When the Postcrossing project was launched 4 years ago, no one would guess that it could ever reach one million postcards. But it did, and, we have just reached 3 times that! What a milestone! Three million postcards! Three million connections! Three million smiles! We couldn't be prouder of being part of this project.

And, this couldn't be reached without every single member of Postcrossing, so a big thank you to you all for making it happen!

But, we know many of you are anxiously waiting to know who were the lucky members that exchanged this special postcard. So without further delays:

The postcard 3 million travelled from arjakos in Finland, to klemko in Slovenia! Congratulations to both for being part of such an important milestone in Postcrossing!

And, finally, congratulations Sara-Gandalf (from Slovenia!) - you are the lucky winner of our contest by being the first to guess correctly the countries involved on this unique postcard.

The winner of the contest, the sender and receiver of the postcard 3 million will receive aerogrammes packs kindly offered by the folks behind Int'l Girl Aerogrammes. If you aren't one of the the lucky ones, be sure to check their website - their aerogrammes are designed with love, come in different languages and are printed in recyclable paper. Each aerogramme is a little piece of art that takes your message directly to those you love. Can you tell how much we love them?

Shall we start the countdown to the postcard 4 million? :)

If you didn't notice yet, we are just a few thousand postcards away for reaching the postcard 3 million in Postcrossing!

Little over 6 months ago we could hardly believe we were celebrating 2 million Postcrossing postcards. And now, we are already speeding through another million - can you believe it?

As always, we like to celebrate this important milestones of the project with you, and this time is no exception. And a party without gifts is hardly a party so, we have something special to offer!

The lovely people behind Int'l Girl Aerogrammes have generously offered a few of their cool Aerogrammes to celebrate the 3,000,000 postcards. An Aerogramme is a letter that folds up into is own envelope - this is perfect for mail junkies such as ourselves, and theirs are specially cute. So what do you do to get one of these Aerogrammes packs? Read on.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your best guess about from which country will the postcard 3 million be sent from and where it will go to (example: From Singapore to Brazil). Simple, right? The first to guess it correctly will be the winner of a pack of Int'l Girl Aerogrammes! Only one guess per person is allowed! We will announce the details of the lucky postcard when it gets registered.

Oh, and both the sender and receiver of that magic postcard 3 million will also receive Aerogramme packs, so be sure to keep your pen busy!

PS: If you hang out on the forum, be sure to check this related thread for more ways to celebrate this milestone!

Postcrossing headquarters is cheerfully celebrating this incredible milestone of 2 million received postcards! :) Thank you so much for making this possible through your lovely postcards!

Of course you're all itching to know who were the lucky members that exchanged this special postcard, so here's the screenshot of the action:

Postcard 2 million travelled from Muffins in Germany, to coveralls1 in Norway!

Congratulations to these 2 members! And despite the many tries nobody guessed the countries. We'll be organizing another contest soon to give that prize away.

ana & paulo

When Postcrossing started, there was only a wish that a few users would join to try it. A few weeks after launch, that goal got overwhelmingly reached and hundreds of postcards started to be exchanged across different countries. It was a great success, but still, reaching millions was only a dream back then.

Now, over 3 years later, we are almost reaching 2 million exchanged postcards. What an amazing milestone! So many smiles have been created, several friendships have been seeded, more understanding and cultural awareness has been generated. Postcrossing is making the world a smaller placer, and we couldn't be prouder. :)

Therefore, we want to tell the whole world about Postcrossing and this achievement. We want to reach even more people and make them smile too. And here's where you can help!

It's simple: we have created a press release about Postcrossing and the 2 million postcards mark to send to the media. All you need to do is download it and send it to your local newspapers, radio, TV, favourite news website, all counts! Help spread the word about Postcrossing and making this community larger.

With the help of many of you, we already translated the press release into several languages (thank you!), but feel free to translate to your own (or just use the English one) if you don't find it here.

• English: DOC, PDF
• German: DOC, PDF
• Portuguese: DOC, PDF
• Spanish: DOC, PDF
• Finnish: DOC, PDF
• Italian: DOC, PDF
• Chinese: DOC, PDF
• Dutch: DOC, PDF
• Slovenian: DOC, PDF
• Swedish: DOC, PDF
• Romanian: DOC, PDF

We thank you in advance for all the help on spreading the word about this milestone!

And while we are at it, we have a small prize to give away! All you need to do is to leave a comment to this post with your prediction of which country will receive the postcard 2 million and where it came from (example: "From Portugal to Australia"). Only one guess is allowed per person and the first person to answer correctly will receive a little something from us. We'll reveal the right answer on the day we reach 2 million.

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!

(image by bitzi on flickr)

And now, ladies and gentlemen postcrossers, the moment you've all been waiting for, the results of our "A million cards' contest"! Here they are, two for each of the five categories:

Best backside texts

jtills, from the United States wrote: "I come out of my shell when I interact with others through Postcrossing."

maneij, from Finland wrote: "Hi there! I think Postcrossing broadens the mind! Its warmhearted friendship all over the world, like world language, like world breathing. I can get to know strange people, strange cultures and at the same time I can teach other people too. On the written card I can see a tiny flash about ones life and that moment we are close together in spite of miles, borders or races. We are friends. That's the most important. I'm lucky I found Postcrossing, I has enriched my life. I love it."

