10 little treats to send your friends with just a stamp

The power of simple snail mail to make your people smile

Last week, Sam and I mailed each other a mini care package, both sending a silly little sticker completely by surprise. We both knew the other has been going through it in one way or another, and — for less than the price of a latte — saw a small opportunity to make our faraway friend smile.

A Rozalinda Burkova card and Lindsey Day Studio sticker arrived in the mail for me, a Blind the Sun sticker for Sam.

I love a big care package and have multiple friends who are excellent at sending them for birthdays and other big moments. But I think the joy of surprise snail mail is often needed more day-to-day. And it really doesn’t have to be expensive to send something fun.

Your Forevers focus: Send your friends a little snail mail

This week, we want you to think of something you can pop in an envelope for a friend. You could write a little love note, and that would be enough! Or, you could use one of our other ideas below for affordable yet joyful snail mail to send with just a regular old stamp:

• A silly paper treat: You could steal our idea and send a fun sticker! You could find silly flat things around your house to share: temporary tattoos, some origami your kid made, a comic strip that made you smile.

• A formal invitation to do something together: Draw up an invitation (or design one on Canva) to invite your friend to something you have planned — or something you’d like to do together! This could be as simple as making a silly invitation to your treasured weekly hang or as extravagant as creating one for your dream vacay together that your friend can pin on their vision board.

Psst! We’re hosting another one of our free friendship poetry writing parties next month — this time as a FieldTrip for the CreativeMornings community! You can register to join and then download printable invites to mail to your friends!

• A coupon for something in the future: Remember those coupons you used to give your parents on their birthdays when you were a kid and didn’t have money to buy them gifts? (Was that just me??¹) Create one or a few for your bestie to cash in down the road: one bottle of wine on my porch on a bad day, one night out where you get to pick the restaurant, one afternoon of chores support, etc.

• A “mixtape” (complete with a handwritten track list): I yearn for the days of custom mixtapes and CDs from my friends, but those are hard to ship and even harder to play now. Instead, make your friend a custom playlist and then mail them a QR code or bit.ly link to access it, along with a handwritten track list explaining why you chose each song.

Some classic handwritten track lists from when my forever Emily and I used to swap CDs in our teens.

• An annotated article you loved: To this day, my grandma regularly sends me newspaper clippings of articles that made her think of me. For those of us fully in the digital age, print out an online article you think your friend would enjoy and annotate it with highlights or your thoughts.

• A bag of your favorite tea: As long as it’s not one of those fancy triangle bags, you should be able to sneak one in a normal letter, no problem. Send it off with a suggestion that you drink it together over video chat to catch up!

• A handmade bookmark and a book recommendation: Share a love of reading with your friend? Instead of just texting your next book rec, send it in a letter along with a bookmark made just for them. You could collage it, draw or paint it, cover a piece of bookmark-sized paper with stickers — whatever inspires you!²

• A little collage: Even if you don’t have glossy magazines around your house to cut up, follow

  Sam Reece
  ’s lead and make a “junk collage” to turn your trash into treasure for your forever.

• A printed photo of you two: It’s time to bring back physical photos. Pick a recent favorite or an old classic of you two to print and send their way (get a copy for yourself while you’re at it!). Many drugstores let you order prints online, so you can combine errands to make your next prescription pickup a little less dreadful.

• A poem: Either write one yourself (like during our poetry event!), or choose one you love and and handwrite it for your friend. I’ve had multiple poems written out and sent to me by my forever Emily that have been pinned on my pegboard or taped in my journals over the years — many of them sent just at the right time.

1. My family did this too! I remember designing them in Print Shop, along with ridiculous banners that used 10 pieces of paper.

2. I also like the idea of writing your favorite quote from the book you’re recommending!