Greetings on this beautiful May Day morning. I'm very excited to share some Paper Tams news. This month I am launching the Paper Tams Make Mail Kit.

This kit is the result of putting countless mail art and letter writing kits together for classes taught over the past year. It includes many of my favorite items for making mail.

Inside you will find six sheets of my favorite off white Tomoe River writing paper. This paper is fountain pen friendly while having a tissue thin feel of the letters of old. I feel like Jane Austen when writing on it.

Also included is a small mail art pack for making three vintage style envelopes much like the ones I make and share on my Instagram account. The pack contains kraft envelopes, address labels and various collage items like vintage papers, decorative napkin, tissue sheet, tags and tickets.

At this time, The Paper Tams Make Mail Kits will be sold exclusively by the kind proprietor, Tona Bell, at The Paper Seahorse in Tampa, Florida. They will be available online and in her beautiful shop, which I encourage you to visit. Be on the lookout for them this month.

This week my outgoing mail theme is all about birds. I'm inspired by the collages of Lee McKenna. I first found her on Instagram. She does amazing things with paper and ephemera.

Collaging is a great way to use up your supplies and ephemera. Usually, I collage in a notebook, but I had never thought to apply it to my outgoing envelopes and parcels. For this week's design I used a variety of materials around the house: an old Cavallini & Co calendar; a stack of vintage book pages; a box filled with items sent to me from pen pals; and postmarked bird stamps from old letters.

I used small kraft bags to house a letter and various bird themed pen pal goodies. On the outside of the bag I used good old Mod Podge to paste a sheet of vintage paper and a stamp. My Letter Writers Alliance seal balanced out the design. From my tag stash, I pulled out patterns that were not my style and covered them with paper and bird images to make book marks. I was really pleased with the final product. This may become a continuing look for my future letters.