A piece of important(?) information
This is a page that explains things about FBs, deco's, etc.
Things that are a part of being someone's pen pal. People swap all kinds of things
via snail letters. Things like rubber view cards, stickers, stationary, beermats, stamps
and so on and so on. But one main thing that basically eveyone who belongs to the pen
palling scene sawps, are FBs and other things of that family. And here I'm going to give
several definitions.
FB
Friendship Books (
FBs for short) are little booklets that come in many shapes and size, colors, and pages.
They are made of whatever paper one feels like making them of. Fb's are made FOR someone BY someone,
and are sent from one person to another. Everyone who gets the FB signs it.
Which means they put their address in it, their hobbies and whether they want new pals or not.
Also it is always best to add the date you sign the
fb.
Fb's always look better with covers, but sometimes you can find them without covers.
Here is an example of one fb:
That's only its cover. It is usually written
fb for ***(*** stands for the name of the person for whom that fb was made) and
fb by ###(### stands for the fb creator's name) on it.
Creators like other people who fill the fb often add a piece of information about themselves
which is mostly added in special abbreviations. And on the last page the creator usually
writes something like that:
Full?!~ Then home to *** ! Thanx, ###~
Once the fb get filled out, and there is no more room for further addresses,it
has to be sent back to whoever it was made for. Unfortunately this does not always happen.
but I recommend you to do that anyway. Firstly you can find a new great pal.
And secondly many people make "Thank you" stuff for the returned fb's.
When you get a fb you should sign and pass it along quickly. But I recommend
you to have your mail weighted as to have enough postage. I don't know what it is like in your country
but here the ordinary postage is only for the envelopes that weight up to 20 gr.
DECO's
decos are basically like the
usual FBs but as the name says, they require some more creativity. They are usually bigger
and more artistic if you want to put it that way. Every person who signs it can usually
use a whole page of the deco. It is again, your own free decision how you decorate it.
Many people use all sorts of wallpapers, lace, glitter glue,threads, cutouts and gel pens.
Many of the deco's have special themes so signers have to decorate their page in the same
style, for example animal pictures only, or, the other day I came across a " Gorgeous men
theme deco". But still every signer attaches label with address and
sometimes some other information. So you see, it can be very different and make
a lot of fun.
SLAMs
Slams are a bit different than Fbs and Deco's. They sometimes feature questions, stickers,
sign if's and othe kinds of things. Slams tend to be thickier than ordinary fb's and
often have very decorative covers.
Slams mostly iclude a few pages for the address lables and then several more pages
with questions that you have to answer, or pages where you have to continue a story,
to add some stickers, add your sign in "sign if slams" or do something else.
Also there are slams that might give you a list of films and ask you to sign with your symbol
(you chose it yourself) after the title of the film in the case you have
seen it or you like it.
Some slams can at first look rather weird and ununderstandable, but those are the ones
that make the most fun. For example there is a question: "What was the argument about?"
and you can answer whatever you like.
There are music slams as well, they give you a name of an artist on
every page and you have to write down one song by that same artist. As you see
the possibilities are endless... but it is ALWAYS FUN to sign them
or to invent your own new ones.
Also I have my own on-line SLAM
and that would be great if you sign it!
CRAMs
These are fb's on a smaller scale. The coint is to cram as many addresses on a small
piece of paper as it is possible. You shouldn't write any information about yourself or
anything that will take up too much space. Many of crams are for address labels only.
FS
FS stands for "Friendsip sheets"
These are much like fb's but they are sheets instead of booklets. Sheets can be any
size and sometimes feature some graphic. the thing you have to do with the sheets are the same
as with the fb's. But not all people like swapping Friendship sheets so you'd better ask you
pal what she/he likes to swap before sending something.
"Листочки дружбы" полностью напоминают fb и отличаются лишь дизайном.
Вместо формата книжечек - это листок бумаги.
Lyricses
These with deco's
are my fave!
Lyricses are booklets like fb's but each person takes a whole page
where they add their favourite songwords as well as tgheir address and preferences.
Sometimes I get "one artist" lyricses whre you have to add songwords of that very singer or
band only! The thing I don't like about them is that some people hate some misic styles
or just have never heard of this or that singer. And if you can't stand for example
Hansons(like I do), you shouldn't write anything offensive or throw it away.
Just pass it as soon as possible. Different people have different tastes and who
told you that other people like the things you do like?
X-SLIPs
These are chain letters. These are small (sometimes very small) sheets of paper where
there are some words like that: Make one fb for #1. Delete #1. You are #3 now! Copy 5 times.
And after that there are several addresses.
I'm not against x-slips but many people can't bare them at all!
That's all. Hope I haven't bored you with these definitions
and may be even helped. Believe me, that is really very interesting and exciting!
But if you have some other questions e-mail me! I'll be happy to help you.
Daria
