Happy Mail Craftalong 2025

Crafty Shenanigans Craftalongs
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Welcome to the Happy Mail Craftalong Round Five!!

Photo of a letter mailbox by Kirsty TG on Unsplash
Photo of a letter mailbox by Kirsty TG on Unsplash1920×1280 181 KB

Please note I am just copying and pasting last year’s thread until the original host returns.

Happy Mail is any mail sent/received with the sole purpose of making someone happy :slight_smile: For this craftalong, we’ll focus on crafted happy mail. Some crafty happy mail might be a handmade postcard, decorated envelope, handmade card or stationery, small crafted gift, etc.

There are no “rules” here! All participants are encouraged to share what you’re crafting/sending. Recipients are encouraged to say “thank you” but are not required to and there is no pressure to share pictures or send Happy Mail in return. It’s up to each person to play however makes them happiest :love_letter: Message each other to request addresses and feel free to chat away in the craftalong thread!

Each month we will have a theme to inspire us and I’ll keep track of Birthdays also (in the next post of this thread). Please note that the theme is just for fun if you want to try, but if you’re not feeling inspired or you want to do your own thing that’s A-Okay too!

If you have a birthday in the month we’re in or the next month you can post in the thread or send me a message.

When you first join the craftalong please consider sharing something about yourself and the kind of happy mail you enjoy sending/receiving :kissing_heart: I’ll try to keep the Happy Mailers & Birthday lists current. Please message me if I need to change anything :slight_smile:

2025 Update - I (LindyBlues) am just copying and pasting last year’s Happy Mail thread. I will attempt to post monthly themes until the original host returns.

Previous Rounds
2024
2023
2022
2021

Some fine print (bolded for your attention): We are all friends here! If you ever feel that you are not receiving your “fair share” of happy mail you might be in the wrong place :wink: All happy mail is given freely without the expectation of mail being sent in return. Ask each other for addresses, feel free to say “no”, and you share them at your own risk. This is not a swap! Lettuce Craft and myself take no responsibility if someone fails to send or delays sending anything There are no “points” or swap credit, this is all just for fun :slight_smile:

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New to Happy Mail? Want to join without reading a thousand messages? :flushed: Click on the monthly themes to jump to the start of a month :kissing_heart:

Themes by month:
January - “Cozy Things”
February - TBD
March - TBD
April ~ TBD
May ~ TBD
June ~ TBD
July ~ TBD
August ~ TBD
September ~ TBD
October ~ TBD
November ~ TBD
December ~ TBD

:inbox_tray: :outbox_tray:Current Happy Mailers:

@LindyBlues (birthday March11)

@MamaRhi (birthday December 24)

@kayrun

New this year! We have a private Google doc for address sharing. You do not need to share your address this way but it’s available if you want to use it.

Rules for the Google Doc that you must agree to before requesting access:

  • You will only add and edit information for you, not for anyone else. If another LC member needs their information added/edited they must ask @Reinikka or @LindyBlues to help.
  • You are welcome to remove your information from the document at any time, there is no obligation to add or keep your information there
  • You are not allowed to share the information in the Google doc with anyone else. If another person wants access they must qualify for it themselves.
  • While we are doing everything in our power to keep the information safe you need to understand that you are entering it at your own risk and will not hold @LindyBlues or @Reinikka or Lettuce Craft responsible if the information you provide is mis-used by anyone
  • If abuse is suspected @LindyBlues has the right to revoke access to any individual
  • To qualify for access you must be an LC member for at least one month, have posted at least 15 times on the site, have posted an introduction in this thread, and have followed the instructions below

To gain access to the Google Doc of addresses you need to:

  1. Fill out this form and send it to @LindyBlues & @Reinikka in a private message with the subject " Requesting Access to Happy Mail Addresses "
  • Whose information are you allowed to add and edit?
  • Who are you allowed to share the Google doc information with?
  • Do you understand and agree to all the above rules?
  1. Click this link to request access and type your LC username into the form before submitting
  2. Start plotting your Happy Mailing
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Poll for first theme of the year:

What would you prefer for a suggested January theme?

  • Cozy things
  • Wild animals
  • Snow
  • Dreaming of summer
  • Snake (for year of the snake)
0 voters
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Hello everyone!

I’m Mariana, known almost everywhere online as LindyBlues, a nod to the dances I do (Lindy Hop & Blues).

My birthday is March 11th.

I absolutely love “snail mail,” and grew up as an immigrant before the age of “everyone has a computer/Internet at home”, so I used to write letters to my family regularly. I love “real mail,” walking over to my mailbox and finding nice surprises there. I also love sending a little something to cheer up someone’s day.

Here’s a little about me:

I was born and raised in Brazil, lived in the US for 4 years (near Chicago), then immigrated to Canada with my family in 2000.

I’m fluent in English and Brazilian Portuguese, and I can get by in Spanish. I’d love to learn French, Polish, and ASL eventually.

