#10: Let's make our own envelope

Cuz buying one would be too easy

Did you check your watch smartphones? It’s template time! It also marks the tenth week running that you’ve let me send weekly letters to your inboxes. I hope you’ve sent a lot of mail the past few months (I know I have), and I hope the templates, fiction slices, and prompts have taken your art in weird directions lately.

In just a few weeks we have postcard fiction coming up, so you know what that means: full-access subscribers can scroll to the bottom and vote for one action and one word that I’ll infuse into a short story small enough for a postcard. Even though voting is for patrons only, the weirdo fiction’s gonna be available for all subscribers (and their great aunts) to read. Hopefully, the prompt is so rad, you’ll make your own bite-sized fiction, too.

Today’s mailable wonder: A homemade envelope

I’ve been making envelopes for over a decade now. It started as a thing I did to save cash. Instead of over-drafting my account for a box of envelopes, I used things I already had on hand to send snail mail: old magazines, tape, and a sheet of stamps.

Over the years, despite upgrading my envelope-making skills and gaining the security of knowing a box of envelopes won’t wreck my bank, I’ve held onto the practice of making my own envelopes. Sometimes their little siren song still calls to me.

There’s something immensely satisfying about making a vessel that’s gonna travel across a country or ocean, carrying your sweet little words (or goofy glitter bomb) to its destination. And sure, you could buy an envelope, but picture your friendo’s pure joy when they see that homemade envelope of yours sitting in their mailbox with their name on it! It’s a tiny gift that can’t be beat.

So grab some old magazines and hunker down, folks! We’re makin’ an envelope.