Help me put together a lettter writing kit!

August 3, 2009 11:33 AM

Help me put together a unique letter writing kit for a friend going away to college! Details appreciated.

My friend is going away, and I have decided to make a letter writing kit with cool paper, pens, stamps, etc(?). However I have no idea where to look. Where can I find interesting letter writing paper/envelopes? What are some interesting pens I could get? Is there anything else I should include? Specifics would be appreciated.

posted by newtux to shopping (10 comments total)

The Paper Source isn't cheap, but it's full of beautiful paper, pens, and other stationery/craft supplies.

Something fun would be wax seal supplies (sealing wax + a fun seal stamp).
posted by oinopaponton at 11:43 AM on August 3 [1 favorite]

JAPANESE STATIONARY, DUDE. Nothing cuter. Do you have a Little Tokyo or whatever near you? Korean stationary is also awesome.

I don't know if your friend is a boy or a girl but who doesn't love kitsch?

Personally I have two large vinyl accordion folders with different items in each compartment; envelopes in one, then stickers and stamps, stationary paper, postcards (mostly cheesy touristy cards and vintage), cards....

I mostly buy stationary sets and then just mix and match them. Here are some I covet:

Hello Kitty + Tokidoki Letter Writing Set

Fifi Lapin postcards

Ninja Hello Kitty Letter Set

Dark Horse has an amazing stationary line; I really want the Domo Kun self mailers, the Fawn Gehweiler set, and the Tiki set by Shag, but there's a lot of less girly options from famous artists (well, famous in the low brow and comic and pop art world).

Museum gift shops generally have sweet stationary.

Thrift stores and garage sales often have vintage postcards for really cheap, and a lot of them are mind bogglingly inane. I love sending people black and white postcards of a parking lot from the 1960s.
posted by Juliet Banana at 11:55 AM on August 3

If this friend is into cute/kitschy stuff, I'd also recommend San-X stationery, another Japanese line. You can find San-X and other super-cute Japanese stationery here.

The USPS sells pre-stamped blank postcards, which I used to get and decorate.

My favorite pens are Sakura Micron - available in many widths and awesome for drawing - and Sakura Gelly Rolls which come in just about every color imaginable, including glittery and neon colors. They're available at just about any art/craft supply store.

Paper Source is also wonderful; I've been wanting this envelope template kit for a long time.

If your friend is the crafty/collagey type, I'd also include a glue stick or rubber cement with the kit.
posted by Metroid Baby at 12:22 PM on August 3

Stamps. Lots of pretty, cool, useful stamps. Pretty paper is nice, good pens are a treat, gotta have envelopes, and it's swell to have some stickers, colored pencils and markers for making pretty the text, glue stick and scissors for collaging, but without postage, it goes nowhere. And it's a pain to go to the post office for stamps. did I mention you should add STAMPS?
posted by theora55 at 12:39 PM on August 3

I used to be really big into writing letters and used all sorts of stuff, like samples of plastic sheets from DuPont, graph paper, one-off pieces of stationary from Pearl in Cambridge, MA, really whatever I could find. Definitely put in a large variety of paper and stationary. There is nothing worse than wanting to write some one a letter and not having something that fits the person you are writing to.

I also had a friend who would make awesome envelopes out of magazine pages. Those were really sweet.
posted by chiefthe at 12:43 PM on August 3

A silly thing I've done for a few friends to gently introduce them to letter-writing is to make them a template letter.

Dear teraspawn
Today I saw ___________ and it made me think of _____________.

A funny/awesome/awful/embarrassing delete as appropriate thing happened to me today, ___________.

Five thing's I've eaten/drank/watched/made/listened to recently are: _______________.

In your reply to my letter, answer these questions: _____________________. And solve this riddle ____________________.

Lots of ________________ from ________________ (my address is ________________)

PS. _______________________________________.


I added a couple of pre-stamped envelopes with my address on, and voila!
posted by teraspawn at 3:09 PM on August 3

also be sure to get some stuff for yourself so you can answer her letters with ones just as awesome.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 4:23 PM on August 3

A cool cheap fountain pen, with a pretty and unusual color of ink. Noodler's Ink is rad, and Dollar Pens are cheap but entirely serviceable.
posted by mollymayhem at 6:57 PM on August 3

There are some great stationery sellers on Etsy - Parrott Design Studio does great screenprinted and letterpress flatnotes and personalized letterpress stationery. I also love heatherjeany and In-Vita Paper Studio.
posted by hibbersk at 4:07 AM on August 4

If you are planning on including forever stamps you can ignore this, if you are planning on including adorable stamps then you might also want to include one cent stamps. It seems lately that the price of stamps is going up every couple of months and having to go to the post office to buy the one centers could be a deterrant to actually mailing something. Being prepared for something like that would be wonderful :o)
posted by magnetsphere at 9:33 AM on August 4