One way to my heart is combining the things that I love, so, Winged Snail Mail, a zine about mail culture, just fluttered right in and set up camp! Winged Snail Mail is run by Sarah Hoffman, a Canadian academic nomad who loves food, typewriters and mail. (Disclosure: Sarah is a pen pal / zine pal of…
Snail Mail
Check this out: Write Back Soon is a book full of letter-writing prompts
I love finding books about mail out in the wild. So I did a double-take when I saw Write Back Soon! by Karen Benke sitting on a table in a paper store called Mixed Media I happened to visit while in Hamilton last weekend (great store!). I barely knew what it was about before I took it…
Stationery Talk: Adorable notepads and unique cards
Welcome to a new series for the blog called Stationery Talk, in which I post about some of my favourite new stationery finds. Let’s kick right off then, shall we? Pusheen could be one of my life’s mascots (there are too many, like, I’d want Puppycat too!). She is adorable online, so it was only natural…
Sign up for the 2015 Notebook & Pen Swap!
I am so excited to be running this swap again. Everybody likes notebooks and pens! I started the notebook & pen swap last year as a fun prompt for NaNoWriMo people, though starting it in November and people not getting packages in December due to holiday times was not the smartest idea. So, we’re now…
Favourite Instagrams: Snail Mail – Pen Pal Edition!
Welcome to a new feature of The Paper Trail Diary! Every other week or so I will post about four of my favourite Instagram accounts that relate to one of the four themes of the blog. And what better way to start it off than to show you some of my pen pals? They run some of…
Love letters to Toronto
I adore all the kinds of projects the love of mail can bring into the world, and then what they give back to the world. One fantastic example of this is the Love Lettering Project, right here in Toronto. Author Lindsay Zier-Vogel secretly leaves little love notes about why she loves Toronto all over the city for…
Making folder letters
Sometimes you want to try a different way of putting together mail for your pen pals other than just stuffing everything in an envelope. You want to make it a bit more presentable and fun. I’ve made these ‘folders’ a few times, and I’ve seen them around on Pinterest, but recently I made these two…