I’m an “all over the place” crafter/amateur artist and I love to dabble in just about anything, though more and more, I find myself drawn to mixed media, especially featuring collage. Because mixed media lets me do all the things instead of picking just one, which is a generic theme in my life—wanting to do all the things, lol. I’ve also really gotten into bookbinding this past year, and hope to bind many more books/journals, etc. in my lifetime.

Professionally, I’ve done a lot of things, from retail to teaching to serving in the Canadian Naval Reserves to kinesiology, personal training, community health, to a lot of things in between. Currently, I am homeschooling my son (my 2 girls are now in the school system), and I do some writing on the side, though I’m not officially freelancing anymore. I also work as a Relief Programming Assistant at my local library, a casual position to fill in for library programs when folks are sick or on vacation, or to be a pair of extra hands for outreach programs. I absolutely LOVE libraries. It’s a bit of an obsession, really.

I have been happily married since 2006 (we started dating in 2001), and we have 3 children born in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

I look forward to exchanging mail with many of you! :slight_smile:

Some important but less interesting stuff about me:

I’m severely sensitive to scents/fragrances and they can trigger my asthma and my chronic post nasal drip/allergic rhinitis, so no smelly stuff please :slight_smile:

I have Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and I am prone to dislocations/subluxations (partial dislocations), so I wear a great deal of bracing to prevent injury. I also have a list of other chronic illnesses, and I deal with chronic pain. So sometimes I need recovery time from pushing myself too hard, which, after all these years, I’m still trying to learn not to do… I still want to be invited to all the things though, even if I have to say no more times than I care to…

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Looking for your theme suggestions

Please wirte a list of theme suggestions, and I’ll gather them into polls for next month and/or the months following. Thank you!

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The results are in!

The Theme for January is “Cozy Things.”

Feel free to use this theme for inspiration for your happy mail or completely ignore it :heart:

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Yay! Thank you so much for taking care of the header & poll!
2025, here we are!!

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Patiently waiting for the next week to pass so I can join the fun… (I am one week away from being here a month.)

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Keep in mind this isn’t a swap, it’s a random craft along so there is no expectation of reciprocally, no organizer, and no tracking. I.e. I don’t think the one month swap requirement applies.

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I saw something about that rule applying for access to the address file. That makes sense.

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Ah gotcha. I don’t think there is an address file anymore.

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You can feel free to ask other participants directly for their addresses as well, as not everyone has their addresses listed in the file. Would you like me to add you as a participant in the post above? Also, if you’re comfortable, please feel free to PM me your address. I’d love to send some happy mail your way :blush:

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Hi, the address file still exists, and I can grant access to those who meet the requirements. Having said that, not many participants have added their addresses, so you may be better off asking for contact info directly.

Would you like me to add you to the list of participants above?

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You’re welcome! Should I add you to the list of participants above?

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Ok, yay, I get to join!!

My name is Rhiannon, MamaRhi came from when my kids were little. I was the first of my friends to have kids so a friend made it up first because it sounds kinda like mammary. Then as my house filled with tons of tiny neighborhood friends, they all called me Mama Rhi. Many of my adult friends call me Rhi (“Ree”). My kids are now in their 20s.

I love sending and receiving mail but I can rarely find others who enjoy it too these days. Makes me feel old.

I have lived in New Mexico for 6 years after growing up and raising my own kids in California. I love New Mexican culture and food and will probably stay here for the rest of my life.

I was a very chronically sick kid so I stayed home a lot and did a lot of arts and crafts (my mom is also an artist and I always had art supplies). I grew up and got a college degree in Art, where had a lot of fun taking beginning classes in everything. I am a bit of an art history nerd but not in a stuffy way. These days I am primarily a watercolor artist, but I love to draw in pen and colored pencil too. I sew and knit and generally craft pretty regularly. (I used to co-teach an art class in juvenile hall with a friend and he was always amused that I would be doing origami or drawing weird cartoons every time he was talking to the class. I just don’t sit still well without my hands being busy.)

I own a bike repair shop with my husband who is a need to keep busy kinda person too. A tinkerer more than an artist, but he builds steel bike frames and I kinda think they’re art. I run the business side of things but I love bikes too. We live in a converted school bus on a third of an acre where we are going to build a small adobe house.

Let’s see, what else? Um, I am a pretty quiet person in person. Kinda introverted. Into thrift stores, nature walks, wildflowers, coffee, talking to animals including wild birds and my cat Betty (who talks back), bike rides, and I love baking enough to be considering starting a business around it. I bake gluten-free because I have Celiac’s. I have chronic health and pain issues, a long list that I find tiresome to elaborate on.

But, that’s me. Feel free to PM me your address if you want some happy mail from Taos, NM. :grin:

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Forgot to add my birthday. December 24.

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Just an FYI, giving your birthday is not required unless you wish, and a lot of people just give the month. Would you like me to add your birthday month, birthday month and day, or nothing at all?

Thanks!

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All of the above. :slightly_smiling_face:

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That is hilarious. You have fun friends :blush:

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:snowflake: :blue_heart: :thread: Congratulation! This Craftalong is being Featured this week! :thread: :blue_heart: :snowflake:

Happy crafting!

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