LA Pen Pal Club

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Scenes from our recent events: Earth Day at LA Central Library and our first-ever Swap & Scribble. Thanks to all who participated!

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Happy May! This lily of the valley card is part of the Birth Flower Stationery Set, a collaboration between Jaymes Paper and Starling. It's a beautiful collection of cards, perfect for gifting or for keeping.

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We love the new Sunflowers stamps, just released this spring. From USPS:

Designed by Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, and illustrated by Nancy Stahl, the stamp features four sunflowers with golden yellow petals, a brown center, and leaves and stems in shades of green against a pale-yellow background. Stahl created the design using ink sketches based on photographic references and then applied color using a vector drawing application.

The Sunflowers stamp continues a long tradition of highlighting native flowers on U.S. stamps. Previous sunflower-themed stamps were issued in 2008 and 2012.

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Risograph Printed Decorative Stamps — Sunroom

Decorative stamps designed and risograph printed in-house with moisture activated “Lick & Stick” gummed backing. These stamps are not va

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A vibrant variety set of stationery by Midori, available at Oblation Papers here.

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For National Letter Writing Month, the Portland Stamp Company is celebrating by sending out free mini-sheets of stamps, illustrated by Krista Perry. Each week, they'll release 250 sheets—look out for the next sign-up on Wednesday, April 15!

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From Moglea, a beautifully letterpress-and-riso-printed/foil-stamped stationery set "inspired by Eaton’s Letterquette, a small 'book' that was produced in the ‘60’s that held writing sheets and envelopes firmly within a perfect bound book. It allowed the style-conscious letter writer to easily remove sheets or envelopes at will."

A perfect, portable tool for the artful correspondent!

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Dear letter writers,

We have several exciting events for your letter-writing calendar: 

APRIL: National Letter Writing Month!

Sat, April 4, 10am–1pm: Final meetup at Smitten on Paper (RSVP) 

Sat, April 4, 10am–6pm: Paper World Stationery Expo in Anaheim

Wed, April 15: Eraser Day 

Sat, April 18, 2–4pm: Down to Earth at LA Central Library As part of this skill-sharing celebration, we'll be there with Snail Mail Station to provide letter-writing activities for participants 

Sat, April 25, 2–5pm: Swap & Scribble at Solarc Brewing (RSVP) We're partnering with Snail Mail Station and Marmot House to bring you a Letter Writing Party and Free Stationery Market (a swap!)  

Wed, April 29: Stationery Day

MAY: Meetup date at Black Cat Fables to be announced

We hope to see you somewhere in there! May this be a delightful season of writing.

Sincerely, LA Pen Pal Club

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Hello, Los Angeles!

LA Pen Pal Club is looking for a new space (or spaces) we could partner with to host our monthly letter-writing meetups, where 5 to 15 attendees could gather around a large table (or two) and write for a couple of hours, whether on a weeknight or weekend day.

We'd appreciate your help in spreading the word, keeping an eye out, and letting us know if you have any connections to, or suggestions for, spaces in the Los Angeles area, such as: 

a gift/book/stationery shop or a design studio that contains a communal workspace or meeting room

a community room at a local park, public library, or apartment complex that can be reserved

a café that includes a reservable gathering area or community table

We're open to all ideas, so please send them by! Get in touch with us at [email protected] or on Instagram.

With appreciation, Alicia, Margaret, & Victoria

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Calling all letter-writing lovers and paper goods and sticker devotees in Los Angeles—come celebrate National Letter Writing Month with us!

Swap & Scribble: A Letter Writing Party & Free Stationery Market hosted by Snail Mail Station, LA Pen Pal Club, and Marmot House

— WHEN & WHERE —

Saturday, April 25, from 2–5pm at Solarc Brewing in Glassell Park, Los Angeles (RSVP here)

— WHAT —

Free Stationery Market*

Photo Booth

Letter Writing Station

Postcard Collaging

Raffle** & Door Prizes

— *HOW —

Bring no more than one tote bag of stationery items to swap, and take no more than one tote bag full of stationery items home

You're not required to bring any items to participate in the swap (except for your own empty tote)!

Our swap is considered a "free-for-all," meaning items are placed in bins for all to "shop," and items aren't exchanged 1:1

Questions about what you can bring? Email [email protected]

Any unclaimed items will be donated to Remainders Creative Reuse after the event

— WHO (are our amazing raffle donors)? —

card bebes

Smitten on Paper

Clunky Picnic

Crush + Touch Art Supply

Valerie Marie

Stickii

Blackbird Letterpress

Mattea

Marigold Press

Folio Press

Big Wheel Press

Power & Light Press

**Proceeds from the raffle will be donated to Mad Collective, a mutual aid collective dedicated to providing food and essential care, uniting communities as a result.

Let us know you're coming! RSVP here.

