A few paper punches in simple shapes. The main ones I used for this project were a little banner shape, a star, a bow and a deer head. (The deer doesn’t seem like a “simple” shape, but I use it all the time!)

Printables are awesome if you’re still building your stash, because you can use them for so many things:

1. Cut out individual shapes and use them as ephemera pieces. I did that with the cute little succulent guy, and glued him to the flap of an envelope I made out of black cardstock.
2. Use them as patterned paper. I cut up one card to make the banner pieces for my paper rosette (top left pocket). I also used one card to make a frame for my washi samples (top right pocket). I even punched a tiny bow out of one of the cards to decorate my deer’s antlers.
3. Use a card as a base layer. I used a succulent card as a foundation and then layered gold glitter paper and a chipboard sticker on top (bottom center pocket).
4. Use the printable as inspiration. I saw that Janette added a few tiny pops of pink to the printable, so I kept most of the colors neutral, but then added a few pink pops at the end. I also loved her phrase, “Pretty Things Inside,” so I borrowed that to make a flair button to use on my project. That way, my pal will know to look inside the envelope for some goodies.

 

Even if you have a big stash of paper and embellishments, sometimes it’s overwhelming to dig through piles of stuff when you’re working on a project. (Especially if your craft space is as messy as mine!) For this pocket letter, I created a little “kit” by pulling out all the supplies I thought I might use before I started working. Then I forced myself to (mostly) work only from those supplies. Sometimes, setting limits on yourself really helps force you to be creative.

So, go try it yourself! Visit pocketlettershop.com to find Succulent Springtide, and lots of other printables to get you started.

 

To see more of my snail mail projects, visit me on Instagram at @becky_sher.

 

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