office supplies | kimberly ah

Feb 14 2014

crafty adventures, holidays, Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail

2014 “Cat Lady” Valentines

Even though I gave up making my own Christmas cards last year, I’m still going strong in the Valentine-making department. Last year, I did mostly store-bought cards with handmade garlands but this year, I made my cards again.

I love a good pun, and I wanted to use my cat template, so I came up with these cat-themed cards for my cat-fan friends. Each one ended up being a little bit different because I was spending out some Valentine papers from yesteryear. I started with a good pun–You’re the cat’s meow!–and typed it up on Paper Source 4-bar heart cards. Then I stamped on a cat and a heart. I had tiny hearts punched out of leftover paper that I glued on, along with vintage red sequins (using my favorite glue pen). Each card ended up being a little bit different (and each card had varying amounts of Presley fur and coffee spills.)

The non-cat people got the same heart cards stamped with something tea or coffee related…slightly less exciting than cat puns.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope your day is filled with love and pink mail!

Tagged celebrations, crafts, diy, holidays, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Feb 13 2014

2 Comments

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, snail mail, Sweet Tooth

Calling Card Extras with Ferrara Pan

Today I am on my way to San Francisco to attend Ex Postal Facto!

I mentioned before that I will be seeing many of my pen pals while I’m in SanFrancisco this weekend. I’ve met a few in person before at various letter writing and social events, but most of them, I’ve never met. I’m excited to see them and hang out with them…they already feel like old friends.

For my pen pals, I decided to make bonus calling cards by including boxes of candy. Ferrara Pan makes their famous Lemonheads, Red Hots, Jaw Breakers, Boston Baked Beans and more right here in Forest Park and they have a fantastic little shop where you can buy fresh candy for practically pennies. I decided to buy Lemonheads (the classics) and Red Hots (my favorites, and perfect for Valentine’s Day) and make up some hometown treats for my friends.

I taped the boxes together with some Oh Hello Friend postal-themed masking tape. Then I topped the boxes with a business card and tied everything up with some Airmail Divine Twine to add some more postal pizazz to the package.

They are super simple and not too bulky and once I hand them all out, I’ll have a little pocket of space in my suitcase to fill up with treats from San Francisco!

Tagged adventures, crafts, food, forest park, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, washi tape

Feb 12 2014

3 Comments

adventures, Office Supplies, snail mail

Whirlwind of Preparations

Tomorrow morning, I’m leaving for San Francisco! That means today will be a whirlwind of preparations. I’m happy to report that I finished three loads of laundry before nine this morning, and I think I have enough clothes to cover the next four days. (What is it about packing for trips that makes you realize how dull your wardrobe is?)

Most importantly, my calling cards are made, the treats for my friends are packaged (more on that tomorrow) and my address book is updated for postcard writing…the important stuff, you know…

Today I am packing my bag, packing up my mail supplies (while referring to this post) and I’m working on updating my calendar with information I’ll need while I’m gone.

Oh, and I’m cleaning up the apartment a bit…just in case Naoto and Presley throw a party while I’m gone.

If you will be at Ex Postal Facto, let me know so I can look for you during the events!

Tagged adventures, crafts, diy, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, washi tape

Feb 09 2014

2 Comments

crafty adventures, Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail

Letter Month, Round-Up 2

Welcome to the second installment of Letter Month mailings (Monday-Saturday). Even though I’ve sent out a total of fifteen pieces, I’m a little behind on sending out all of my Valentines. I’m hoping to get them all finished today so they have a chance of getting to their destinations before the fourteenth. And because a Letter Month post wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from Presley, here she is crushing some Valentines. Between Naoto spilling coffee on my cards and Presley crushing them, working at the dining room table has turned out to be a big mistake. Apologies in advance to Cath and Melissa for the kitty imprints on your letters.

How’s Letter Month going in your mailbox?

To see last week’s round-up, go here.

Tagged crafts, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Feb 02 2014

3 Comments

crafty adventures, Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail

Letter Month, Round-Up 1

Letter Month started up Saturday–are you playing along?

I mentioned last week that I wanted to share each week’s mailings here every Sunday. (And I got sidetracked with a Law & Order marathon and the Super Bowl, so I’m already behind! Monday it is.) I sent out my first Valentines this weekend (shown up above, with sweet Presley). The rest should be heading on their way this week, thanks to a Valentine-themed crafternoon last Friday. I feel like I’m off to a prepared start for Letter Month…of course, that’s easy to say this early in the game!One thing I am trying to do this year is to use the Letter Month Participant stamps on each of my letters. I was pretty faithful about using them in 2012, but last year I kept forgetting. I printed out two sheets on regular paper and numbered them by hand. Then I cut them out each day (with my little Fiskars Stamp Scissors) and paste one onto each letter. The stamps usually end up on the back of the envelope (because sometimes it just doesn’t go with my mail art theme!) I’m hoping to remember to put one on each piece of mail I send out.

That’s all from the outgoing mailbox this weekend. How’s your Letter Month going so far?

Tagged crafts, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Jan 29 2014

11 Comments

Letter Month, snail mail

Letter Month III

On Saturday, Letter Month begins again. This is my third year participating, and even though I ended February last year feeling a little bit burnt out, I’m really excited to jump in again. This year, I plan to try to send at least one letter every day through the month of February, including Sundays and holidays. (To see the challenge guidelines, see the Letter Month website).