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Jotting you a quick note to share what's coming up in 2026 (here so soon!): 

Tue, Jan 6, 5–7pm: Meetup at Be Nice Have Fun (RSVP)

Sat, Jan 10 & Sun, Jan 11: Vintage Postcards & Paper Show

Sat, Jan 17 31, 10am–1pm: Meetup at Smitten on Paper (RSVP)

We're also happy to pass the word along about a monthly mail exchange hosted by Sarah of the Mojave Correspondence Club. Whether you're curious to begin penpalling or you're a long-time letter writer looking to start new correspondence, consider joining on Patreon. $1/month opens up access to the club's monthly, themed exchanges. Learn more here.

Wishing you a new year filled with caring, thoughtful snail mail. 

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Mr. Boddington's curated gift list for the Incurable Letter Writer is perfect. Please shop small and stock up (for yourself or your pen pals)!

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For locals in Los Angeles, there is POSTAGE: The Macro World of Stamps, currently showing at Arcane Space (located on the same block as Gjusta Bakery—make a day of it in Venice!).

From the gallery website:

Drawing from a 20th-century collection of stamps from around the world, this new exhibition examines the cultural and artistic significance of postage stamps.

Each stamp tells a story — of its country in a particular time. From commemorations to portraits of notable figures, stamps are most often symbols of national pride reflecting the achievements, aspirations, and aesthetics of entire eras. They are small yet powerful emblems of history, design, and communication.

Alongside the stamps, the exhibition considers the vanishing art of letter writing —envelopes marked by post, handwriting and human touch. These fragments of correspondence remind us of the intimacy and permanence once found in sending something by hand.

This exhibition also acknowledges the artists behind these miniature “works of art”, who often uncredited, distilled meaning and beauty into the limited space of these tiny canvases. POSTAGE honors their craft and vision, as well as the quiet beauty of the act of collecting itself.

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What Is a Stamp Collector Called? — Stamps Forever

Plus, how the term “philately” came to be.

Stamp collectors have been around almost as long as postage stamps. In addition to their usefulness in sending mail, stamps are small, inexpensive, and easy to acquire, and they often feature striking works of art. It only makes sense that people would want to collect them. In fact, after the introduction of the world’s first postage stamp in 1840, this hobby became so popular that it needed a name, and in 1864, a Frenchman named Georges Herpin provided one: philately (pronounced fih-LAT-uh-lee). He coined the term by combining the Greek roots philo, meaning “love,” and ateleia, meaning “exemption from tax or duty.”

At first glance, a word that literally translates as “love of tax exemption” might seem like an odd choice for the study of postage stamps, postal history, and related items. What does being a stamp collector have to do with an affinity for avoiding taxes? For that answer, we must go back to before 1840 — before the age of prepaid postage... (read more)

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Thank you for reading along with us here!  

Some important dates to note this month: 

Mon, Nov 3: Registration opens for adopting letters to Santa

Fri, Nov 7: National Fountain Pen Day

Sat, Nov 15, 10am–1pm: Meetup at Smitten on Paper (RSVP) and it's I Love to Write Day

Tue, Nov 18, 5–7pm: Meetup at Be Nice Have Fun (RSVP)

Thu, Nov 27: Thanksgiving Day

Sat, Nov 29: Small Business Saturday! Shop and support our incredible partners, Smitten on Paper and Be Nice Have Fun 💌

At our upcoming meetups, we'd be happy for you to catch up on correspondence or get a head start on holiday mail (consider including these Tiny Notes :). Excited to see you soon!

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We love Good Things & Everything Else, a weekly newsletter by Christine Castro-Hughes of Darling Studio. It's filled with original illustrations and thoughtful reflections on ways to see goodness and share goodness in our day-to-day. Subscribe (or support, if you feel inclined) to receive this regular beacon of brightness in your inbox!

Christine's beautiful documentation of carefully collected postage stamps is from last month's No Better Time Than Now.

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From Liza St. James in the New York Times Magazine:

The Best Part of Any Piece of Mail Is the Stamp

These tiny rectangles hold memory and mystery, and they will travel where you will not.

The first time I had something to write home about, I was, fittingly, at sleep-away camp. But I found myself without a postage stamp or any means of acquiring one. Somewhere between the arts-and-crafts table and the campfire, an idea came to me: I would put my camp address in the center of the envelope and use my parents’ house, where I wanted the letter delivered, as the return. I didn’t know at the time about the Dead Letter Office or its subsequent incarnations, where such stampless mail should have ended up, but my scheme somehow worked, and my parents received the letter. Still, I learned my lesson. To this day, almost as a vestigial impulse, I am rarely without stamps. I carry sheets with me, usually loose in an overcrowded tote until a few begin to peel off their waxy backing, collecting lint at the corners. I am no philatelist, only a lay appreciator. I’m drawn to the way stamps have traveled or will travel where you will not — the way an envelope’s top-right corner illuminates the visual markings of their origins and journeys, tapping into systems that extend, in time and in space, well beyond your reach...

Read the rest here.