Most of you have probably heard about them by now. Or perhaps you are still trying to figure them out...Or maybe you have even already tried making one; and either you liked it or you did not. Lets say that hypothetically that you have made one and that you did not like making one if you have tried to. And so if you did not enjoy making it, I can understand why, they are some one intimidating, and if you have received a beautiful bulky pocket letter that someone sent you and its chock full of goodies that you may or may not have and to boot has cost the sender a small fortune to mail it to you.
The very first one I made was described as above, and I did not make another pocket letter for a very long time after that for a few years in fact. That is, until recently a good friend got me curious about them once again. So I made a couple of more, one was too bulky and far too many goodies, and the other was not near good enough and not near as many goodies as they should have been.
Good grief, how do we come up with a happy medium? Quite frankly in my opinion if the pocket letters are too big and bulky it becomes far too costly to send and that people who send them as such have missed the boat. (Pardon my expression) Especially if you are sending over seas...a small fortune perhaps? Likely. So I went to Janette's site and found this...
On her site, there is a brief explanation of what each pocket is for. So I went ahead and made my own template for my own use which looks like this...
I have since changed a few things but I will explain what I have come up with for each section, pocket by pocket.
The very first step I make is I choose a colour or pattern of paper that you think your pocket letter pal might like, it can be a solid colour or a pattern of what you think it should be. It could be a theme or not, So for example, if you know your pal loves to travel, you might want to make the front of the pocket letter using travel themed paper...but the beauty is that it can be whatever YOU want it to be, as ultimately it is YOUR choice because you are the one sending it.
For this pocket letter, which I just finished yesterday; it looks like it could be for a theme. But whether it is or it isn't doesn't matter., what matters is the rest of it which is in the back.
Pocket # 1 - is simply a "letter", it does not have to be long, it can be hand written or typed out, my penmanship is terrible, so I type mine, and I used a general form letter so I don't have to keep writing or typing out the same thing over and over. I don't send out that many pocket letters anyway and I change whatever I need to in the form letter as I go. And I label the front of that pocket simply LETTER. You can put the label right on the paper in that pocket which is what I do or right on the outside of the plastic sleeve, I have done that too. But by trial and error, I like it on the paper and inside the pocket.
Pocket # 2 - Janette has this pocket labelled for ephemera (for pockets 2 & 3 is doesn't really matter which order these go in. So I have # 2 labelled as "Stickers". If your pal is crafty and you know what things they collect or like, such as used postage stamps, or die cuts, you can put them here. If your pal is non crafty and your not sure what they like you can put something useful in this pocket like decorative bandaids.
Pocket # 3 - Janette has this pocket labelled stickers, but I have it labelled as "ephemera." Again, for these two pockets it doesn't matter which order they are in. It just so happened that I mixed them up by mistake and didn't want to waste what I have done. Other things that you can tuck in here might be single wet ones, or band aids (that is if you did not use them in Pocket # 2) perhaps an ATC made by you, a poem, a photograph, a keychain, mini notepad, flat makeup samples, coupons, etc.
Pocket # 4 - This pocket is a little bit more involved. Janette suggests calling this pocket a "mail tag" and make the tag so that will fit in the pocket. But I have decided to change this to About You in an attempt to keep it simple. She also suggests to pick a few short questions to ask your pal. So is what I have done to both the front and the back of the tag.
As you can see, its quite a simple design of a stamp, a sticker and a butterfly die cut on the front and on the back I have pre-typed the questions using font size 7 or 8, cut them out and glued them on the back. I also used a couple of cute little stickers here to decorate it.
Pocket # 5 - This pocket is simple what I have done is googled popular 3 word "quotes" and chose 9. Then I manipulated them in my open office to ensure that they were all 2.5 x 3.5 in size, and then cut them down to fit the pocket. I only put one in per pocket so I have others for future use. You can see the sample of this on the numbered photo above. Its the centre pocket.
Pocket # 6 - For this pocket what I have done is similar to what I did for the tag pocket. Janette calls this one, "About Me". So what I have changed here, is I simply answer the questions, that I ask my pal in pocket # 4 ...the about you...pocket. Why repeat anything that might be in your letter which is in pocket # 1.
Pocket # 7 - This pocket is called "Misc." I suppose that miscellaneous is kind of the english word for "ephemera". things that you can tuck in here might be single wet ones, or band aids (that is if you did not use them in Pocket # 2 or 3) perhaps an ATC made by you, a poem, a photograph, a keychain, mini notepad, flat makeup samples, coupons, cute sticky notes etc.
Pocket # 8 - I call this pocket, "What is a Pocket Letter?" For what Janette suggests here, I would think it would mainly be for people who do not know what a pocket letter is or have never received one or is not crafty. She has a free printable here. But what I have done is similar to the about you and about me pockets, I have pre copied and pasted onto one page in Word so that all I have to do it print on pretty paper, cut it down so it will fit the pocket. I have 8 left to use for future pocket letters.
Pocket # 9 - And finally the last pocket is saved for a flat pack of tea, or a flat pack of coffee sample. I call this pocket, "coffee or tea on me" I am seriously considering getting a couple of Tim Horton gift cards with just enough money on them for one coffee or tea to keep the package as flat as possible.
So here you have it...my complete dissection of how to make a pocket letter so that they not only look great, but are quick and painless to create.
cheers
Dar
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