Update: I have added captions to some pictures to give more context on what each page is about. Thank you everyone for your kind words on this project, and thank you to all the lovely people who send me happy mail 
If you see your artwork here but I failed to give you credit, please claim it! I could not remember some of them. Thank you!
I have really been enjoying binding my own books to keep my little mementos, happy mail things, and to do some junk journaling in. I have posted this book before, and how I had filled it until that point, but I wanted to make a new post to show the whole thing from beginning to end, because I have finished filling the whole thing 
I actually ended up having to remove 2 signatures, because with so many bulky things inside, the spine I made was not large enough to accommodate the expansion. I also don’t think that it would have worked well with this type of binding even if the spine had been bigger. This is how I like to learn to make things: mess up, make again, mess up again, try again, and keep on going. I learn best by doing.
Without further ado, here’s the whole book!
Front Cover
The cover for this book is made from cut-up cardboard (I believe I used a cereal box for this one). There is one piece of cardboard for the front cover, one for the back, and one for the spine. That forms the base for the book cover.
The white fabric with the blue flowers came from an apron my mother made me a long time ago, that became damaged to the point of being unusable after many years. I salvaged the fabric I could and used it for this book cover. After making a mistake that made a hole in the fabric, I decided to reinforce the cover with the rainbow duct tape.
Bulky book full of wonderful memories about wonderful friends and generous strangers
Front Cover Endpapers
The base is just a page of blue cardstock. The washi tape came from a super lucky haul from a thrift store a few years back—I got an entire bag full of washi tape for 6.00! The stickers came from a sticker book called "The Antiquarian. The lettering is fine tip sharpie.
I realized I missed taking a photo of the first 2 pages. I’ll add them later. They have a participant ribbon from the fair on one side, and a cute envelope and card from one of the Nerd Games shipments.
The World Needs More Love Letters/Offshoot of this project
The letters at the beginning of this book came from some wonderful strangers. 2025 was a very difficult year for our family, with major injuries and serious illnesses for every family member, emotional upheaval with having to cut off contact with abusive extended family, and the list goes on. A wonderfully generous person on this site asked permission to share my story with her letter writing group, and these letters are the result of my agreement. These letters were such a source of comfort during that difficult time, and I could not be more grateful for the people who gave up their time to write and send them. I am especially grateful to the Lettuce Crafter who gives so much of herself to so many here. Let’s just say her screen name fits her perfectly .
“Junk” spread
This page is made from bits and bots of things I didn’t want to throw away because they were pretty The flowers on the “vase” on the left page came from leftover scrapbook paper from making envelopes and tea “wallets,” the vase itself came from a product package. On the right side, the little squres came from an old calendar, and I made the fabric stickers from scrap fabric I had left over after book binding and some toy projects. The hearts came from an advertisement for a local event.
More “love letters” from strangers
Junk Journal Spread
This page is made from bits and bobs from magazines, left-over scrapbook paper, and a postage stamp booklet, which is not recyclable, so I might as well make art out of it The dancing photos and words came from advertisements for local and nearby swing dancing events.
The postage stamp adds a “pull down the flap” element, revealing more dance pictures and words.
Remembrance Day spread
Elements of junk journalling as well as mementos from the 2025 Remembrance Day ceremony make up this page. The left page contains the bottom of a pretty gift bag. The right side contains a pocket from a window envelope, which I used to put the program for one of the ceremonies I attended that day. I also added a felt poppy sticker, which I made with leftover felt from another project.
The bottom of the gift bag pops open to reveal its contents—the program from my former unit’s Remembrance Day ceremony, and an article about recognition of women in the military, sent to me by the very thoughtful @wittychild. The pocket also contains the small note she sent with the article.
Junk Journal Spread
Bits and bobs from advertisements, the front of a greeting card, and the bottom of a gift bag make up this spread. The “Today’s Playlist” paper came with some happy mail, but I cannot recall who sent it. The background on the left is made from an empty postage stamp booklet.
The bottom of the gift bag on the right page pops open to reveal its contents—a very pretty BINGO card that also came in some happy mail, but I cannot recall who sent it.
Junk Journal/Memento Spread
On the left I placed a very cute card @curiousfae sent me (inside was an ATC from a swap). On the right, I placed some empty postage stamp booklets, as well as some fabric stickers I made to use up leftover fabric from book binding projects.
One of the postage stamp booklets can be opened to show some scrapbooking paper scraps, as well as postage stamps I saved from snail mail, and other bits and bobs that would have otherwise gone in the garbage. And of course, some stickers. Because you can never have too many stickers
Junk Journal Spread with some artwork by my youngest
I found a really cool picture of Kingston, where I live, in a local newspaper (I think? I can’t remember where I got it, to be honest). So I decided to make a “Kingston” page. There are some “lift the flap” elements here, to use up some paper I didn’t fill like using for anything else. The page on the left also has some “play postage stamps” that were sent to me by an old pen pal from a different site.
When you open the flap that says “Kingston,” you get the picture of the city.
On the right page, I glued down some pieces of magazine sheets, and I tied it all together by a little drawing of a bird my youngest made a long time ago.
