Write & Send a Letter to Someone You Love

For our project, we're going to write and send a letter. The art of letter-writing has gone by the wayside, in favor of emails, direct messages and @ replies. For our project, there won't be any technology. No fonts. No email addresses. No electronics. Just pen, paper, stamps and love. Here's how we're going to do it.

Step 1: Pick Someone You Love

Decide who you would like to send your letter to. It could be your mama, your grandfather, your bestie, your mentor, whoever. Just make sure you have their physical address. Hint: it shouldn't include "gmail.com."

Share Your Progress: Tell us who you're writing to and why.

Step 2: Write Your Letter

Write your loved one a letter using your newfound modern brush calligraphy skills. For the letter itself, I recommend using a smaller tipped brush pen, like a Pentel Sign Pen. The size and color of the paper is up to you! I have provided a letter-sized template to help you keep your lines straight. If you're using white paper, you should be able to place this template underneath and see through it.

Share Your Progress: Share a pic of the "Dear" line and/or your closing line.

Step 3: Address Your Envelope

Address your envelope using your new calligraphy skills! This can be done in any size of brush marker. Be creative! Use color, change up the size, script on an angle - whatever you want to make this little work of art the star of your loves one's mailbox. Just be sure to leave room in the top right corner for a stamp! You can get some inspiration here: https://www.pinterest.com/mnykcalligraphy/pretty-envelopes/

Tip: When I mail 8.5 x 11 letters, I like to use an A9 envelope - you only need to fold the letter once.

Share Your Progress: Share a pic of your envelope, but be sure to block out part of the address - don't want to share your loved one's address with the whole world!

Step 4: Mail That Baby!

If you are in the US, you can get stamps at the Post Office - and they have oodles of options! Sure, the standard flag Forever stamp is fine - but there are lots of fun stamps, too. You can order here: https://www.usps.com/stamps/

Another options is vintage stamps. Just be sure the value of the stamps adds up to enough to send your letter. Nothing worse that return to sender!

Share Your Progress: Share a pic of your envelope stamped and ready to go (again, taking care to block out part of the address). Bonus points if you share a pic of you placing the letter in the mailbox. Beats an email any day of the week.

Kavya Atray

growing each day

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