Today we're announcing a different kind of contest! Some of you might have noticed we're fast approaching the 10 million received postcards milestone. We're quite excited about it, and to celebrate this achievement, we're having a guessing game!

It goes like this: every member has a chance to bet on the day and time on which the postcard number 10 million will be registered. The user with the closest guess gets the prize: a coupon for 120 postcards, an awesome offer from MOO!

All you have to do is go to the 10 million postcard page, and place your bet!

Each time slot can only be chosen by one person, so the first user to pick that slot gets to keep it. You can change it at a later stage, if you want, but only from the available time slots left. We will close the bets when there are 1,500 postcards left to postcard 10,000,000. There are some more rules, which you can see on the contest page.

So what are you waiting for? Give it a go, and good luck! :)

Thank you to everyone who participated in the latest giveaway, we seem to have some serious photographers in Postcrossing!

Without further ado, the winning images picked by Dan at MOO are...

The cloak of night by lazycat66

Northeast Pacific Sea Nettles, by RJSmith

Field of contentment by pipps

Congratulations to the winners! The coupon for your pack of 20 postcards will be sent shortly! :)

In the northern hemisphere, summer is slowly but surely turning into fall. Children are off to school, the air is crisp and colder, and our faint tan is slowly fading away... What did you do this summer? And did you take some nice pictures?

For this weekend's giveaway, we want you to share your summer memories with us. Post a link in the comments to your best summer photo, a photo you took that simultaneously embodies what the season means to you and that you think would look good on your next batch of MOO postcards!

Our photo would probably be this one, from the Bearpit Karaoke on Mauerpark, where we spent many lovely summer afternoons:

Now show us yours! :)

This giveaway is generously sponsored by MOO, suppliers of lovely printed goods. Three winners will receive a voucher for 20 postcards, to either print their photos or choose from MOO's range of ready-made postcard sets.

Comments will be open until midnight UTC September 25th. Good luck!

PS - Postcrossers in the southern hemisphere, please share your Winter photos!

So, we've just spent a few hours putting all of your submitted photos for the birthday contest together in a little video and we have to confess that we are currently feeling a bit teary-eyed... The two-hundred and seventy smiles that we have received from all over the world that have swept us off our feet.

Just look for yourself:

Thank you all, you're the best! Paulo and I are currently wishing we could make a biiiiiig roadtrip around the world to hug each and every one of you! :)

Paulo's little random number generator selected the following winners for this contest: Miza, arlene037, Mayalost, Patflash and Angerona. Congratulations, we'll be in touch to deliver the code for your new pack of 60 MOO postcards!

No luck this time? Don't worry - we have a new contest coming soon!

PS - Do you subscribe MOO's newsletter? They featured Postcrossing on their newest issue, and offered everybody 15% discount on postcards using the coupon 9MW4J4, until August 15th. Now's your chance to make some neat postcards :)

On 14th July 2005, the Postcrossing project started its first steps in spreading smiles through postcards. It was a small project done for the love of sending and receiving postcards from all over the world, and the hope was that there would be more people sharing the same love and interest for snail mail.

Fast forward 5 years and this same project is now responsible for over 4.5 million postcards connecting about 200 countries. It binds together people from different cultures of all ages and genders, with different political and even religious beliefs. Few other hobbies can claim to have achieved the same results, and we are quite proud of this!

Throughout these years, Postcrossing has gone through several milestones, thanks to the work of a team of volunteers as well as the precious support of its members who helped it reach what it is now.

Postcrossing is sending out a bold message to the world today: postcards are not something from the past. In fact, we feel like we are starting a postcard revolution and proving that no technology will ever replace the intimacy of a handwritten postcard. :)

Thank you everyone who made this possible. Let's make the next 5 years even greater!

Please join me wishing,

...aaaaaaand because a birthday is not complete without presents, we have a big contest to announce! :)

We would like you to take a picture of yourself posting some postcards at your local postbox. Why not go do that now, we'll wait here for a bit... Done? Now mail the photo to this email address, and don't forget to add your username, so we can know who you are! That was easy, right? We're hoping to make a big slideshow of smiling postcrossers around the world!

By July 31st we'll randomly choose 5 people, who will each receive a pack of 60 postcards from MOO. :)

Many of you already know MOO, but if you don't you should really check them out - they help you to make batches of professional glossy postcards, with a set of your own pictures or using some of their cool ready-made designs. If you're a postcrosser who has never tried MOO before, you'll be happy to know that they are offering all new customers 10% off 20 or 60 packs of postcards with the voucher code POSTBIRTHDAY5! (valid for one order only until the end of July, excludes delivery).