Do you remember being a kid and getting a huge thrill when something dropped through the letterbox with your name on it for a change? A postcard or letter could make my day and it was always a good thing when my Animal Action or Young Ornithologists Club magazines arrived – pages and pages about animals and wildlife for me to read and reread – all in a package with my name on. Perfect.

Then you get older and slowly the fun post gets overtaken by bills, begging letters, adverts for shoes and frozen vegetables, and other boring stuff about insurance and politics. Seeing your name on an envelope stops being exciting and the Postman is no longer your best friend.

And that sucks.

We need to send more happy post. More things that make you smile when you see them on your doormat – that make the Postman smile when he sees them in his bundle of mail. Pretty envelopes, stickers, bright postcards, decorated parcels – that sort of thing.

With that in mind, I have a collection of cards and postcards to hand at all times. Ready to send out whenever I think someone needs cheering up or just to say I’m thinking about them. I try to have cards for all occasions to hand – birthday, new house, thank you, celebrations and just blank notecards – so I don’t have to run to a shop or spend ages making something if I really want to send it now. (This would all be easier if I didn’t repeatedly lose my address book, I might add.)

Here’s a handful of cards from my current collection:

The big dog birthday card, the thanks card, and the gypsy caravan notecard are from Wilkos.

The happy new home card is from The Green Gables.

The bunny birthday card is from Sherbet Lane.

The ‘Nobody Else…’ card is from Veronica Dearly.

The funky patterned notecard is from a Magi Design set.

And the cross-stitch tortoise card is one I made myself!

I do enjoy making my own cards but I have the attention span of a goldfish so I tend to make them in flurries and then not make any for months. I can feel another making session coming on after this week!

As well as greetings cards, I have a selection of postcards to hand all the time too. I like them for ‘just thinking of you’ moments and the colour-in-yourself ones are good fun. Sometimes I leave them blank for the recipient to do, sometimes I half-colour them for the recipient to finish and other times I colour the whole thing before I send them – they’re just a bit different and good fun.

I like fun stamps too, I try to have one or two sets of interesting stamps as well as standard ones at all times. Getting a letter with an exciting stamp on always makes me grin, I have started cutting them out and sticking them in my little notebook of Joy when I get them. Not quite Stamp Collector style (though I do have a few collector sets squirreled away) but still a bit nerdy I guess. As you can see in the picture, my current fun stamps are Game Of Thrones themed and celebrating the history of the railways.

Stamps are magic, aren’t they? Stick the right ones on a letter and it can go almost anywhere in the world. It might take a long time, but it will get there over oceans and mountains and whatever else is in the way. Just amazing.

Now I’ve had everything out, I have the urge to write and send some happy post – better go find that address book!

Check out the rest of my National Stationery Week posts for more stationery love!