Every now and then we stumble on little gems on Youtube that are somewhat related to postcards - some of them are so weird and funny we cannot resist sharing them with you!
Meet Claes Eriksson, Swedish actor and composer, who did this cute little sketch:
We don't quite know what to think about it, but the tune is quite catchy! :)
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? :)
Hello there! It took us a while to recover from the fabulous time we had in Helsinki, but here we are to tell you all about it :).
This big meetup was meticulously planned by Pooca, and exceptionally well executed. There were traditional Finnish games and yummy Finnish food, cute name tags, boat rides, visits to historical places, flea markets and an amusement park, lots and lots of presents and plenty of time to write and send postcards!
So, here's what we did those 3 days, in detail:
On Friday, 28th September it was pre-meetup day. We met around 5pm near Aleksis Kivi statue, besides Helsinki's train station. After the obligatory introductions (in attendance were a total of 48 postcrossers from Finland, Russia, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal), the group went postcard shopping, guided by Pooca, who showed us the all best spots!
An hour later, we met at the square again, and then went off to a nearby park, where Pooca introduced the group to a curious traditional Finnish game called Mölkky. It goes like this: there are 12 wooden pins that people should try and knock over with another wooden pin, thrown from a distance. The pins are numbered 1-12, and the knocking over one pin gives the player the amount of points marked on the pin. If more than one pin is knocked over, the total number of pins is the score for that player's round. After each throw, the pins are lifted up again in the exact location where they landed and the first one to reach exactly 50 points wins the game.
Mölkky was a lot of fun, with pins getting successively further apart and players looking for more creative ways to hit them :)
After the game, we sat down on the ground and wrote some postcards while eating delicious mini-stroopwaffles, brought from the Netherlands by dandilion.
On Saturday we met again at Aleksis Kivi statue. The main event of the day was a visit to Suomenlinna! Suomenlinna is a star fortress built on a group of islands just outside Helsinki. It was built to protect the country (at that time under Swedish rule) against a possible Russian invasion. About 900 people live in the islands, and the fortress is a Unesco world heritage site.
The weather was quite good, so we had a nice time walking on this fortress, admiring the fortifications and their cannons and the sea that stretches all the way to Tallin. Oh, and also enjoying the lovely presents and sweets that the group of Russian postcrossers, dandilion and Lotty distributed! :)
After Suomenlinna, we had some time to relax, visit some of the city monuments and fill our bellies with the delicacies in the market.
At 4pm we got back together for some early dinner. The buffet menu was delicious and in fact, our group was so big we had to split around in the two restaurant floors! :) When everybody was happy and full, we went to a coffee shop close by to write and sign all the postcards we sent! That was serious work and everybody helped counting the postcards, and re-checking for address correctness and total of signatures!
On Sunday 30th, the last day of the meetup, we visited the Valtteri flea market - a huge indoors flea market with all sorts of things! It was very intriguing yet so much fun to explore! After Valtteri, we walked to Linnanmäki, a nearby amusement park. And it was so great! We all went at once on the Panorama Tower, from where you could see a stunning 360 degrees view of Helsinki and then some of us went on Vuoristorata, a really cool and old wooden rollercoaster! We even met 'Rolle Pelle', the mascot of Linnanmäki who accepted to take a picture with our group!
In the afternoon, we took a break in the local post office and finally mailed a grand total of 545 postcards!!! :) I'm sure we broke some record there, and made the post office people really happy!
That's it! I am sure you can read my excitement from the number of smilies and exclamation marks I've used writing this post, but seriously, it was amazing. Helsinki is a very welcoming city, and there was so much generosity and friendliness in everybody we met, that I wish many more of you could have been there! Postcrossers sure are a special bunch. :)
Thank you Pooca for organizing such a brilliant meetup, and to everybody who participated and made it so special!! :)
PS - All the linked pictures are from the several meet up galleries, and you can see more of them on the following links:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirsi68/sets/72157622169707266/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirsi68/sets/72157622178384448/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirsi68/sets/72157622061513119/
http://s219.photobucket.com/albums/cc118/...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mahako/sets/72157622178405020/
http://picasaweb.google.com/Delenna.from.Finland...
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z27/dandilion1981/...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anjaaustel/sets/72157622088754235/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91536860@N00/sets/72157622285729954/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42139194@N03/sets/72157622328027854/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nocas/sets/72157622208385341/
In a partnership with Japan Post, Nestlé Kit Kat and advertising agency JWT have come up with a clever and innovative concept: the Kit Kat postcards!
As the name suggests, these are small boxes of Kit Kat, that can be mailed as if they were a postcard. The product launch was timed with the university exams season, so that friends and relatives could wish students good luck in their studies with a chocolate break :)
Here's the product presentation:
The Kit Kat postcards won the Media Grand Prix this year at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, so we wonder... how long until it is available at other postal services around the world? *hint hint* :)
Some people love receiving postcards that show beautiful scenes or pleasant paintings while others prefer those that have some kind of personal touch. Not surprisingly, many people love getting postcards that are witty... that make them think... that tease their brain... and at the same time, make them laugh.
