Remember the good ol’ days, when you ran to the mailbox after school hoping for a letter from your pen pal?! Okay, maybe I am just more nerdy than most, but I sure remember those days. I still love getting mail, and I still have a “pen pal.” Only now we just refer to ourselves as friends that write letters, so we don’t appear that dorky (I need all the help I can get!).

My mother-in-law recently moved across the country, leaving behind many friends that she is very close to. For Mother’s Day, we tried to think of something perfect for her, but came up short. Then a light bulb went off! She would like to keep in touch with her friends more, and this was the perfect solution.

I purchased about 8 greeting cards, primarily “thinking of you” cards, and went to the post office to get stamps. I opted for cuter, more personal stamps than generics. I chose floral stamps because it suited my mother in law better than some of the options (Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix stamps were just not cutting it). I put a stamp on each card, and addressed just one so she would know what the whole point was.I then needed an envelope that fit all the cards perfectly, so what else to do than make one myself!? I just took one piece of 12×12 scrapbook paper, folded the sides in to fit around the cards, and then cut the top/bottom to size. If you’d like step-by-step directions, you can find them here. Otherwise I just googled “DIY Envelope Outline,” and copied the image.

I used a flower button (what else!), and hot glued it onto the envelope. I took twine and tied it around the button to make it an easy open/close envelope.

Overall, it turned out very cute, and if I must say so myself, I think it’s a pretty good gift idea. Especially for the hard to shop for friends and family. I will definitely be re-creating this in the future.