FriendshipBooks - the blog

The Internet is an amazing place where you can find lots of things! That is if you search right and have a dose of luck. For me, it was probably a combination of both with a huge dose of the later, when I stumbled upon a blog that deals with FriendshipBooks (FB's). It sounds quite promising as it promises to give from general information about FB's in terms of what they are and how they work to much more interesting issues such as how to make FB's, tips and tricks about making FB entries and more! Since I haven't seen in a long time anything as useful as this blog, I decided to share it with all of you. Hope you will enjoy it!

Sandbook: The PenPal Magazine - inside look

Hello, everyone!

Here are some images of pages from our issue 1. Be on the look out for issue 2 - which is going to be released on Dec 11, 2010. How to get it? :) Follow this link www.SandBook.Net and select the Magazine button and choose from the menu - "This issue". When we release the second issue, we will move issue 1 to the "Archive" section that is part of the same drop down menu.

Letter Insider: The Do's and Dont's in PenPalling:

Cover Story: How to make nice and neat FB's:

 Simplicity Embellished - the best lifestyle blog that also happens to deal with correspondence. Check our the blog itself here: www.SimplicityEmbellished.com

 

Samantha's Thoughts: a mother, a penpal and a writer:

Facebook Discussion: How did I start PenPalling? 

For more interesting articles, traditions and correspondence tips, check out the whole SandbookNet PenPal and Swappers Magazine - issue 1, available for download on our website. 

Traveling Notebooks & Pen-Palling

Traveling Notebooks

Whether you have heard about them or not, you can participate in the one that SandbookNet is organizing. The idea behind the Traveling Notebook is that you will receive a notebook in the post from someone (either the Sandbook.Net team or another player in the game) and you will have to:

1) Decorate two pages - you can either tell us something about your culture, country, customs or even your lifestyle, share inspirational thoughts or anything at all that you find worth sharing. You can use whatever your heart desires to decorate the pages - clippings, deco tape, ribbons, postcards, photos, glitter, etc.

2) Take a photo of your entry and send it to us at fun(at)sandbook.net so that we can keep track where the notebook is and if you have completed the first task.

3) Send it to the next person who have signed to join the game.

Once all the people have signed, the notebook will be returned to us and we'd make photos and upload them in our Traveling Notebook Section. We'd have them in picture formats and also available in pdf format so you can look through the whole notebook once it is complete.

To sign up for the "real" Traveling Notebook - you have to fill out the form on our website. Click here to do so: Participate in Real Traveling Notebook.

Virtual Traveling Notebook
(Traveling Sheets)

We realize that the project of the "Real" Traveling Notebook is very ambitious and that it might face certain difficulties in terms of getting lost in the mail or someone breaking off the chain of the Traveling Notebook. 

Moreover the decorated Traveling Notebook will progressively get heavier and it might present unexpected postal fees/costs for the people later on in the list, so that's why we decided to come up with an alternative, called the Virtual Traveling Notebook. For this project you will need to: decorate any number of A5 sized sheets of paper (that is 6 x 9 inches). Again you can present your country, lifestyle, customs, or any message you want to pass along and send them to our SandbookNet's postal address. As soon as we receive the decorated sheets, we will make photos of them and then tag them with your name and country (and email if you choose so) and finally upload them on our website so anyone can view them. Also when we have more sheets together, we will be making "virtual notebooks" (by combining the sheets that we have received) and making them into pdf files that you will be able to download.

To participate in any of the traveling projects you will need to state your interest by filling out the application form on our pen pal site or click here: Participate in Real Traveling Notebook.

SandbookNet is updated!

Our New Look is out: Have you explored it? If not, head to Sandbook.Net and check it out! Then don't forget to voice out your opinion about our latest update!

You may be asking or already aware why such a change was needed and made. Ever since SandbookNet's birthday on Nov 11th, 2010, we have been having a new bubbly website layout. The new design was compact, but there were issues surrounding it.

Firstly, the mailing system was misbehaving and not working. For some reason it refused to work with our design. The problem was rather annoying, since we were relying on the mailing system to distribute the magazine. Our IT Specialist was working on the mailing system and he finally managed resolve the problem. However, the magazine's size did not allow us to send the first issue as an attachment to all of our subscribers. Instead, we used the mailing system to send out a link to our website so anyone can download their copy of the magazine.

Secondly, as we understood it the hard way, the design was prone to hackers attacks as there were some unresolved problems with the code towards the website. That might sound a bit abstract, but in short it meant that we had to start working on a new design and to write a new "code". As we were in the process of updating our website, it was sadly hacked. The site was down for several hours and later on restored. That made us speed up our work.

Finally, people complained about the navigation menu, so we decided to redo it. Our new website has easy to handle menu with less drop down menus. We also took in mind the suggestions that were coming in from our Survey, so we finalized the looks and gave the site a final brush. We are looking forward to your comments on our new look!

So to all of you, from all of us: hope you will enjoy the new look and functionality of our website! :)

PenPal of the Month - November 2010 - Winners!!!

Congratulations to Johanna Tarrimaa & Anne Lanto who have been choosen for our PenPals of the Month November 2010! Here is the nomination for our penpal of the month Johanna, submitted by her pen pal Anne:

"Hello Sandbook, I would love to nominate my best (pen)pal Johanna as a PenPal of the month. We met online threw some pen pal site last summer and started talking over e-mails. The e-mails got longer and longer and more personal by letter coz we just have such a good connection. It is very easy to tell her my deepest darkest secrets, problems, fears and of course happiness and joy. she is never rude and has never been judgmental. she is very good in giving advice and making me feel better with great jokes. We both live in Finland at the moment, but we have never met though I am sure it will happen one day really soon and then it will be the greatest day for both of us because it will be full of joy and laughter. Just like our e-mails and MSN chats are. I can really honestly say that I see her as not only my e-mail pen pal, but also as a very dear and close pal. I hope we stay close pals for ever and ever and I am sure she feels the same." Anne Lanto 

Exclusive interviews with our PenPals of the Month Nov 2010 Winners are coming soon!