Very nice! Do you remove some of the pages as it gets too thick? I am going to play around this weekend and see about binding some of the cards together to make sort of like junk journals, only with happy mail…I hate that most of them just sit in a box…I would like something I can look through as many of them are very inspirational to me in making my own art…thanks for sharing!
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Thank you for the kind words 
I don’t remove pages; I buy spiral-bound sketchbooks because they’re generally more tolerant of getting a lot shoved in them, lol.
Binding books myself is something I aspire to learn to do in the future.
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I should have put my address update in a separate post, it wasn’t just directed to you 
Hopefully everyone will see there’s no need to have Rte 315 in my address any longer. Makes it easier to fit on an envelope.
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This looks really nice!
So far, I keep all happy mail in a shoebox, that sounds boring but it’s very nice to go through every now and then. Now I finally have my own craft room, I’m thinking of framing or otherwise displaying some of them, and maybe I could put the other ones in a art journal type book as well.
What do you guys do with other mail you receive? I have another shoebox full of cards that I’ve received over the past 25 years. I haven’t kept all of them of course, just the ones that meant a lot - as I get older, more and more of the people who sent them aren’t alive anymore, and their handwritten notes have become more meaningful. Maybe I’m going to steal your idea of a binder with sheet protectors.
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I display mail for a while then any letters get saved in a special box (I do re-read them). Cards are often disassembled & used in other projects. My cousin cuts card fronts off to use as postcards, I love that.
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I keep the letters as well and use as many of the card parts as I can…I separate out stickers, tags, doo-dads, etc. I now also have a nice collection of bookmarks and a basket full of tea bags!
I also have a notebook that I use to keep special “art”…I swear I have every single little watercolor @jemimah has ever sent me from years and years ago! lol
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@AIMR lol, I hope they’ve improved a little bit over the years 
I save my special mail in boxes too. Your memory journal is an inspiration @LindyBlues, what a great idea!
I love my collection of 4 x 6 art and ATCs, I have a few little stands and photo holders which are easy to switch out, so I can rotate through my collection and enjoy looking at them on my art shelves.
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what a great idea!
thx for sharing photos for us
I returned home last night & retrieved my mail to find happy mail poems from @wittychild and @Renstar ! Thanks to both of you
(also a pretty ATC from Ren as well)
photo coming!
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I got wonderful Happy Mail from @irid3sc3nt today!
Thanks again!
Look at this amazing embroidered bookmark!
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Thank you!
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That is a beautiful bookmark! I have lots of little scraps of aida cloth from our recent swaps…do you have a source for patterns made just for bookmarks? I am not adept enough to modify the patterns I have…and, does pinking the edges keep it from fraying or do you use glue?
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Well, this is my first time making a cross stitch bookmark, but my mom purchased a Bee Kind one for me from a craft fair and the edge was pinked so I figured it was okay. I imagine any reinforcement would help.
I purchased this pattern on Etsy from YellowBirdieStitches who has several bookmark patterns. I think most or all of them feature books.
There was one part of the pattern that I didn’t understand, which was… I think it was a half or quarter stitch so I asked my friend who has been cross stitching much longer than me how to do it.
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Thanks…went down a rabbit hole, of course…but I got a, er, few
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I know what “a few” means in the craft world. 
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haha, that sounds like me when planning for one of the book swaps –
then of course I went in a different direction & decided to craft something else!
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If you’re a pinterest user - there are also a lot of small cross stitch charts on Pinterest.
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I got a happy mail today! Thank you @Renstar for your letter and the lovely ATC!
And it was very lovely to recieve a letter, so I think I will re-join for real during 2024.
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