Dear Penpal

For our Season One finale , Parker and Judit are looking back at how a little penpal hobby somehow turned into a podcast, a community, a very full stationery collection, and conversations with some of our favorite people in the analog world. We talk about the current state of our penpals, whether we need to find a few new ones, the stationery we’re still hoarding, what we actually used this year,...

For our last guest episode of Season One , Parker and Judit are joined by Steph, founder of Moonbow Creative Co. , to talk about what actually goes into building a business around something as tiny and joyful as a sticker. Steph takes us back to Moonbow’s early days as Postix , the sticker club she originally thought would be for kids, and how it unexpectedly found a very enthusiastic audience of...

This week Parker is joined by Clàudia from @cloudedpages , a Barcelona-based snail mail and paper enthusiast who has been writing to penpals around the world since she was 14. We finally tackle two very important Dear Penpal investigations: where are we supposed to find actually good letter paper, and when has a slow penpal officially become a ghost? Clàudia shares her rules for finding trustworth...

This week Parker is joined by Daisy and Chloe from Country Cottage Correspondence , their very charming English cottage mail club filled with handwritten letters, original lino prints, stickers, seasonal stories, recipes and little pieces of everyday countryside life. We talk about how the club started, what they’ve learned only a few months in, and the less-romantic side of running a mail subscri...

Episode 35: Martina Calvi, the Queen of Junk Journaling 💌✂️ This week we somehow got Martina Calvi on Dear Penpal (!!), and this one is for every junk journal, stationery and snail mail girlie. Martina takes us all the way back to the journal she started at eight years old, through sharing her pages online and realizing people actually cared about this wonderfully scrappy way of saving memories....

This week Parker is joined by Australian artist Alex Mason , whose bright, textured florals have made their way onto everything from surfboards and bedding to phone cases, stationery and swimwear. 🌸🎨 Alex takes us behind the scenes of art licensing, how it works, what artists actually get paid, and why she’s now turning down licensing deals to build her own products instead. She also shares the...

It’s our last Parker + Judit duo episode of the year, so naturally we have a LOT to catch up on. Judit is back with a belated birthday stationery haul, a fancy new fountain pen, red shimmer ink on the way, and a casual little pile of eight penpal letters waiting for replies. Parker finally got her Martina Calvi sticker book in the mail, and we’re already plotting a Paper Source trip for the Martin...

This week Parker is joined by Elle from Shell Flower , who originally got our attention by asking who she needed to bribe with stickers to get on the podcast, which is, frankly, the correct strategy. We talk about Elle rediscovering her teenage journals filled with candy wrappers, menus, scraps and little memories, and how that eventually helped lead her back to creating and building Shell Flower....

Parker is running low on letter paper, which turns into a discussion about where to buy the good stuff, and why anything monogrammed instantly feels fancier. Judit shares her latest fountain pen want, Parker has a penpal confession, and Judit updates us on messaging some ghosted penpals. We also talk about sending postcards instead of full letters sometimes, Parker’s postcard hoarding, the traveli...

This week Parker is joined by Haeshah Davis of @PlanninginHD to talk about journaling without the pressure to make every page perfect. We get into journal therapy, finding a journaling style that actually works for you, fountain pens and ink obsessions, using the stationery you’ve been saving, and why so many of us are craving analog hobbies again. Haeshah also tells us how her Postcard Pal Exchan...

This week we’re talking with Paulina Hoong, the artist and founder behind Menmin Made , about turning creative ideas into real products. Parker is currently trying to figure out manufacturing for her sticker book, so she had LOTS of questions: How do you find a manufacturer? What happens when a sample is wrong? How much back-and-forth is normal? And what happens when an entire order goes sideways?...

the internet said 10,000 postcards. there were maybe twelve. 😭💌 This week Parker got a button maker and has been making the most chaotic sticker and washi collage buttons, reached out to two publishers about making her own sticker book and we are manifesting a response, did her first DTIYS on her new iPad and is getting back into her creative zone, and her camera roll is basically entirely Dear...

paige has put a hard stop on dolphin art and we respect it 🐬🚫 Paige and Millie (@hollywoodhunnies) went to art school together, moved to LA together, share a junk journal, and built Hollywood Hunnies together, because you need a best friend who loves washi tape as much as you do. We talked about production design and painting and baking and buttons and sourcing sticker sheets, how LA's creat...

