For all your crafty types, here is a fantastic tutorial on how to create a BEAUTIFUL 5-pocket portfolio that is great for many things. This one was designed with the theme of travel, but the pockets are such that you hold a lot of great correspondence items in it.

This would also make a great low-cost gift for a lucky pen pal!

Natty at Get Scatty has a very simple video tutorial on how to make an easy, nearly-instant envelope that will work with just about any size card.

Try it out next time you need a quick “jacket” to dress your note in. You can do lots of variations with this — fancy papers and more. Get creative!

Newly added link today: Passive Aggressive Notes

This is a really fun blog. It has pictures of angry notes people post around in public with corresponding commentary from the blogster. Definitely worth a look.

Okay, it’s not exactly letter writing, but it’s an amusing diversion. You have five minutes… then get back to work!

Is this adorable or what? Click the picture below to go to Laura of Lupin’s postage stamp gift wrap tutorial.

Click to See Laura's Gift Wrap Tutorial

Carla over at 365 Letters is trying an experiment. She’s writing a letter every day to see what happens. Whew, the pressure. CAN SHE DO IT? (Of course she can!) Go root for her because what she is doing is very cool.

Also, apparently it is already working because she is getting a nice round of lovely responses to her missives.

Consider trying it! Maybe it will work out as well for you as it is for her!

For my birthday I treated myself to a free download from 16 Sparrows. I am such a cheap date!

Kathy and Donovan are very clever and talented stationers who create high quality handmade goods that are great for letter writing and other forms of correspondence. Well worth the look while you’re there gobbling up the free goodies. Please look around a while.

Okay, now about this free stuff… there are printable downloads of notecards, mailing labels, and my personal favorite is the printable envelope template. (Cause you know I’m an envie junkie!) There are also a few other little tidbits there that are fun, but not necessarily related to letter writing.

Have fun!

Here’s a little mini-challenge for you today (or sometime in the next week).

I have recently added a new site to our fabulous compendium of letter writing links. The site is called Send Something. The site is similar to Postcrossing, conceptually, in that you can go get a random address and mail something to a stranger. However, that’s where the similarity ends. While Postcrossing is for postcards, Send Something can be for just about anything. Users fill out their profiles indicating their hobbies and other interesting things about themselves. What you send is completely up to you. Have fun!

(Thanks, PostMuse, for sending me this.)

Also, I’ve added a new link to the main sidebar that says “Shopping”. I’m collecting interesting places you can shop for stationery and other letter-related goodies. Enjoy.

[photo credit: Marty (S)]

I ran across a delightful story about a woman who ran across a letter from the past and how it inspired who to try something new. In this short post she describes how delightful it can be to get “messy” when you write a letter and why that has value.

Have you ever heard of a round robin letter? I have never done one, but I have heard of them.

It’s a letter where you have a group of people and you basically write letters in a circle — Person 1 sends her letter to Person 2. That person writes a letter and then sends his letter AND Person 1’s letter to Person 3 who writes a letter and sends ALL the letters on to Person 4. The pattern continues until all the letters make it back to Person 1. She then removes her original letter and replaces it with a new one, then sends the whole batch on to Person 2 again. Ad infinitum.

A few years ago someone published something called a Circle Journal which was basically the same idea except you wrote in the book and sent it around. I always thought that one was a little awkward because who is the lucky one who gets to keep the book when you’re done?

The bummer with the round robin letter is that you don’t get to keep any of the other letters. On the other hand, you do end up with a selection of your own letters which is like having a diary of sorts, I suppose.

Recently I read this news article about a woman who participated in a 64-year-long round robin letter. Can you imagine??

In our links collection, I have a link to a site called Robin Flies Again. That one will take you to a 50-year-long round robin and there you can actually see some of the letters.

Go check both of these stories out. Maybe it will inspire you to start your own!

I recently found an article about 3,000 letters and other writings of Hemingway that has been in a museum in Cuba.

The release of the Hemingway archive is part of a joint project between the Cuban National Cultural Heritage Council and the US Social Science Research Council.

As Cuba celebrated the 50th anniversary of the revolution yesterday, the Hemingway project marked a warming of relations between two countries that have been at loggerheads ever since. An expectation is growing that Raúl Castro, the Cuban President, may hold talks with Barack Obama, the US President-elect.

Great news, for a great new year!