Outgoing April Pocket Letters

*click on any image to enlarge*

Happy Friday everyone!!! 

I'm so happy the weekend is here so I can work in my yard and help my hubby with our ongoing deck project. He is doing 99.9% of the work with me assisting every now and then. Once everything is finished I'll be doing the power washing (if he lets me) and staining all of the wood. After all of the hard work is over we can decorate it and enjoy. We're both looking forward to the last part! :-)

Today I'm sharing my April pocket letters for my pals at Pocket Letter Pals. Most of them were personal swaps as I've had to cut way back on group swaps. This is a busy time of the year and it's about to get crazier so I'll be taking the month of June off entirely. I'm busy making my May pl's to send out mid-month right now. ;) The above pl was created for my pal, Donna, in Indiana. We decided on a black and white theme with a pop of color. She loves deep vibrant purple hence the purple paper flowers added in random areas. Let me show you a few close ups of her pl which I love because I have a soft spot for this combo. :)

The dress die cut was from my pal, Deb, and I thought it made a nice addition to this pl. The open pearl hearts were also from her. The bows on the 3rd pocket are by Heidi Swapp and the clock ephemera and paper in the middle pocket are by Kaisercraft. Another pal, Tasha, from England sent me a pl wrapped with pretty paper and this "beautiful" title she printed out so I used it and attached it with black gems that Deb had gifted me in her pl. The "hello" is a piece of chipboard by American Crafts. 

I used more of the Kaisercraft paper on the outer pockets and layered a piece of ephemera on the middle pocket to a black base paper. The chess chipboard piece is actually from a Twilight chipboard collection my daughter bought years ago on clearance. We're not fans of the movie series but there's some awesome chipboard in there. When I went rummaging for black and white stuff I came across it and thought it would work next to the playing card. I added a square resin frame to the outside of the middle pocket and framed one end of this beautiful lady. Donna can pop it off and use it for future pl's or crafty projects is she wants to. The paper butterflies are by Recollections and the "friendship" word is by Tim Holtz and was altered with silver acrylic paint. I added a dimensional hashtag in front of the word friendship on the left pocket as well.

Donna likes to fish so I cut out paper from the Timeless collection by Kaisercraft with a fish image and added one of Tim's alpha cards. I decided to spell her name with alpha brads that were in my stash and then glued the card to the paper. For the outer pockets I created themes and added embellishments (the resin camera is by Wendy Vecchi). I'm really happy that she loves her pl! We have another swap set up for July when things are calmer for both of us. 

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Next up is a series of spring themed pl's and the first one went to my pal, Jennifer, in Minnesota. I used one of my fave paper collections by Pink Paislee - Spring Jubilee - and I love the way it turned out. So happy she did too!

I used paper from the collection for the base of each pocket (including the upper left where I tucked in a tag pocket). I added 3 resin birdhouses in keeping with my spring theme and fussy cut flowers, butterflies, and birds also from the collection.

Let's look at some close ups.

I found these tag pockets at Tuesday Morning recently and thought it would be neat to use one to spell out her name and include her letter in it. On the outside of the pocket I added a Pink Paislee flair button which she can remove if she wants to. Chipboard butterflies from the Spring Jubilee collection were used on several of the pockets on this letter as well as the pretty Petaloo orange flowers and leaves. On the far right pocket I cut a Webster's Pages vellum designer paper and added it over the base paper. 

I fussy cut a large butterfly on this label from the paper collection, added some fussy cut cherry blossoms, rub-ons, more flowers, another birdhouse and chipboard butterfly. I added a birdhouse charm to the ribbon bow on the spine.

Another birdhouse, more Petaloo blooms, chipboard butterflies and I spelled out "Spring has Sprung" with Recollections glitter alphas in teal. The pretty pink buttons (on the spine) are by The Girls Paperie and I've been hoarding those for years. It was time to pass them on to someone else to enjoy lol. 

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My pal, Aparna, lives in India and we swap on a regular basis. This time we wanted to exchange spring pl's and she just messaged me this morning that it arrived. Yay!

I used Bo Bunny's Country Garden to create her pl, it's another collection I love and that I've hoarded for a while lol. In addition I also had the rub-ons, ephemera and cardstock stickers so those made an appearance as well. Clear stickers (birdhouse, watering case with flowers and vase with tulips) were in my stash and I added those to. You can see it better in the close ups below.

The middle and far right pockets both have rub-ons and I stamped on the middle pocket. On the outside I added this "bloom where your are planted" cardstock sticker.

The text flowers are part of the design on this dp from the collection and I love them. I simply added some ephemera and to the middle pocket I added two of the clear floral stickers in my stash. I spelled out "spring" in alphas also from the cardstock sticker sheet belonging to the Country Garden collection. 

This row I added another rub-on to the middle pocket, with ephemera from the collection, more ephemera on the left pocket and a clear sticker with a chipboard butterfly on the far right pocket. When I am shipping internationally I tend to keep the front less dimensional so I can fold my pocket letter in thirds and mail out. It seems to help with them arriving in better condition than when mailing flat although I confess I like adding dimension to the front. Oh well, so happy that Aparna likes her pl!

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 The last spring pl went to my pal, Yamil, in Puerto Rico. We're members of a private group over at PLP's and it was the first swap of the group. The theme was Creator's Choice which I have to admit left me a bit perplexed. When I went looking in her profile I realized how much she loves bright colors and fun graphics. I don't know that I nailed her style but I'm happy to report that she loves her pl which makes me a happy girl.  

You might want to put your sunshades on, just sayin'! ;)

Told you it was bright lol! Wish I could remember what paper collection I used. I cut up ATC sections months ago and placed them in a kit I created for quick pl's and forgot to record the paper line. :( Sorry about that!

On the first row I added several chipboard pieces (btw postage to PR is not expensive bc it's a US territory) and some ephemera (39 cents ea) from a Pink Paislee collection. The metal charm on the middle pocket can be removed and she can add it to a bracelet, necklace or use it for crafting. 

Because this paper is so bright I toned the outer pockets down with a sheet of lime green vellum over the dp. If you click on the photo you can see on the left pocket that there's a piece of ephemera where she can add a photo if she wants. I added a strip of washi tape to the bottom and stamped a fun saying in Archival's aquamarine blue ink on white cardstock. The camera is a piece of ephemera by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts and the rest is chipboard except the die cut sunglasses by Taylored Expressions. 

On this row I spelled out her name on cute bunting chipboard from American Crafts. All of the pieces are chipboard with the exception of the skunk magnetic bookmark (which she can remove and use) and bright foam alpha's that spell out the word "fun". Oh I did add border punched grass (MS) to the bottom of each pocket. Even though she likes bright colors I confess I was nervous about sending this pl. So glad she lkes it. :)

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The last one is a vintage style pl and it was for a personal swap with my pal, Mimi, from Rhode Island. I used another collection - Pink Paislee Vogue - that's been in my stash for a while because I've been hoarding it. At least I am now using these papers and sharing them so I feel better. ;)

It was fun to create this pl with ephemera and chipboard pieces from the collection. I did some stamping on the top row and bottom row - I love Vintage and Girl's Night Out - with a My Favorite Things sentiment set. To the spine I added three simple bows and pink striped washi tape. 

Here's a close up of the cute pieces in this collection. So happy Mimi likes her pl and I'm looking forward to our next swap!

Thanks for looking today! I'll be back on Monday with my Incoming Pocket Letters from my pals so be sure to drop by and check out their creativity. 

Have a great weekend, wherever you are!

Lisa xx