How to Craft the Happiest of Happy Mails

Sending happy mail is a delightful mix of mindfulness, creativity, and pure joy—for both the sender and the lucky recipient.

We asked our sticker community for their best tips, and together we’ve shaped this guide to help you curate happy mail that sparks smiles from the moment it lands in the letterbox.

1. Personal Touch

When it comes to stickers (and sticker-adjacent goodies), there are no rules—only fun. The magic lies in your personal touch. Think about what will brighten your recipient’s day and curate a little bundle just for them.

2. Quantity of Stickers

One of the most common questions in happy mail swaps is: how many stickers should I send?

Our community recommends including at least three high-quality sticker sheets that reflect your recipient’s tastes. More is always welcome, but it’s the thought and care behind your selection that matter most.

3. Selecting Stickers

A thoughtful step is to ask your recipient about their favorite themes or styles. This way, you’ll know their likes (and dislikes) before curating.

Prefer to keep it a surprise? Go for safe, versatile themes—like florals, animals, or patterns—that most sticker lovers enjoy. Avoid scratch-and-sniff or sensory-triggering designs unless you know your recipient well.

4. Quality of Quantity

When curating the selection of stickers from your collection, our stickies suggest only including pieces that you would be happy to receive yourself. Of course, everyone's tastes are different, but if you aim for at least three core quality pieces that bring you joy, your recipient will likely love them too. 

Unless the recipient requests, our stickies also say to avoid anything that is too old and has lost its sticky charm, merit stickers, planner stickers and anything with loose glitter particles! 

5. Personal Note

Including a note helps add a touch of warmth to the experience. Some stickies like to make personalised cards, and others like to keep it short and sweet with a message on a small piece of paper.

If you're not sure what to say on the note, you can tell the recipient a little about your home town or your interests. Check out some of our beautiful notecards and playful writing paper to craft your message. 

6. Extra Surprises

This is where you can really level up your happy mail. Adding in little pockets or mini envelopes that you make or up-cycle can create a real surprise and delight experience for the recipient. Who doesn't want more cute envelopes to open?!

The pockets or envelopes can include any mailable treasures such as fun paper clips, tea bags, bookmarks or even your note card and some sticker flakes. 

Passing on other stationery pieces like samples of decorative writing paper, or pieces of ephemera like ribbon or inspirational cards can also be fun. If your recipient likes travelling postcards, you can include some too. Checkout this blog post for a fun washi tape holder to send with your mail.  

7. Decorate the envelope

Don't over look the envelope! This is something the recipient may treasure too! It's also one of the most joyful parts of the whole happy mail experience.

You can personalise this to the recipient's taste, make it in your own aesthetic or just cover it in as many stickers as you can. Adding washi tape and decorative labels can help add extra colour and fun to the envelope.

8. Saying thank you

This a person preference on whether you send a follow up thank you message to the sender but it's almost implicit in any happy mail swap that the recipient was grateful for their burst of colour in their letterbox. 

At its heart, happy mail is about connection, kindness, and a little dose of creative play. Whether you’re new to swaps or a seasoned sticker collector, curating happy mail is one of the simplest (and sweetest) ways to brighten someone’s day.