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    Default Ideas for pen pal letter "tuck-ins"?

    Hi, folks!

    I've been learning a little about "tuck-ins" for pen pal letters lately. I know that small, light, flat things are great for tucking into letters as extra little gifts for recipients--things like photos, newspaper clippings, stickers, or stationery...that kind of thing. And I know that in the InCoWriMo letters I've received, I've received a page out of a desk calendar (the kind that uses up one page per day) and I've received a couple blank postcards. Great stuff! But I'm curious...what other kinds of things have other folks here sent or received as tuck-ins? I could use some ideas on what I'd like to consider sending out to folks.
    Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy...but here's my letter. So write me, maybe?

    If you're an InCo pen pal, please PM me first if you'd like to write to me. Thanks!

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    Senior Member Bogon07's Avatar
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    I rec'd a neat adhesive Bad Cartoon (insert registered trademark symbol) tucked in with the letter from Manoeuver in the mail today.
    sinistral hypergraphica - a slurry of ink
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bogon07 View Post
    I rec'd a neat adhesive Bad Cartoon (insert registered trademark symbol) tucked in with the letter from Manoeuver in the mail today.
    Neat
    Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy...but here's my letter. So write me, maybe?

    If you're an InCo pen pal, please PM me first if you'd like to write to me. Thanks!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bogon07 View Post
    I rec'd a neat adhesive Bad Cartoon (insert registered trademark symbol) tucked in with the letter from Manoeuver in the mail today.
    I got one of those as well...lol. Does yours start with "tap tap tap....?"
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    Quote Originally Posted by fountainpenkid View Post
    I got one of those as well...lol. Does yours start with "tap tap tap....?"
    Yes that sounds like the one. It truly captures the pathos and anguish of our infatuation with fountain pens.
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    Well if your not a crafty person ( like myself ) you can also try to add: a seal, use personalised stationery ( expensive I think, going to check it out ), stamps, simple designs, poetry, post card about place you visited and are referring to in your letter, blanc paper the recepient can try out on, etc.

    During INCOWRIMO I received several letters that had the above and made me tinking of also adding those extra touches to my letters. Postmuse's envelopes are a must have. I can see them become collector items ;p

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    Senior Member Tracy Lee's Avatar
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    Many people asked me about the stationery I used to do my letters so I wanted to put something in here about it. I used some paper and envelopes I bought from www.americanstationery.com that I had embossed with my initials on the sheet, and my address on the envelope flap. I thought it was really affordable,but that can be relative. I use ivory, but it comes in pink, blue and white as well. Do a search on the site for embossed pastel stationery. You can buy just sheets, or include envelopes. I just restocked and bought 100 of each for less than $100. Should last awhile. I also have an embosser and you can get those for about $40 with one dye, and around $60 if you add another dye. My husband got my initials, and also one that is a bookplate type format for my home library. Just passing along info and options since it was mentioned.

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    Oop...I think we're already going off-course, just a bit...yes, you have to tuck your letter into your envelope, and if it's written on nice stationery, or stationery that is special to you, that's great. But I'm talking about extras that can be added to envelopes before we send the letters off. Apparently tuck-ins are a thing among other pen pals, and that's something I'd love to get into, too. It's just...aside from extra pieces of paper or card stock, I'm not sure what else will survive a trip through the postal system, including the machinery used to process the mail.

    So far, all I'm certain about is that I will not be tucking in two things that other penpals have included, according to other tuck-in lists I've seen: confetti or dirt. Neither of these things are gifts (?) I'd wish to give or receive. Besides, I imagine that giving these things to someone else is really just giving them the gift of a giant mess, which nobody would want (unless they're Oscar the Grouch, I guess). :P

    I'm intrigued by ideas I've seen online about sending tea bags or packets of hot cocoa through the mail as tuck-ins. Apparently that's possible--both of those things were included in tuck-in lists I found online. One thing I've considered, too, is sending off Snapple bottle caps to people. I "collect" bottle caps by snapping pictures of them and posting them to Facebook or Pinterest, but then I toss the bottle caps out. Well...I wonder if these bottle caps would make it through the mail system, maybe? Not sure how they'll stack up against the machinery the postal system uses, though, or if they'll be okay in a regular white envelope with a letter. But sure...my friends know I love Snapple bottle caps, so why not share them? The only thing that would stop me is, I'd be more concerned about how an envelope with a Snapple cap would fare after going through the postal system.
    Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy...but here's my letter. So write me, maybe?

    If you're an InCo pen pal, please PM me first if you'd like to write to me. Thanks!

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    Default Re: Ideas for pen pal letter "tuck-ins"?

    You could take it to the Post Office and ask them to hand stamp the letter. However, there is a surcharge for that that USED to be nominal but has probably gone up.

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    Default Re: Ideas for pen pal letter "tuck-ins"?

    Quote Originally Posted by MadameX View Post
    You could take it to the Post Office and ask them to hand stamp the letter. However, there is a surcharge for that that USED to be nominal but has probably gone up.
    What country is that?
    I regularly have US post offices frank envelopes by hand to ensure there are legible inked dates on the envelopes to establish dates of mailing of legal and tax documents, and I have never been charged an extra fee.

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    Default Re: Ideas for pen pal letter "tuck-ins"?

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by MadameX View Post
    You could take it to the Post Office and ask them to hand stamp the letter. However, there is a surcharge for that that USED to be nominal but has probably gone up.
    What country is that?
    I regularly have US post offices frank envelopes by hand to ensure there are legible inked dates on the envelopes to establish dates of mailing of legal and tax documents, and I have never been charged an extra fee.
    I must admit I wasn't sure what country it was either. However, I'm sure I can't take any Johnny Cash Forever stamps to my Post Office and ask that they be hand stamped.
    Last edited by Chrissy; February 19th, 2019 at 04:27 AM.
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    Default Re: Ideas for pen pal letter "tuck-ins"?

