The Penpalling & Letters Community

Penpalling & Letters is a Community in the form of a Facebook group. When joining you can participate in discussions and posts about the letter and the penpalling worlds as well as share your experiences, ideas or opinions. We have sections to post your introduction, your penpal-ad or your mail-pictures among many others. We also host games and exchanges from time to time. The Community has become a meeting point for letter-lovers since 2010.

Everyone into penpalling is welcome to join the group. However, please, reply to the three questions when you click "join group". Safety and trust are very important to us!

Penpalling and Letters group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/penpallingandletters

Penpalling and Letters page: https://www.facebook.com/penpallingandletters

Third Anniversary... and painted writing-paper as a prize!

Penpalling & Letters is on Birthday in January and during these three years it has reached people in 190 different states/territories of the world.

It also can be found as a lively community at the Penpalling & Letters Facebook Group. We also have a page in Google+ Penpalling & Letters G+, so feel free to join the one which fits your purposes better!

Thank you to all the P&L members/community for all this time spent together and for such a large penpalling-family, to readers and visitors for participating and all the messages and comments received as well as to all the lovely people I had the chance to meet!

I wanted to celebrate Penpalling & Letters Third Anniversary in a different way as it had to be special... I am short of time these days but decided to bring back my artistic skills and paint! Yes, I liked to draw and paint when I was younger but life got on the way and no time for it anymore... until now, when looking for the perfect idea to gift the readers and participants in P&L. What is it? Just look at the pic below! Painted designs on paper so you can use them as stationery for your letters! And most important: made with love and care by me! However, the picture do not do them justice, especially to the water lily!

Rose. Tulip. Water lily in the pond.

How to enter this contest?

Just go on reading... The only "must" is that any "anonymous" won't be accepted. If possible "I would like to know you". How? Just sign with a Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, G+... profile. Or at least, leave your name and tell me you are in Facebook, Twitter, any social network, website, you have a blog, a webpage... If I cannot find you anywhere, I am very sorry but cannot take you in. I simply don't want to send mail to a "ghost" if you know what I mean. What do you have to do to participate?

Leave a comment in this post and tell us (remember to leave a way to contact you):

What is your best experience in penpalling? Please, don't write a few words as those won't be considered. I am asking for a little story: how is the relationship with a penpal of yours, a penpal-meeting, how you got in touch with a lovely penpal you appreciate lots... You sure know better! The most touching narration in my eyes will get printed copies of my designs! You are a penpaller, you know how to write, so make use of it and impress me!

Please, notice that if you would like to participate in this contest, your reply has to be written in this post, under comments section. Comments in Facebook, G+ or any other place around the Internet won't be valid. I won't see it. Also, only one entry per person is allowed, so chances to get the handmade stationery are the same for all of you.

Everybody is welcome to enter, it does not matter where you are located, and if you feel like it, tell your penpals and friends as well. Deadline will be the 15th February, 2013, at 00:00 GMT+1 Time Zone. The winner will be announced some days later. Good luck to all participants and my wishes of a great 2013!

Oh Paris, Paris...

This is one of the lovely gifts I got these Christmas: a set of Paris clear stamps! Isn't it a great amount? Some of us feel attracted by the French capital and its corners, which combined with penpalling-related items like the Eiffel Tower postal stamp, the pen, the cup of coffee/tea (yes, it is possible to drink a coffee or a tea while writing letters, right?)... you can see in the pic make a perfect item to own. I was thrilled to get them! Love these clear stamps so much already! They will surely be used in my future correspondence!

Penpal agenda

Along the years I have tried several possibilities to keep my penpals' postal-addresses and data: single sheets of squared paper (A4 and A5 sizes), A4 or A5 sized notebooks... but for one reason or another it was not working as wished. For example, when someone would move or would stop writing... what to do with the page? Remove it? Rip it off? It did not look nice and crossing out the data was out of question. I have finally come with a solution to keep everything tidy. Look at the picture below! This way, if data becomes obsolete, the contact fades away or I simply do a mistake I can easily discard that sheet of paper while the rest are kept in a perfect condition.

Inside and outside in my favourite colour: blue!

Place your ad!

Are you looking for penpals, swappers, a penpal for your child, a lost penpal, wish to arrange a class-exchange, find a mail-art buddy or a postcard-pal?

Remember that you can place your ad in Penpalling & Letters Ads:

Click on the pic to get to Penpalling & Letters Ads!

Have a look and follow the intructions and we will publish your penpal ad as soon as possible!

Please, note that all messages are reviewed individually and those which do not meet the purpose of penpalling will be declined. Thank you for your understanding!

Good luck in your penpal search!

Decorated letterbox

This time I would like to share with all of you one picture of a beautiful letterbox I have taken during a trip to a small village in southeastern France. The following elements are painted on it: the "Mediterranean" sea, an angel bringing letters and then, two flags: the one on the left is the Catalonia flag, together with the donkey, a kind of symbol in this area; the one on the right, the Austrian flag, tells the country of origin of the family owning that house.

Have you ever found in your way a beautifully painted letterbox? How did it look like?

The useful scale!

Three or four years ago I got myself a scale to weigh my letters or those packages which needed to be adjusted in order to get advantage of the allowed weight limit in relation to the postage to be paid. I found that weighing my mail at the Post Office was not a good idea as most of the time I still could fill the packages/letters with more stuff until the allowed limit. Getting myself a scale was an excellent idea, making the most of the last added grams indeed! But my old scale stopped working at the end of July...

Here it is the replacement! Isn't it cute?!

Storing penpalling items

Where do you store or keep your penpalling stuff?

Here you can see some of my boxes which keep letters, postcards, stationery, penpalling items...

Making your letter ready to be sent!

Your letter is ready to be sent now and once you made sure that your penpal’s address is written correctly… What to do next?

First of all, make sure that your envelope is securely sealed. If you feel that it is not well sealed, use glue, stickers or sticky tape. This way there are more chances that the contents arrive safely to your penpal and are not lost in the way.

Finally it is time to stick the correct postage! Most countries have several weight limits starting with 20g (the cheapest). If you are not sure about the exact weight of your letter, either you will have to weigh it at the post office or get yourself a scale. Each postal system has a listing of weight limits and corresponding prices both for mail to be sent inside the country and to the rest of countries of the world. Prices vary depending on distance most of the time, so the further away, the more expensive the letter will be. To check the prices which correspond to each weight limit, either visit your national mail service website or ask at the post office about it.

Are you in need of more tips to write your letters? Then, you should visit "Tips on letter writing".

Penpal Ads in Penpalling & Letters!

Are you looking for penpals?

Do you find difficult to find the perfect person to write to nowadays?

Penpalling & Letters presents its twin Blog Penpalling & Letters Ads:

Click on the pic to get to Penpalling & Letters Ads!

Visit it and follow the intructions given to have your penpal ad published online in Penpalling & Letters!

Good luck in your penpal search!