7 Tips on Sending Cards & Letters
“To write is human, to receive a letter: Divine!" -Susan Lendroth”
Have you ever wondered if people still write and send letters? Are greeting cards still relevant? Have you ever received a letter in the mail, felt the rush when you saw your name scribbled in ink, and thought, “Why don’t we do this more?” Maybe you’ve stood in front of a box of postcards at an antique store and noticed that something felt special about seeing the faded words on the backsides of the cards. Perhaps, you’ve wondered what it would be like to have a pen pal, but aren’t sure where to start. I’d love to walk alongside you in learning about the beauty of writing. May these words serve as an answer to the question, “Why should I send cards and letters?” and be a step-by-step guide for how to jump into it.
Whether you’re a loyal friend of mine or you just stumbled upon these words online, let me introduce why letter writing matters to me: As an artist and greeting card designer, I stand behind the value of tangible encouragement and greetings. In the day and age where emails sit in spam folders and texts go unread, I get to create goods that sit on people’s desks during long work weeks, are put out on empty countertops in apartments just moved into, and are opened at weddings, birthdays, and celebrations. My work is handed to friends having hard days and is sent from homes to mail carrier’s bags to friends and family far and wide. A card or letter saved is an act of hanging onto hope, onto encouragement, and onto the good. So to me, letter writing is crucial. It’s a critical part of finding, curating, and cultivating encouragement, color, and community.
At its core, a handwritten note displays intentionality. Everything about seeing an envelope hand-addressed to you in the mailbox says “somebody cares.” Each step has a reason behind it. From the greeting to the closing, a letter can intentionally communicate with a friend, co-worker, or a long-distance relative. Each step of letter writing can help us reach people and bring color, encouraging words, and meaningful messages into their days, no matter the distance between us and those we love. So, why don’t you join me in learning how to really write a letter?
"Life is bearable when you have someone to write, and someone who writes you back. Even if it's just one person.” - Eunjin Jang
Tip One: Determine Your Tool
If you ask me, encouraging words and celebrations come best in color. A hand-picked card is the first step to adding intentionality to a letter that you are writing. By picking out a card for someone, you are introducing to them before they even start reading your letter that they were thought of by you. What a sweet way to communicate that you love someone, simply through the tool you choose to write on. You don’t always need expensive tools to write a letter, though. With a notecard, looseleaf paper, or sketchbook on hand, you can doodle a colorful encouragement. You can ask a friend to coffee, congratulate them on their new home, or wish them luck on an endeavor with a crayon, colored pencil, and a few sheets of paper. With color and encouragement in mind, anyone can be touched by you thinking of them, whether you’re an artist or not. I’ve linked a few sketches and encouraging words for your doodling inspiration.
Tip Two: Put a Date on It
Once you choose your stationery tools, the next step to beginning a letter is hand-writing the date in the corner. This step might feel small or insignificant, but it actually means a whole lot. One of the significant gifts of letter writing is its ability to become a part of history. Those boxes of old postcards in antique stores reveal the love, encouragement, and messages of the days of those letter-writers. Why would we skip the step of making our letters a part of history too? By dating a letter, we decide to signify the importance of the moment. It displays that we believe that moment, whether it is the delivery of encouraging words, a life update to a long-distance friend, or a congratulatory message, is worth signifying and remembering. By dating my cards and letters, I know that the story I tell will be marked forever. I know that the dated notes and letters I have will be read by my kids and grandkids one day when they read those I’ve saved. Moments and encouragement do matter, so let’s date them.
Tip Three: Start with a Cheerful Greeting
Let’s jump right in by listing some cheerful letter greetings:
“Dearest friend,”
“Greetings Grandma,”
“To my cherished mother”
“Hey there Sarah,”
“Hi from the Sunshine State.”
If at its core, we write letters to encourage and bring cheer, why don’t start from the first few words? The greeting of a letter allows us to call our loved ones by name and open the letter with enthusiasm. We have the power and creativity to bring a smile to the face of the reader before we even dive into the body of the letter.
