A Pen Pal's Dictionary (tips & Tricks)

A Pen Pal's Dictionary (tips & Tricks) 

Happy mail: Any kind of nice mail in the mailbox, other than bills, etc. Happy mail can be letters, postcards, surprises, etc. Mail that makes the receiver happy.

 Snail mail: Traditional mail that is sent from a person to another person by conventional postal delivery services. Named after a snail because of its slow speed. 

Artist Trading Card (ATC): A small card of the size 2.5 x 3.5 inches (64 x 89 mm) that one decorates any way they want. The only rules are the size and that they are to be traded, not sold. They can be kept in albums in business card holders. 

Pocket letter: A decorative element composed of embellished cards that are 2.5" x 3.5" that fit in a baseball card holder, sometimes there is a theme but other times sender gets to pick the theme. The pocket letter is supposed to contain goodies in the pockets (stickers, teabags, washi, etc.) plus a letter. People also do mini pocket letters where they cut them to make three pockets to stuff goodies into. 

 Postcrossing: A project that allows you to send postcards and receive postcards back from people around the world. For every postcard you send, you'll receive one back from another random member and the more you send, the more you will receive. 

Flipbook: A decorative, often book-shaped, but could be any size, shape and theme, crafted item where you decorate each page, make small pockets where you add goodies for your pen pal, some examples to but into a flipbook are washi samples, diecuts, stickers, pen pal letter, mail tag, tea, Etc. 

Mail tag: A tag where you write some questions or prompts out and enclose them with your letter. They can be written on paper, card stock, journaling cards, note cards, etc. sometimes even decorated. 


Mail art: can include postcards,decorated envelopes, Friendship book’s, and traveling journals/pen pal journals. Some well use the following to decorate: paint, old book pages, diecuts, scraps of paper, stickers, washi tape, markers, etc.  


Traveling Journal: A Journal that is started with one person and is passed to others (5 or more pen pals), they are to add something about themselves and where they live, they may add goodies such as stickers, washi or tea to there pages- some Traveling journals will have set rules on how many pages you can decorate. 

Pen Pal Journal: Is a journal that is passed between two pen pals. They are to write and decorate their pages and letters inside the journal as a memory keeping between two close pen pals 


Friendship book (FB): Small booklet made by stapling paper together, or sometimes just sheets or strips of paper. An FB is usually decorated and the person who starts the book writes their name and address on it. The person who made the FB often wants it back when it’s full and marks "When full, please return to sender" in it. The FB is passed around from pen pal to pen pal, and can become a way for one to meet new pen pals. Everyone who gets the FB can add their address in it and include a list of interests as well. If someone doesn’t want to add their info in the FB, it’s nice to just write a line to say where the FB has been before passing it on, so that people can see its journey.