Pocket Pal Letters: The Newest Rage Sweeping the Planet

Janette Lane

First off you may be wondering..."What the heck is a Pocket Pal letter and why is it sweeping the country?"

Well let me tell you this is a very fun and crazy way to meet new people, craft and collect all in one.  The  creator of Pocket Letters™ and Pocket Letter Pals™ is Janette Lane from California.  She created this idea back in January 2015 and it has already swept the nation.  Trading is going on internationally with people crafting and collecting these Pocket Pals. Why? because they are both addictive and fun!  So lets cover some of the basics.

What is it?  Quite simply the idea behind it is a new way to write letters to pen-pals for a one time-swap or permanently.  You decorate all of the inside pockets of a trading card sleeve (fronts & backs) and send the whole page to someone who wants to swap with you. You can fill the pockets with anything you like (stickers, tea bags, a note, washi tape samples, pictures, etc.)   Then you include a short letter/note to your new friend and tuck it in one of the pockets.  It's the perfect way to collect letters from pen-pals around the world and a convenient way to store them because they will fit perfectly in a three ring binder!

The bonus?  You can start a collection of nifty items from around the world by trading with people internationally as well as keep our wonderful post offices a float with this new rage of snail mail.  The cool thing about these is after your fill them they will fold down to fit a standard #10 envelope (if you didn't make it too fat lol) and its' not too expensive to send it this way.  Just be sure to weigh them out and include the correct amount of postage.  

How do I make one?  First start by purchasing standard trading card inserts used for baseball cards. They are 8.5x11 (inches) and are also referred to as 9 Pocket Page Protectors. You can find these pretty cheap on Amazon or at your local Walmart.  I just picked up 100 for 14.00 on Amazon last night.   You may want to pick up a few boxes if you are serious about doing this project because I can foresee these increasing in cost,  just because of the supply demand.  When designing the images and cards/items to fit these 9 individual pockets the image size is 2.5 Wide by 3.5 Tall.   You also want to think about designing both the front and back sides of the inside pockets; because when you add them to an album it would be nice to have images on both sides when you flip the pages.  You can of course just create some for you or start making bunches of them so you are ready to send one on the fly. 

According to Janette these pockets also do not hold a PL (Project Life Card; whatever that is).  She stated that they needed to be trimmed down.   You will be able to find all kinds of images and pocket sized art work here on this site, (in the store, freebies and specials pages) that  you can use for your creations! Yea!

Here on the right is a sample of what your Pocket Letter Pal may look like once its complete.   The image comes from Janette's Blog.   As you can see its full of fun surprises that someone may be very happy to receive.

Now the down side.  It has already become apparent that there are some people out there who are either lazy or shysters and are not returning a page to you when you set up a trade.  They also may change their "names" etc so that they can continue to collect but not return from others.  These people are what have already been labeled "Flakes or Flakers".   I point this out not to deter you but to inform you to be aware that as always there are jerks out there ruining it for everyone else.

The upside is there are some sites where you can join groups and exchange themed pockets right away with others.  I found such a group the other night and they are free to join and participate and it also just so happens to be Janette's site which was a happy accident; you can find it here: Pocket Letter Pals .   As  I said this is a great way to meet new people and make new friends and quickly collect some really cool pockets.  Just be careful not to overwhelm yourself with taking on too many at once as you don't want to fall into that Flaker category.   So far I have seen Coffee, Owl, Spring themed pocket swaps and so much more. 

Happy Pocketing and remember to grab some images from the site to get you started. We have a lot to offer and a lot more coming soon!