Happy Monday friends! Create a care package in 5 simple steps. Make your friend’s day! I sent 15 postcards just yesterday and I have six packages to send out today. Can’t stop, won’t stop. I’ll spend all my money on stationary if I want! Here’s how to create a care package with items you already have at home.
Five Simple Steps to the Perfect Care Package:
- Include a note – let your buds know what you’re doing, thinking, and feeling. Why did you want to send this package to them? Tell them! Life is too short to save your sweet words, so let them know how special they are and why they deserve some snail mail.
- Include something to enjoy – Always add a little something for the recipient to enjoy. A lasting memento of your care package. It doesn’t have to be something epic, like a painting, but a heartfelt doodle will do the trick. You could also add some photos you took, a souvenir from a trip, or a little decoration for their desk or room.
- Include something to use – It’s always fun to receive something you can actually use. I always add tea (or alcohol), incense, stickers, or another fun little treat that can be used immediately.
- Include something to do – This care package should remove your friends from the humdrum of the week so add some kind of fun or relaxing activity for them to do. I like to include an intricate coloring sheet like these mandalas or a page from Johanna Basford’s secret garden. You could also make a fun quiz for them to take and send back to you or make up your own mad libs for them to complete.
- Include something to inspire – Leave a little note or message that calls your friend to action in some way. If your care package has a theme, the inspiring piece will tie all the other bits together. You can inspire your friends to relax, clean their closet, go for a hike, meditate, write more snail mail, really anything you’d like. Give them a little mission and the tools to get started – they’ll appreciate the challenge.
Tips + Tricks
- Make it free! These care packages can cost a little or nothing, just look around, what stuff are you really digging right now? Share some of that with your friends! I realized I really enjoyed coloring mandalas, so I started ripping cool ones of out my book and before I knew it, the book was basically empty and I had a dozen care packages started.
- Jazz it up with different colors, textures and mini mementos. Stickers, scraps of paper, and stamps can come together to make a beautiful mess.
- Add personal touches when possible. Did you see a really inspiring photograph in a magazine? Tear it out, write a note on it and send it off to one of your photo-loving friends. They’ll surely feel inspired or at least touched that you shared your moment of inspiration with them.
- If you’re creating a bunch of care packages, make a formula so that each envelope is equally inspiring, but make sure you also add unique touches specific to each friend.
You can probably see from the image what I stuffed inside my envelopes, but I’ll give you the breakdown here. I wanted these care packages to inspire my friends to meditate. To take a minute to be introspective and to create a little space for themselves in their busy lives. I tried to keep the contents calm and zen in any way possible.
- A note : These care package notes range from, ‘just saying I miss you’ to a ten-page letter to an Australian penpal, so really the note depends on the individual recipient.
- Something to enjoy : I brought back a bunch of Tibetan prayer flags from my recent trip to Nepal so I made sure to tuck one into each envelope. A unique little something goes a long way in a care package. I also included new postcards I had printed with photos I took. These could be enjoyed by the recipient or they can pass them along to their friends.
- Something to use : Because I wanted to spread calm vibes, I included some incense, tea, or pretty drinking straws in each envelope.
- Something to do : I tucked a mandala coloring sheet inside each envelope. Hopefully, my friends will take a minute to work on something seemingly insignificant throughout the day that way they’ll create some time for themselves to relax without realizing it.
- Something to inspire : This package is meant to inspire my friends to meditate. If each of my buds tried to relax with their eyes closed (even if only for a moment) then this envelope has done its job. The other components of the package will hopefully remind my friends to meditate more often throughout the week. Each time they drink tea, see the prayer flags or smell the incense, they might be inspired to meditate for another moment.
Now it’s time to pull out your address book and start creating cute little care packages of your own. I love, love, love mail, which is why I feel a sense of duty to keep care packages alive, I mean if I don’t send them how will I ever receive them? Here’s to hoping a care package comes your way soon! XO