Tip Four: Focus on the Receiver
So now the big question: What do you write about? Really, you can write about anything. A good place to start is what you and your friend last talked about in your letter. Or you could talk about recent life events or recent happenings. However, I think the best part is when you get to focus on your loved one.
The body of a letter is where we get to do the bulk of our encouraging, cheerleading, and storytelling. This is the place where you get to tell your friend who just started a new job how well you’ve seen them work in all the jobs they’ve had before. It’s where you get to tell the friend who is feeling down about a new life transition that they are resilient and equipped for this challenge. It’s where you get to tell a friend that you miss them and can’t wait to laugh with them in person soon.
One of my favorite parts of writing a letter is thinking of questions to include in the body. By asking questions in a letter, we are able to create the space for relationship-building and follow-up. It also sparks the encouragement to receive a letter back 😉. These are a few general questions I love to ask in letter writing:
“What three things are most exciting to you right now?”
“What is making you feel creative in this season?”
“What have been your three most cherished memories in this season?”
By asking questions in the body, it encourages the back-and-forth relationship of letter-writing, which is half the fun! I have letters saved with memories from friends’ college experiences and transitions to living in new states that will mark those seasons forever. It also helps me kick long-distance friendships and family relationships in the butt. With intentional questions and words full of encouragement, letters can be the most thoughtful tools for maintaining strong, cheerful relationships.
Tip Five: Seal the letter with heart
Close the card with a seal of cheer and encouragement. A few of my go-to letter closings are as follows:
“Your Friend Forever,”
“Cheering you on always,”
“Many blessings,”
“Cheers!”
“Big xoxo!”
The closing of a letter allows us to remind those we love who we really believe we are to them. We are their biggest cheerleaders, supporters, and teammates. That’s why we’re sending them a letter in the first place! Just like the opening, we want to close our letters with marks of memorable encouragement and intentionality. Choose a closing that feels fitting to your heart for the message of the letter. Maybe give it an exclamation mark and a few doodled hearts for some extra color and creativity,
Tip Six: Adorn your letter with a little extra creativity
Our sixth tip is adding a little extra color (or spicing it up, as I’d like to call it). Because letter-writing in itself is all based on intentionality, we can add our creativity and messages into the way we seal a letter. Pro tip: Purchase the fun stamps! The colorful stamps will add a little touch of creativity to your envelope. I like to add a few messages, stickers, and colors to the back of the envelope so that the color and encouragement can start before the letter is even opened. Maybe you can grab a sticker from your mom’s favorite coffee shop in your college town to send home to her as the envelope’s seal. Or you could write an encouraging note on the seal. I’ve linked a few inspiration pins for creative ways to decorate a letter.
Stickers | Handwritten Address (Victoria) | Flower Doodle | Painted Address (Lucy) | Adorned Envelope | Writing on Envelope (Yellow)
Tip Seven: Send it!
This feels like a no-brainer, but I have often left letters unsent. This is your little push. Address that envelope, put a stamp on it, drop it in your mailbox, and put the flag up! We’ve written our letters, now we get to send our creativity and encouragement into the world to find their way into our friends in their homes, offices, and adventures! What a joy it is to send words that can reveal the joy and creativity we feel for our friends. A handwritten note can trump distance and hardship and bring color, cheer, and encouragement into each of our days, no matter what part of our journeys we’re in.
I hope you know exactly who needs to find a little color in their mailbox or P.O. box this week. I hope you grab the colorful set of stamps next time you make a post office stop. I know that your doodles and your words are going to be hung up on fridges and on corkboards and put in memory boxes to be cherished for years. Who knows, maybe one day someone will be digging through our letters at an antique store. I encourage you to write a letter, to call out the good moments, and to send a little love to your friends and family through the mail. I’m cheering you on (& I’ll do it with you)!
Write instead of text. Send more cards! Encourage someone today.
Your Friend, Karen