What do you do when you have two lovely women in your life who are going through a tough time? You find a way to encourage them....and if you can make it craft related then that is doubly as good!
While spending some time on pinterest I came across the idea of "open when..." letters. They have probably been around for a while but its first time that I have heard about them.
I nipped into town to pick up some envelopes and made a start on cutting in half a bunch of 4 x 6 sheets of patterned paper from my craft stash. I rounded the corners using my circle punch and decorated the plain white envelopes with different Washi Tape.
After I spent some time doing the fun stuff above, I grabbed a notepad and jotted down some "Open when...." ideas. As one set was going to my mom and the other to my friend, the typical ideas on the internet just weren't right. So, I had to come up with a number of them on my own.
The next part was the most difficult and time consuming part - writing the actual letters. I wanted the letters to be perfect, to convey meaning and thoughtfulness and the exact wonderful words that would lift their spirits and encourage them.....and then i took a step back, checked my thoughts, and reminded myself that the goal here is not perfection but encouragement, blessings and relationship.
Along with each of the letters, I wanted to include one or two quotes which are small enough to pop on the mirror or slide into a handbag. This way they can take this out into the world with them and pull them out whenever a reminder was needed. After selecting the quotes, I printed them out, pulled out my chopped up cards and got cutting.
Once I figured out the placing of the quotes on the card, I stuck them down with my double sided tape and popped them into the envelope. For a portion of these envelopes that was it. Job done. For a few others, I included a few extra items like a chocolate, face mask, nail file. Just small things to add that little something extra. Final stage was putting it all together, creating a tag and then handing them over.
Overall it was a fun project. If you plan to do your own you'll need about four to six hours depending on the length and number of letters. If you decide to have a go I would love for you to share.
