Hosting a letter-making workshop

If you and your friends enjoy designing and decorating letters and other stationery, throw a letter-making workshop! If you have a large enough space in your home that provides plenty of sitting and surface space for creating your cards, awesome. If not, check out your local library to see if it has any conference rooms you can reserve. Once you have the venue all sorted out, you’ll need a few other things.

Party invitations
Since you’re throwing a letter-making event, send out actual snail mail invites to all of your guests. Give the cards extra personality to get people excited for making their own. Ask people to RSVP to the event so you know about how many people are coming. Be sure to follow up with those who don’t respond, just in case there is a mail mix-up and someone doesn’t get their invite at the right time.

Supplies
Next to an actual meeting location, this is a necessity. Gather your own stationery items and set them out for the event. As the host, you should provide basic items like paper, writing utensils and envelopes. However, when it comes to the more detailed supplies, like embossers, calligraphy pens and rubber stamps, ask everyone else to pitch in. For instance, you might have an extensive collection of rubber stamps, but your friend might have other useful embellishments, like lace and old stacks of magazines or books. If each guests brings their favorite stationery instruments, everyone will be able to make creative cards using new types of tools and techniques.

Inspiration ideas
Magazines and other design books are great ways to get the creative juices flowing. Check out some materials from the library for guests to flip through. This will help generate new ideas and can help people who are new to letter making or struggling to think of a design. You could also keep a computer handy for this purpose with Pinterest pulled up. Using this site, people will be able to search all types of ideas.

Writing prompts are another good tool you should have on hand for your guests. Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with topics to talk about with a pen pal. Be prepared for this by coming up with a list of creative letter topics, like these six suggestions.

Snacks
No party is ever complete without refreshments. Set out some fun finger food for people to snack on while they compose their letters, and have water and other beverages on hand. Stay away from crumbly foods when you’re trying to decide what to put out. You don’t want people to constantly be brushing away pieces of cookie from the table or accidentally embellishing their cards with crumbs. Opt for something a little more stable, like fruit and veggie trays or thumbprint cookies.

The most important thing to remember at this event is to have fun. You’re creating something special to send to another person, so show them how much you appreciate their friendship through your words and unique designs.