Valentines, Returned Mail, & Clear Envelopes Sale

[Erica McPhee]

I am still hearing from friends and family who are receiving my Christmas cards now (third week of February). And I know some of my Valentines have still not arrived (like the one I mailed to my husband who lives in the same house as me!). The US mail has been extremely backed up ever since the holidays but seem to be working through it. I had three cards returned to me that were written in very clear Engrosser's Script with no flourishing. All three had the correct address. Just said undeliverable.

A friend had a card sent to me returned to her and it had two stickies over it. The first one had my correct forwarding address on it. The second one said, "Return to Sender; Insufficient Address; Unable to Forward." For no apparent reason. She put it in a new envelope and mailed it again with the new address and it was finally delivered.  (See photo.) 

Given that, I am trying to be conscientious about not making the postal workers' jobs even harder by trying to decipher addresses through all my flourishes.  So I put my Valentine exchanges inside a clear envelope with a white piece of paper over the top with a text printed address on it. It's not as exciting to receive but at least it gets there! (See photos of my Valentine exchange below.)

Schin Loong suggests using a craft blade to cut out a rectangle over the stamp area and put the stamp on the original envelope. This way there is a postmark on the envelope itself instead of the clear one. Either way, so far folks are receiving them.

Clear Bags (Envelopes) is having a 10% off sale right now using "SAVINGS" as the code. I plan to stock up.

[FlowerCityLetters]

Thanks Erica,

I got your beautiful Valentine's exchange and was thinking about following suit and getting some clear envelopes. I'm not sure if my exchange envelopes made it anywhere, I tried to put the address is non-flourished writing, but it seems like sometimes the mail doesn't make it for reasons that don't make sense.

[jeanwilson]

Since my son has gone to work for the USPS, I have been learning a lot about the postal service. Mostly, I've learned that it is so much larger and more complicated than any of us even realize. There are literally tons of pieces of mail going through the system. There are people whose full time job is cleaning shredded paper out of the processing machines where mail has been chewed up. The flimsy junk mail is chewed more easily than nice envelopes. But, sometimes a nice first class envelope is chewed up.

There are people who sift through the chewed up mail - trying to piece together mail that looks like it is first class - figure out the address and hopefully send it along to the addressee. My son says it looks like an impossible job but he has no interest in putting puzzles together. I actually think it sounds like fun. Although I would not want to do it every day. It's too bad they can't open the activity up to senior citizens who like to do puzzles and would enjoy the activity. It could be as much fun as a quilting bee.

If you are going to cut the corners off of the plastic outer envelopes so that the stamp can be adhered to the decorative envelope and canceled, be aware that anything that can catch on the machinery - might get caught. The tighter the fit you can get on the outer envelope, the better.

There are a lot of vintage stamps that I love - and if I ever decide to go with outer envelopes, I can see using vintage stamps on the decorative envelope and then putting a Forever on the outer envelope that will be discarded.

Or, if you know your penpal is handy, you could ask them to cut off the corner of the outer envelope and glue it to the decorative envelope.

Has the Graceful Envelope Contest been announced on the Forum?
If not - Google it. It's fun to enter - and their website is full of good ideas.

[Inked botanicals]

I had delivered one of those chewed up envelopes once for an exchange. I can't remember now exactly which one was it and from who, but I'll search for it and post a photo as soon as I can.

The envelope made its way from the USA to me in Spain. It came inside an USPS envelope that said something like sometimes accidents happen and they were very sorry. The original envelope was teared apart, but fortunately the damage was only on the sender address, so they could deliver. Pieces of the original envelope were inside also, and nothing seemed to be missing.

It's kind of sad receiving something broken. But truth is accidents sometimes happen. And it is good to see that there is someone trying to deliver it anyway they can, and handling it with enough care as to put everything into a new envelope to ensure nothing was lost. So in the end it's kind of a mixed feeling.