Another junk journal spread featuring some bits and bobs from snail mail
I forgot to take a picture of the flap down; it’s another postage stamp booklet, and it has horses on the front cover. When you lift the flap of the booklet,you can see some stamps from snail mail sent to me, as well as more bits and pieces from other stamp booklets. The background for both of these pages came from a used up workbook from our homeschooling days.
The right page has more strips from that workbook, as well as a postage stamp sent to me by a local friend/pen pal, and I stuck some of the cool fruit stickers on there as well.
More junk journal with happy mail things
The little unicorn is a card from one of the Nerd Games pin shipments; it’s inside an envelope I made from some leftover papers from a different project. The stamps came from snail mail, happy mail, etc. On the right side of this spread, there is a used up stamp postage stamp booklet that serves as a “lift the flap” element.
Lifting the flap reveals an envelope with a happy mail letter I received from @Silky_Bee, as well as the cute autumn sticker that came with it. The other side of the flap is a collage from left over scrapbooking paper and a piece of a tissue box. The background is mostly scrapbook paper.
**Junk pages featuring artwork by my youngest daughter, and a happy mail letter from a Lettuce Crafter who sent me some lovely stickers for my “happy planning” via the Sharing and Caring Gift-along.
Happy Halloween Pages
Halloween artwork by my boy (middle kiddo), plus a cute Halloween card from @wittychild via the Happy Mail Craftalong. And some stickers, because you can never have enough stickers
Witches and dinosaur costume artwork by my youngest daughter, and a little note by some lovely neighbours who helped me when my husband was in hospital, and then came and gave the kids a special little bundle for Halloween (candy, bucket, and a little light up toy).
I feel hugged and cared for pages
Beautiful 2026 New Year’s card by @madebyBeaG, and a card from a dear old family friend who gave me a call to see how I was doing when Dan had returned to work after his hospitalization and I was still struggling with my asthma crisis. She then tried to quietly drop off this “I see you” card at my door, but I saw her through my front window and asked her to come in. We had a really lovely chat (though I did have to take my inhaler halfway through it… just from talking…). It’s a great memory that I wouldn’t dream of putting in a recycling bin or in a box to be forgotten
I added some used postage stamps to the inside of each card.
Kingston Fall Fair & more junk journal/happy mail stuff
I’m never too sure what to do with the ribbons we get at the fall fair, so I’ve started sticking them in memory books. I believe this was my ribbon for the photography amateur division in “flowers in bloom” category. On the right page, the blue background is actually part of a gift bag.
Opening the gift bag accordion flap reveals artwork from a postage stamp booklet as well as some used postage stamps, and a pretty picture that I liked from an ad.
Happy Mail from Lettuce Crafters
On the right is a nice card from @wittychild, and on the right is some gorgeous layered artwork by another Lettuce Crafter, but I cannot remember who made this one!! I think it might have been @Edel ? Please correct me if I am wrong! The background on the left is a bunch of postage stamp booklet backings, and the background on the right is bits and pieces of materials that would have otherwise gone in the garbage, as well as part of a “thank you” greeting card.
I like to save the cute things that people put in envelopes; I usually add it to the inside of the cards and recycle the rest of the envelope if I will not be using it for junk journalling.
Swordfighting Games Weekend Bing Sheet
More Happy Mail Stuff
For this spread, I used some cool tissue paper that came in a gift, some washi tape, and the back of a cool envelope.
I used the inside of an envelope for the background on this spread. I then glued on some cool stamps I received via snail mail, and I thought it would be very appropriate to have a snail mail stamp peeking through the window portion of the envelope And I glued one of the cards I received from the Galentine’s Swap to the right page (card by @wittychild).
Another galentine’s card from the swap (by @jeanneleigh), plus some cool stickers and stamps from snail mail.
Super awesome decorated envelope that I believe had an ATC from one of our LC swaps inside.
Happy mail card on the left (by @melg78, I believe), and a card that had an ATC inside (I think) from one of our swaps.
“Writerly affirmations” from the affirmation swap; artwork by @megwell
For the background on this page, I used the inside of a pretty envelope, and added some other envelope treasures, including a pikachu sticker that had been on the front of one. The “to bee delivered to” envelope bit came from the galentine’s swap; artwork by @AudiobookLover; it contained a gorgeous “bee my galentine” embroidered card, which will go in a larger memory book, as it is bigger than the pages in this one.
Bits and bobs from more happy mail and swaps. Hand carved cat stamp and beautiful mixed media coin by @Whystler; these came with an ATC for a swap here.
Beautifully decorated envelope from someone here; I think this was for an ATC, but don’t quote me on that, lol…
More cool mixed media coins by @Whystler , and a note from @LovelyMiss from one of the Nerd Games pin shipments. She’s always got the coolest stationary! The thunderbolts are from a play we saw on our first ever Disney Cruise (Hercules). On the right page, I used a piece of the window envelope that the pins came in to store a letter from my husband and a card from a lovely Entertainment Team staff member from the cruise.
A ticket from the first school play my younges kiddo was in
Extra end papers I had to add to reinforce the binding, once I cut out the last 2 signatures from the book.
Original Endpapers.
Back Cover
