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Did you ever use to decorate the envelope when you sent a letter to a friend?

In these days when email is so prevalent, I hardly ever sit down to write someone a letter any more, and I know that doesn’t make me unique. But even when I do, it seems that these days I’m far too grown up, or maybe just too pressed for time, to do anything other than scrawl the address. Shame on me - sometimes it’s not even in my best handwriting.

And yet, when I was a teenager, I was forever writing to friends - even friends who lived in the same town as me; friends I might be seeing the next day! - and, not content with the pictures I might have drawn in the letter itself, I’d find myself embellishing the address or the back of the envelope with decorative effects.

I am guessing that one of the unrecognised losses of the email revolution is mail art - the underground movement which had people around the world sending each other decorated letters and envelopes for no reason other than that it was a fun way to share creativity.

There are also ample examples of the drawings that artists like Beatrix Potter included when sending letters off to young acquaintances. And for inspiration, see the annual Graceful Envelope competition, which shows that children can get in on the act, too, often more joyfully than adults do.

A nice task for you today. Perhaps not suitable for that letter to the bank or your resignation from work. Write to a friend - a young one, if you like. Then have fun decorating the envelope.

I am sure the recipient of your letter will be extra glad when it drops through their letterbox!

Here are some ideas:

• Enjoy playing about with the lettering. Copy fonts from magazines, say, or even cut out the letters and stick them on.
• Use a page of a magazine, a newspaper, an old map, paper bag, or any other appealing piece of paper to make the actual envelope. If it isn’t suitable for drawing on, then stick another piece of paper on for the address label.
• Alternatively, photocopy/scan (colour or black and white) some objects onto A4 paper, and make your envelope out of that.
• Play with borders - a few lines around the address can be fun. Keep them straight, or make them into bumpy cloud shapes, zig-zags, dotted lines…
• If you have stickers around the house (and if you have a toddler, you have stickers, I know), they can be nice additions, too.
• Remember it’s against the law (in this country, at least) to draw on the Queen’s head! But as far as I know, there’s no law against giving her a nice coloured background or frame for the stamp to sit on.
• It goes without saying, because Drawanyway readers are sensible people, that your address should be legible and everything should be stuck down firmly if you don’t want to annoy your friendly neighbourhood postman.