Best handmade cards

Eefjevt, from the Netherlands, sent us this beautifully handcrafted 3D card. The wheel spins to reveal different sets and best wishes.

Sady, from Germany, sent us this relief card that she made from pictures in a magazine. Check out the beautiful backside as well!

Best representative of your country

just_me, from Slovenia writes: "On the picture are Kurants, the main carnival figure of Kurentovande. Kurent is believed to be endowed with unearthly powers, for with its demoniac figure, with jumping and ringing bells, it performs a rite which is supposed to chase the Winter away to bring Spring to the country."

Elinborg, from Iceland writes: "Hello from Iceland. We have more sheep than people so I love to send cards with sheep :)"

Funniest cards

davyn, from Finland writes: "Have you ever experienced anything like this? You go on your long awaited holiday, and when you finally arrived to your destination, nothing is exactly how it looked like in the brochure."

Milly91, from France, sent us a mouthwatering postcard of all the things we would like to taste in Paris!

Nicest stamps

From sushis in france		From Isagv in Germany

These 10 lucky users will receive a pack of 20 MOO postcards each, fully customizable with their photos or designs. If your card wasn't chosen, please don't be sad, we promise we'll have more contests soon :) Meanwhile, you can see all the cards received on this flickr set.

Congratulations to everybody and thank you for all your kind words and best wishes!

Yay! Can you hear the fireworks outside?! It's true, we have now reached the exciting milestone of a million received cards. Congratulations everybody, we couldn't have done it without each and every one of you! :-)

The millionth card travelled from ebalci, in Turkey to s13 in Romania.

Nobody guessed on which countries the card would travel from and to... but don't worry, you still have till the end of the month to participate in our "a million cards' contest" and win one of the 10 packs of free MOO postcards we have to offer!

The nice people at MOO - makers of all things printed and pretty - kindly joined in our millionth card celebration by offering Postcrossing 10 packs of postcards. We will distribute these to the winners of our "a million cards' contest", for 2 lucky users in each of the five categories.

Have you tried MOO postcards?
Each pack of 20 usual sized postcards can be individually personalized with your photos or neat ready-made designs. You can also choose from a variety of back templates, different fonts and colours allowing you to apply your personal stamp to your set of postcards. We use MOO for our postcards too, and we are very happy with the quality of their service!

Additionally, MOO has a couple of promotions running this month:

• When buying postcards packs (and especially for Postcrossing users) you can use the code postmoo on the payment page to receive 10% off any amount/type of postcards you buy.
• When buying stickerbooks, you can get '3 StickerBooks for the price of 2' by using the code moostickersfree when purchasing (just make sure that there are 3 packs selected in the basket, before entering the code).
  Stickerbooks allow you to produce 90 different stickers using your favorite photos or designs, and are perfect for adding that little extra something to your postcards.

You can only use one code for each order (but you are welcome to use them both, as many times as you like) and these two offers end by April 30th.

So, get busy and participate in the contest for a chance to win a free postcard pack!

We're fast approaching the 1 million postcards received mark on Postcrossing, and we couldn't be any prouder of all of our users! That's 1000000 cards being received around the world between people of all ages and cultures, at an average of 1000 cards per day since the project started. And all of this because of each and every one of you. Congratulations!!

It certainly calls for a celebration - or better yet, several celebrations:

Guessing the countries

From which country will the 1000000th card depart? And to which country will it be sent to? Leave your guesses in the comments below, and we'll give a little prize to the lucky winner who guesses it first.
Only one guess per person will be considered (no multiple accounts usage please), and remember that exchanges between the same country are possible.

Special RAS thread

Misterteapot and Kilona, from Australia, kindly offered themselves to organize a RAS (that's Random Act of Smileness) thread in honor of the millionth card. Check it out at the respective forum thread, and make someone happy by nominating them to receive postcards and other surprises!

A million cards' contest

And now, our own little contest: we want to know what you think of Postcrossing. Send us a postcard, with something written about Postcrossing on the back, verse or prose, real story or a simple suggestion, you choose. By the 30th of April we'll collect all the postcards, make a slideshow and choose two winners on each of these categories:

• Best backside text
• Best handmade card
• Best representative of your country
• Funniest card
• Nicest stamp

You can compete in several of these categories, simultaneously. The deadline for this contest is one month, so there's plenty of time, but please remember that postcards can take up to 2 weeks to arrive in China, so send them well in advance! The address is:

Postcrossing
Room 3101, Building 37, Lane 88
Dongxin Road
Shanghai 200063
China

Best of all, there will be yummy prizes: these are still being discussed, and we'll reveal more details when we have them a postcard pack from MOO to each of the chosen winners!
More information about the prizes and other promotions, here.

Until then, get busy and good luck!

PS - Please excuse our abuse of exclamation marks - we're genuinely excited about this! :)