Major problem with Launchpad & time machine

OK, so i did something really stupid. 😊

1 - i lost launchpad from my dock. 😟

2 - found out from the discussion forums how to get it back on the dock and did so, no problem. 🙂

3 - this is where it went wrong - i dragged and dropped my time machine backups into launchpad - dont know why, just did. I think I was under the impression that I could tidy up my desktop and just by dragging and dropping, put the time machine backup logo in the application Launchpad - seems reasonable, yes?? (maybe not in view of what happened next .....) 😊

Launchpad went mad and created loads of pages, with everything that ever happened in my time machine backups (and there are quite a few!) and allocated each one an application in launchpad! 😢

In the end, the imac froze, loads of windows "ghosted " over each other, nothing worked, not even the force quit, so i switched of the imac, and luckily it rebooted. 😀

However, Launchpad disappeared (again - maybe just as well), now I dont know whether I can retrieve launchpad, or even if i want to! Can anyone tell me what happened, and how i can retrieve launchpad without all the megamultiple entries in it? 😕

Many thanks in advance!