    The local USPS stations USED to stamp local mail but now they have to charge for everything that's listed in their rules. In country towns, I think the employees were being nice or were substitutes who didn't know the policy.

    Sent from the iPhone of Madame X.

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    I now remember I got twice coins from people in Middle-East and Russia in the envelope the card came in. It was via Postcrossing and rather cool I thought considering I have been collecting roman and medieval coins for years.

    And yes Tracy I was thinking of your personalised engraved stationery when making my initial post above ;p

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bohemond76 View Post
    I now remember I got twice coins from people in Middle-East and Russia in the envelope the card came in. It was via Postcrossing and rather cool I thought considering I have been collecting roman and medieval coins for years.
    Very neat! I've heard about coins being included as tuck-ins too.

    Well...I do have one other idea about something I'd like to send out to folks. I'm surprised it didn't occur to me to send this before, but seriously--it's so Chicago...something that tourists probably wouldn't know about, even if they'll probably spot these anywhere in the city...and it's something that most of us Chicagoans love. I'd still want to see about sending out Snapple bottle caps at some point in the future, but I wouldn't want a letter to not get sent to someone because the envelope got ruined during processing because of the bottle cap inside.
    Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy...but here's my letter. So write me, maybe?

    If you're an InCo pen pal, please PM me first if you'd like to write to me. Thanks!

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    Paper samples! I received some sheets of Tomoe River paper. Bogon sent me a small cahier notebook a while back and some stone paper.
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    Quote Originally Posted by KrazyIvan View Post
    Paper samples! I received some sheets of Tomoe River paper. Bogon sent me a small cahier notebook a while back and some stone paper.
    That sounds pretty neat I think I've seen stone paper once before? Although now that I think about it, I wonder if someplace like Walgreens would sell a notebook full of stone paper. But that's what it said on the cover of one of the notebooks they were offering.
    Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy...but here's my letter. So write me, maybe?

    If you're an InCo pen pal, please PM me first if you'd like to write to me. Thanks!

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRoXFiles View Post
    That sounds pretty neat I think I've seen stone paper once before? Although now that I think about it, I wonder if someplace like Walgreens would sell a notebook full of stone paper. But that's what it said on the cover of one of the notebooks they were offering.
    Yes, Walgreens sells the Oxford Stone Paper notebook. It's odd stuff that sucks the life out of some ink. Vibrant inks turn a chalky version of their former shade.
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    Erm, it depends on what you have and what the other person enjoys. As a numismatist, whenever I encounter another one I tend to "tuck in" a dollar bill. Now if they are American I may tuck in an extra one I have, if they're not American I tend to tuck in one from where my parents live. I've also received (and loved) bookmarks. Sometimes people have handwritten a treasured/favourite recipe and sent those along (I love to try new things) and even a comic strip. Hope that helps you with some ideas.

    This isn't really tuck in, but as a teenager, my pen pals and I would paste cut out of things from magazines onto the letters (may want to fold the letter first, that way you're not pasting on a fold) that we thought was particularly interesting. Plus it made each letter unique and added something to look at besides ink colour.

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    Quote Originally Posted by caribbean_skye View Post
    Erm, it depends on what you have and what the other person enjoys. As a numismatist, whenever I encounter another one I tend to "tuck in" a dollar bill. Now if they are American I may tuck in an extra one I have, if they're not American I tend to tuck in one from where my parents live. I've also received (and loved) bookmarks. Sometimes people have handwritten a treasured/favourite recipe and sent those along (I love to try new things) and even a comic strip. Hope that helps you with some ideas.

    This isn't really tuck in, but as a teenager, my pen pals and I would paste cut out of things from magazines onto the letters (may want to fold the letter first, that way you're not pasting on a fold) that we thought was particularly interesting. Plus it made each letter unique and added something to look at besides ink colour.
    Thanks for your suggestions--they're very helpful

    I'll have to figure out what I might want to include as tuck-ins for my American penpals. I do have a tidy stack of magazines (eg Entertainment Weekly) piling up, for instance...I love the magazine and have had a subscription for years now, but haven't been able to find the time to actually read them. But folks can get those anywhere...it'd be nothing special if I included anything from there in letters. :/ I do have the one idea...and actually, I got to try it out on a couple of letters, so it's gonna take a few days to see how that goes over. Since my InCoWriMo penpals and I are all still getting to know each other, I'd want to try to see what is unique to Chicago and is something that reflects me and my life. I think that'd be a good place to start.
    Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy...but here's my letter. So write me, maybe?

    If you're an InCo pen pal, please PM me first if you'd like to write to me. Thanks!

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    Default Re: Ideas for pen pal letter "tuck-ins"?

    Quote Originally Posted by caribbean_skye View Post
    Erm, it depends on what you have and what the other person enjoys. As a numismatist, whenever I encounter another one I tend to "tuck in" a dollar bill. Now if they are American I may tuck in an extra one I have, if they're not American I tend to tuck in one from where my parents live. I've also received (and loved) bookmarks. Sometimes people have handwritten a treasured/favourite recipe and sent those along (I love to try new things) and even a comic strip. Hope that helps you with some ideas.

    This isn't really tuck in, but as a teenager, my pen pals and I would paste cut out of things from magazines onto the letters (may want to fold the letter first, that way you're not pasting on a fold) that we thought was particularly interesting. Plus it made each letter unique and added something to look at besides ink colour.
    I love bookmarks. I bet unique ones would make a treasured tuck-in.
    How about an article cut out of a local paper that you find particularly interesting?

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