One of my hobbies is sending snail mail to my friends. For me, the lost art of letter writing allows me to share my creativity with others in the form of sketches, hand-made books, and paper crafts. However, rather than spend money on stationery supplies that tend to be on the expensive side, I try to recycle as many materials as I can.

I love the old-fashioned look of envelopes made from brown butcher’s paper, so I save the paper bags I get when I go to Starbucks and Wholefoods. I also save paper bags from Bath and Body Works as well as other stores to have more color. Then I cut and glue the sides of the bags to fit the front of my envelope and start adding other elements to decorate. I also have a Harry Potter book whose pages have been falling out, so I started cutting them up to use as well. The chapter titles and illustrations add some nice sketch art as well.

Clothing tags and leftover pieces of patterned scrap paper are also great for adding some contrast in texture. I have a lot of full sheets of scrapbook paper and whenever I cut pieces out of them, I always keep the larger scraps to be used for something later. While it’s fun to make crafts, I think it’s even better when you challenge yourself to use materials you already have.