she got her first 50 subscribers from fruit notepads. the rest is history. 🥹✨ Minna (@meenoush_) grew up with a mom who had a craft room, went to film school, worked at a stationery store, and then started posting the notepads she was making on social media. Fifty subscribers later the Craftoholic Mail Club was born. Now she sends 1,750 letters a mailing, makes all her own rules, keeps it fresh...

three orders placed back-to-back. zero regrets. 🥹✨ Vivian from Nagi Lifestyle is an art school graduate who started a stationery shop, tracking inventory by hand, moving into her first warehouse, and is about to do her first expo at the SF Pen Show. We talked about all of it including the money transparency trend in the vendor community and what nobody tells you about owning a creative business....

$100 on sticker books. 3D printed sparkly pen trays. hashtags are apparently dead. welcome to episode 24. 🖊️✨💌 Parker 3D printed two sparkly pen trays, Judit ordered more fountain pens and signed up for a doodling with a fountain pen workshop at the SF Pen Show, Parker spent over $100 on sticker books and is now staring at a messy craft desk wondering where it all went wrong. We hit 1,000 Instag...

this one genuinely made us want to go write five thousand letters 🥹💌 Hannah Gustafson (@hannah_thetinyproject) runs The Tiny Post snail mail club, 5,500 subscribers, art and junk journal workshops, a farmers market with 30 plus vendors and a neighbor house band, and she does it all while serving in the Army Reserves. We talked about building something from nothing, what it actually means to beco...

juicy is a fountain pen word and we are using it 🖊️👑 This week listener mail, a very juicy Benu pen review, the royal family actually wrote back and we are not okay about it, and Parker came home from Disneyland with the most wonderful analog goodies. A very good episode. Very juicy. CONNECT WITH US: Instagram: @dearpenpalpodcast Email: dearpenpalpodcast@gmail.com Write to us: PO Box 223, Benicia...

she mailed 500 copies around the world from Sydney and we are obsessed 🍵💌 This week we are talking with Bash from Sunday Breakfast Club (@sundaybfastclub), artist, mail club founder, craft meetup regular, and the person behind some of the most stunning themed slow morning mail we have ever seen. The matcha edition. The Italian edition. The way everything she makes feels like a warm drink and a s...

20 episodes. we cannot believe it either 🥹💌 This week we handed the whole episode to you and your PO box letters. And since episode 20 felt like a moment worth pausing on, we also talked about what this podcast journey has actually been like, what surprised us, and our goals for the next 20 episodes. CONNECT WITH US: Instagram: @dearpenpalpodcast Email: dearpenpalpodcast@gmail.com Write to us: 2...

you asked, we answered 🖊️💌 This week we are answering your questions, giving you an update on the ever growing fountain pen situation (it has grown), and doing an honest check in on where our penpal lives are at right now. No guest this week, just us, your questions, and a lot of pen talk. CONNECT WITH US: Instagram: @dearpenpalpodcast Email: dearpenpalpodcast@gmail.com Write to us: 290 E L St, P...

we are not the most qualified people for this. and yet. 🛍️💌 This week a listener asked Parker and Judit for frugal penpal tips. This same week Parker and Judit bought a lot of stationery. We are doing it anyway. We also have an honest penpal life check in and an update on Parker reaching out to stationery brands for gifted products because transparency is important to us. CONNECT WITH US: Instagr...

new era unlocked 🖊️🎨💌 This week is a cozy life update episode, Judit decorated her journal and something in her has been awakened, Parker got a Paper Republic and her first fountain pen and some ink and there is no going back now. We are gushing over Martina Calvì's sticker book, launching our very first community traveling sticker card project, and reading your messages because you are all...

she found us. she mailed us her zine. judit subscribed. 🥹✂️💌 This week Parker and Judit are talking with Emily (@junk.this.universe), zine maker, snail mail club founder, junk journal lover, former Disney cast member, traveling journal curator, and someone who mailed over 100 letters on a Wednesday evening like it was completely normal. Her snail mail club junk.this.zine sends a different themed...

we have some things to report 👀💌 This week Parker and Judit are reading your messages, sharing a truly beautiful letter that arrived at the PO box, and a penpal update from Poland, an actual art restorer, and addressing the most important news of the week which is that Judit currently has 26 active penpals. Twenty six. We talk about it. CONNECT WITH US: Instagram: @dearpenpalpodcast Email: dearp...