I have two things on my side again this year: 1) Valentine’s Day…I am already working on creating my Valentines so I can have them at the ready for mailing on February 1st, and 2) my trip to SanFrancisco where I will be bringing a slew of postcard stamps (even though more than half of the people I correspond with are going to be there with me). I also downloaded the Letter Month planning calendar and put it in my datebook so I can keep track of my plan and progress for the month.

In addition to sending one letter every day throughout the month, my other goals are to spend out some more of my paper/stationery/washi tape stashes, to be more creative with the ol’ mail art (I feel bored by my attempts lately) and to beat last year’s number of 41 letters mailed.

I will be posting my mail daily on Instagram (I’m @adamihasegawa over there) and I’m planning to do a mail round-up each Sunday during February to show what I’ve sent and received during the previous week.

Are you participating in Letter Month? Are you doing anything special to celebrate?

Tagged crafts, mail art, office supplies, snail mail

Jan 23 2014

1 Comment

holidays, thoughts, Words to Live By

National Handwriting Day

Oh Mr. Dior, I couldn’t disagree more…

Tagged holidays, office supplies

Jan 16 2014

2 Comments

Christmas, crafty adventures, Office Supplies, snail mail

More Mail Fun with the Cat Note Template

One of my favorite Christmas gifts was this ingenious Cat Note Template from Paper Pastries. It was a gift from Mollie, who knows me well enough to know that cats + letter writing = perfect gifts. I decided to use it for my long-overdue thank you note to Mollie.

Basically, you just trace the template onto any paper of your choice, cut it out, fold it up and it it’s ready to tuck into a 4-bar sized envelope. (Which, at 3 5/8 x 5 1/8, is almost the smallest mailable envelope size.)

You can use the cat template on plain paper and write your letter directly onto it, but I decided to use the template to make an “inner envelope”. I used an old USA Philatelic magazine as my template paper and then I wrote my note on a 4-bar flat card (from Paper Source). I used my bone folder (more on this tool, soon!) to help crease the edges as I folded the template up with the card inside and I used a piece of washi tape to hold it together. The template comes with marks to make slits so you can tuck the folds into the slits to hold without the help of washi tape, but I like using up some of my washi stash, inch by inch. (You can see the “slit indicators” on the right and bottom sides of the template.)I tucked the kitty in a fuchsia envelope, used my new Vintage Email stamp (clearer picture below…gold is hard to photograph!) and called it done. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of my corresponding cherry blossom postage stamp before I dropped the thank you in the mailbox.)I’m looking forward to creating more cat-themed mail soon!

Tagged Christmas, crafts, diy, mail art, office supplies, snail mail

Dec 31 2013

4 Comments

celebrations, holidays, homemaking, Merry & Bright, Office Supplies

New Year, New Calendars

The new year is catching me completely off guard. Thankfully, I have a few calendars to keep me on track.

I bought the Sakana Saijiki fish calendar for Naoto. It is full of amazing illustrations of sea life and calligraphy that I cannot read. I’m excited to have a grid again. The calendars that I bought last year were all more decorative than functional. The fish calendar will hang in the kitchen, so it will be nice for Naoto to see what we have planned for the month.

The little “Things With Faces” calendar was a gift from Mollie. I’m looking forward to breaking out my colored pencils or watercolors and filling the pictures in each month.

And the Orange Beautiful calendar was a gift from Donovan. The colors and the fonts are perfect.

As far as a datebook for 2014…well, I’m still waiting. After a couple of months of waffling, I decided yesterday to go back to using Franklin Covey. Once my pages come in (MID-JANUARY!!) I will do a little post on my set-up.

Today I am cleaning house and stringing up a garland for our teeny New Year’s Eve party tonight. We are having dinner at Golden Steer and drinking cocktails at home and maybe making a few resolutions…

Happy New Year!

Tagged celebrations, holidays, home, homemaking, office supplies

Dec 30 2013

5 Comments

Christmas, holidays, Merry & Bright, snail mail, vintage

Our 2013 Holiday Cards

Our 2013 Christmas cards were sent, and hopefully they’ve arrived at their destinations near and far. As I mentioned in this post, I decided to stop putting all the pressure on myself to make our cards. Instead, I bought them. I picked up the Winter Greetings card a few years ago on clearance. I loved the little chubby bird! I purchased the Andy Warhol Christmas tree card this year at Paper Source. I loved its vintage look and tiny size. (I’m a sucker for tiny greeting cards.) And the vintage Season’s Greetings card was a gift from Jennie Hinchcliff who offered them up one day on Instagram. I could not resist those vintage beauties. Here’s a closer look at its charming church illustration and inside message:In case it’s unclear it says

To greet you sincerely at Christmas and to wish you Happiness in the New Year.

Sincere Christmas greetings? Absolutely. The card is gorgeously embossed–the church, the bells, the people and the tiny snow details are raised on the page. I had to save just one…the others went to lucky pen pals. I ordered these holiday paper coasters from the Paper Source and added them with some of my cards. In a moment of bad planning, I realized that my Andy Warhol cards were too small to hold the coaster…oops. Naoto and I are using the leftovers for entertaining at home. They feel very festive, especially when cocktails are involved. In spite of having a table full of mail art stuff for the Christmas Card Writing Party, I didn’t go too crazy with mail art. I was having fun playing around with my handwriting and I just used some washi tape, rubber stamps and Stickles to add a tiny bit of pizzazz to the envelopes.

Holiday time is my favorite time of the year for checking my mailbox. People keep saying that no one writes Christmas cards anymore…I’m very lucky that many of my friends and family still value this tradition. A full mailbox is the best Christmas gift.

Tagged Christmas, crafts, holidays, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, vintage, washi tape