Inspiration for mail art can come from almost anything. For example, my niece and I recently ordered Chinese take-out from my favorite local restaurant. I don't think the restaurant has changed anything in 50 years, including their packaging. I love the retro feel of their menu, containers and glassine bags. So I decided to use them for mail art.

The menu was torn in half and used for collaging. The glassine bags which originally held pre-packaged sauces are now being used to package snail mail goodies. When I put this particular parcel together, I had a pen pal from California in mind. There's something about my local Chinese restaurant and it's traditions that remind me of San Francisco.

I hope this inspires you to look differently at items you would normally toss. Maybe they can be repurposed into something special to send a friend. What has inspired your mail art recently?