"Snail Mail" by Michelle Mackintosh

Michelle Mackintosh is a book designer and illustrator with a passion for mixing up the discarded with the new, collaging vintage, cute and modern aesthetics into something totally unique. Her book, Snail Mail, is a delight! What a beautiful testament to the gift of a letter.

Her brightly colored book is amazing! The illustrations are gorgeous and they draw you into a world of mail and art that makes you want to make more of it yourself and to surround yourself with all of this mail goodness. Whimsical,colorful, bold, cute- it's all here.

Even the sides of the pages with their red, white and blue stripes evoke a feeling of letters and mail.

Michelle travels to Japan three times a year and is inspired by the Japanese love of stationery and letter writing.

Also included in the book are stickers and templates so that once you are inspired you'll have some of the tools to create your own stationery stash to use and share with others.

My photos don't do justice to the color and images that pop off these pages.

Below are some of the stickers included at the book of the book.

What do you think? Are you inspired? I am. Gotta go!

Brillante Pencils

The shimmery brilliance of these metallic colored pencils by designer Louise Fili are called, Brillante, companion to two other pencil sets, the Perfetto and Tutti Frutti.

There set of twelve double-sided pencils comes in six metallic shades in a strong and sturdy keepsake box. The six colors are silver/purple; copper/blue; gold/green.

These pencils are ideal for drawing, coloring or writing and perfect for desktop display in a sturdy, elegant box.

The pencils write exceptionally smooth on any color paper, including black. Theses pencils are ideal for drawing, coloring or writing and perfect for desktop display in a sturdy, elegant box.

Here are the same colors on white paper. Unfortunately, the scanned photos don't do the shimmery colors justice.

You can order here or here.

The Valentine Postmark

I have a lovely pen pal in Loveland, CO who sent me this special Valentine card with their own Loveland, CO postmark. The postmark and accompanying red sweetheart stamp (bottom left) are part of the Sweetheart City Valentine Program.
 

According to the website of the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, here's the history of Sweetheart City Valentine Program:

Since 1947, the chamber, the Loveland post office and 60 volunteer stampers have been bringing love, hope and sentiments to people in all 50 states and more than 110 countries with a special cachet stamp and message through the program. More than 130,000 valentines get mailed each year from mothers to sons, grandfathers to granddaughters and everyone in between. Famous athletes, celebrities and even the president often get valentines stamped with Loveland’s special message. Some of the most heartfelt valentines that have come through Loveland are the ones sending messages of hope and love to our troops overseas, to children battling life-threatening illnesses and to those who are overcoming tragedy and need an extra note of encouragement.

This annual event begins on February 1, so start planning to get your Valentine's stamped for 2018.