Open When Letters

At the moment one of my best friends has been living in Australia for the past year and soon she will be heading to New Zealand travelling for the next one. This means it will be a whole two years of us not seeing each other. Crazy! This also means a lot of occasions where we couldn’t be there for each other, resulting in the idea of sending her some open when letters. They idea came from when I received open when letters from a friend who had moved away. I thought it was so sweet and personal, a perfect birthday gift idea for my friend half way across the world. The letters fitted perfectly with fact that the gift needed to be small and easy to carry in her backpack.

Open when letters if you do not know, are envelopes or parcels that are labelled with ‘open when’ followed by a situation in which to open them. For example, open when you are bored. The idea is to fill each individual envelope / parcel with a gift or words relating to that situation as if you are there instantly to help. It’s a special thing to be given or to do for a loved one, especially in my situation when they are so far away and you are not there to do it in person. You can easily tailor it to anyone and any situation. Whether for your mum as a mother’s day gift, or even your partner. They are also a great gift for when you’re on a tight budget. The thought that goes into it can be more priceless than your average present from the shops.

Let me tell you now, there is absolutely no shortages of open when ideas online. Pinterest is full of thousands of beautiful examples. My problem and reason for creating this blog post is because I struggled to find ideas specifically tailored to someone travelling. This left me in the situation where I had to think of my own! Oh dear…

With the help of friends and family I managed to put together a nice batch of open when letters with some also customised for situations for when she is travelling. So that no one else finds themselves in the situation I had found myself in, below I will post a list of open when letter ideas and things to put inside. Enjoy!

P.S if you need help with any other ideas, for different situations then leave a comment below and I will try to help as much as I can.

OPEN WHEN LETTER IDEAS – 

Open when…

• Now

This could be a letter explaining what the open when letters are. My open now letter was a birthday card with some nice words and money for some drinks on me inside.

• You are feeling sad

Inside this one I put a little pack of tissues and a nice letter to try to cheer her up.

• You are angry

Inside this one was a notepad which I explained in my letter that it was for her to scribble her anger down on.

• You are bored

Inside this was a small puzzle book and a list of ideas of things to do.

• You need a laugh

For this letter you could include funny stories that you have together, funny pictures and what better then personal in-jokes!

• You are stressed

This letter included some bubble wrap to pop and a stretchy man to pull in frustration!

• You have had a bad day

Inside this envelope I wrote about how everyone has bad days, and that we need the bad days to appreciate the good days even more. I also included the lyrics to the song ‘Bad Day’.

TRAVEL SPECIFIC IDEAS – 

Open when…

• You feel like you are loosing motivation

In this envelope I explained how proud we all are of her, with some quotes about achieving your dreams.

• You miss me

This envelope included lots and lots of pictures of us from over the 17 years of our friendship, and also some lovely words about how much I miss her too.

• You are missing home

For this letter I asked members of her family and friends to write little notes to cheer her up (im hoping she wont cry when she opens it!)

• You are on a long journey and can’t sleep

In this envelope I put a funky eye mask and some earbuds with a note explaining that if she is going to fall asleep in public, she may as well do it in style…

For my open when letters I purchased some plain brown envelopes so I could do my own design on each of them. I got inspiration for my designs from a pin on pinterest. You can always make your own envelopes if you have the time and creativity.

Along with the open when letters I also sent a mini photo album containing some Polaroid photos. I visited all her friends and family to take pictures for the album, as well as the local area and home. I found the album in a charity shop and thought it looked cute and travel inspired with the greens and browns.

I wrapped this up in brown paper and labelled it ‘Open Now – Happy Birthday!’. This was a little extra birthday gift that she could open straight away. It is the perfect size for her to carry round in her backpack.

I hope that my post can spur some inspiration for a creative personalised gifts, along with some new open when letter ideas.

Thank you for reading!

Laura Jane x