Quarantine Hobbies: The Art of Snail Mail

Our snail mail love affair came about as a way to loosely homeschool my daughter during this time of social distancing. She’s in kindergarten and I thought sending a letter to her grandparents would be a great way to practice writing, grammar, and the actual way to write a letter, which is still an important skill to learn. We sent off the first card and she got one in return. I got to see her face filled with joy and happiness that she received a letter with her name on it. I remembered that feeling and I decided to make it a quarantine staple in our household. I’ve heard from many of the people we’ve sent letters to and they are so happy and excited to see a decorated piece of mail with their name on it. My postal worker loves picking up our mail and says it makes her so happy to see what designs we’ve done. It’s a form of therapy for me. After my kids have gone to bed, I get a glass of wine, turn on a show, and decorate envelopes. It’s soothing and calms my mind, which is much needed right now. It makes me so happy to know I’m spreading happiness to others. That’s a win-win we can all do right now.

It’s SUPER DUPER EASY to get started and you don’t need any special supplies. You can be as creative as you want. There are no rules! The sky is the limit and our good friend Pinterest has a ton of inspiration.

Here are three of my favorite easy ideas for decoration via Pinterest:

1. A simple idea using lines and small shapes. You can color the shapes with markers or gel pens to add pops of color. See more here.
2. I use my kids fingerprints to make these little bird shapes in the link. I do random patterns and it turns out adorable!
3. I love using Washi tape for a simple yet gorgeous card. See more here.

I love using Art Hub for Kids on YouTube as a great place to learn to draw EASY animals or flowers, like the little chicks and bunny ears below.

Here are some of my most used supplies that I always have on hand:

Markers. They don’t have to be fancy. We have lots of Crayola markers and I bought a cheap set of brush markers off Amazon. I also use thin Micron pens to draw any fine thin lines. Highlighters also are fun to use!

Pencils with eraser. I like to trace out some shapes before inking over them.

Embellishments. You can literally use any supplies you have on hand. I love using Washi tape, stickers, pom moms (but they may fall off in transit) for letters I place in people’s mailbox myself, scrapbooking supplies like special papers, glitter, stamps/ink, etc.

Paper or cards. I’m sure lots of you have a stack of cards sitting unused in a drawer, so now is the time to use them. I have covered up the sayings inside that don’t really work with some pretty scrapbook paper. You can even find tutorials for making your own envelope! To make a card, all you need is a piece of paper or construction paper.

Kids’ artwork. I love taking my kids’ artwork/drawings that we’ve finished displaying at home and putting them in the envelopes. I sometimes take pieces of my daughter’s schoolwork and place it in there to show how well she’s done on writing, etc. It’s a great way to pass along treasures to family and make them feel included in the process.

This has been so fun for our family, so we’ve decided this is a part of “the ‘Rona time” we’re going to keep. We all can use a bit of brightness and cheeriness right now, so if you’re looking for a way to share that with others, look to snail mail art! I’d love to see what creative ways you use to decorate your mail. Share it with us in the comments.