Greetings all. Cheryl here. Today's post is all about How to Address a Yellow Envelope. Every Saturday, Claudia posts a deserving nominee. And we, the readers of House of Shine, gather a pen and paper, an envelope, a stamp, and little bit of creativity to write a heartfelt note to that deserving nominee. A simple letter of gratitude.

New readers may be asking, "Is there anything special I need to do to address the Yellow Envelope?" The answer is yes. And no. You old timers may be asking yourself, "Have I been doing it wrong?" The answer to that is no. But, I bet you can step it up a bit in the creativity department. If only you try.

Let's get started, shall we?

First, find a piece of paper that will fit in your envelope. Write a sincere note from your heart telling the nominee they are appreciated. A simple Thank You. You Shine is sufficient but go ahead and put just a little bit of your heart in. Tell them how you can relate to their story. You'll feel good about it after you do. I promise!

Next up is the fun part. The envelope. Don't let the examples of mine scare you. No! These are just examples of what you can do. Or not.

 

You need to get the nominee's name on the envelope. The name needs to be somewhere near the middle of the envelope. You may favor slightly to the right. You can print it, write in cursive, make big bubble letters or as suggested by loyal reader, Amy, use fun stickers. That's my favorite. If you're using stickers you can choose to spell out the whole name or just use the stickers for the first initials.

Under the name, we need the street address. Nothing fancy there. It's a set of numbers- like 4105 -and a street name- like Main Street. You may choose to spell it all out- South, North, Avenue, Street. Or maybe you're in a hurry and prefer to abbreviate- S., N., Ave, St.

There may be more than one 218 Main Street so let's add the city and state, okie dokie?  I don't suggest abbreviating the city name but I guess you could with NYC. And on your states which do you prefer? Is it Texas or TX? Is it California or CA? Is it Mississippi or MS? Wait- is that the abbreviation for Mississippi? The M states confuse me which means most M states get spelled out on my envelopes. I can't remember everything!

Then we have that funny little number called the Zip Code. Made famous by 90210. Shout out to 78377. Some prefer to put the zip code on the third line with the city and state while others pop down to a fourth line and let it hang there just right of the state.

You now have the nominees address information on the envelope. You need to also tell them who is sending this piece of mail lest it get tossed in the recycle bin as junk mail. Where should we do this? We have options, man. I mostly put it on the front of the envelope largely scrawled in pretty cursive. Or, we can put it on the back of the envelope. Small or large. Print, cursive, stickers. You choose. Just get Yellow Envelope Project somewhere on the envelope.

 

This is all well and good but I think you can do more. Did I just hear moans? Come on, shiners! Put your creative brains in it. Start doodling on that envelope. Draw hearts, or stars, or circles, or squares. Tic-tac-toe boards, famous sayings - It is never too late to be what we might have been- George Elliot. You can write notes that relate to the person- like Bald is Beautiful. I used that one for Ron who is a cancer survivor himself but shaved his head in support of others also battling cancer. I drew a magic wand and confetti on the backside of Teresa's envelope because she used a magic wand in her class room.

The point is this: Be creative. Have fun. Spread Shine. You'll make someone's day more than you know.

Little Sally Jo is shouting to me from the back of my brain, "But Miss! I don't have any yellow envelopes! I only have white envelopes!"

Don't be discouraged, Little Sally Jo. Break out your yellow highlighter, a yellow crayon, some yellow stickers- or heck even orange or red or blue or green. Get creative on that plain, white envelope.

Frankly, if you pull out your white envelope and do the bare minimum of writing a note, putting the nominees address on the front along with Yellow Envelope Project on any envelope and getting it in the mail, you're in the game! And THAT'S what makes you shine. (On a side note- Don't let the examples of mine scare you. No! These are just examples of what you can do. Or not.)

Oh yeah- hey- don't forget the stamp! The post office really likes the stamp part.

Join us in today's forum section and tell us how you make your yellow envelopes shine.

Signing off until tomorrow...