Introducing... Indexed Postcards by Jessica Hagy.
Thanks to fellow Postcrosser, Addis R. Perez (username: rainmelonpie) from Puerto Rico, who shared with us the info about Ms. Hagy’s unique set of postcards. Now many of you will know about these witty postcards and may love them, too.
Indexed postcards started as simple, weekday-morning blog entries back in 2006. On pieces of 3x5 index cards, Jessica Hagy would connect a number of words and phrases wittingly with charts and diagrams that look like those figures that you encountered in your high school geometry or algebra class.
Some of the cards comment about controversial topics such as immigration, religion, politics, and the media while most are based on real life experiences and observations of the author—all written in such a way that makes you realize how real the connections are!
Here are some of Jessica’s most famous and most controversial Indexed creations:
These Indexed cards and many more have been featured in various media outlets such as Time Magazine, GOOD Magazine, BBC Magazine Online, NY Times Freakonomics, PC Mag, Yahoo, and Guardian UK. You can check out more of Jessica’s work here: Indexed.
Good news for many Postcrossers who love or will love Jessica’s brilliant creations: Jessica Hagy has teamed up with Chronicle Books and published an Indexed Postcard Book. Just follow this link to check it out: Indexed Book on Amazon.com, .ca, .co.uk, or .de.
What do you think of them? Do share!
Päivää and God dag Postcrossers!
Many of you are already avid fans of Moomins/MuminTroll/Muumi. The Moomins are the major characters in the series of comic strips and books illustrated and written by renowned Finnish artist Tove Jansson, who declared that his characters are partially based on many of her family and friends.
The main appearance of Moomins is very similar to hippopotamuses but they are actually a family of trolls who live in Moominvalley. The Moomins interact with their friends such as Hemulens, Sniff, The Snork maiden, Snufkin and Little My. The major premise of most Moomin stories revolves around the idea of accepting the differences of others and accommodating their specific needs.
The first book was released in 1945 and soon more books, a comic strip series, and a television adaptation followed. There are even a number of movies based on Jansson's lovable family of trolls. Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Britain, Austria, Germany, and Japan all made TV and movie adaptations of the Moomins.
It was not long after the success of Moomins (called the Moomin Boom) reached its peak as operas, Moomin products, playrooms, museums, albums, and even a Moomin theme park emerged in many parts of Finland and Japan.
If you have any other interesting information about Moomins, just comment and share!
Do you consider yourself a postcard collector?
If you think you’re serious about collecting postcards, think again! Introducing… Mary L. Martin, Postcard Collector to the Extreme!
This amazing lady from Perryville, Maryland, USA has a postcard collection that numbers not only by the hundreds, definitely not by the thousands, but by the millions!
Started forty years ago, her huge collection features postcards from the past and present, from celebrities and ordinary people, from every city, every town, and every country, and just about anything you can think of.
Here’s a two-minute video of Mary and her Perryville postcard shop as featured in WBAL’s Rob’s Attic by Rob Roblin:
If you want to check out more about Mary L. Martin and her postcard collection, visit her official site at http://www.marylmartin.com. Millions of postcards are also for sale in this website.
Mary L. Martin Postcards is the largest postcard shop in the whole world. If you and your Postcrossing buddies live near or around Perryville, Maryland, this shop is a good place for a meetup. If you guys are from somewhere else, this destination is an interesting idea for a Postcrossing field-trip!
Sometimes your postcard receivers may not be too knowledgeable with world geography. Simply sending them a picture of the best landmark in the city that you just visited or some beautiful scenery you just saw may still keep them guessing your exact whereabouts.
That’s totally okay! But don’t you ever feel like sending them a postcard that actually maps out where you are, where you’ve been to, and where you’re planning to go?
Stitching postcards may have just the solution for you!
Here’s the product description from uncommongoods.com:
Whether you're backpacking across America, honeymooning in Europe or just want to keep track of all the places you've been, these clever stitching postcards are a fun way to keep track of your adventures and share them with others. Stitch routes you've taken, landmarks you've seen and memories you made as you travel from city to city, country to country.
Now, now, isn’t it wonderful what you can do with this unique postcard?
In addition to that, you could also do what another buyer did:
My college-aged daughter was doing an internship at an out of state camp. I was able to send this postcard with my "heartstring" joining our two locations. She loved it.
Of course, you can make your own stitching postcard. But if you want to skip the trouble and get a pre-made postcard (with a specific map and various countries and cities already dotted for ease of use) then just order it from here and stitch away! Oh, by the way, they do ship worldwide, although the process is a bit strange at first - check this for instructions.
Happy stitching and Postcrossing!
Not so long ago, we talked about the collaboration between Postcrossing and the Singapore Philatelic Museum. Their “A rat's tale” exhibit to celebrate the Year of the Rat received many postcards about that theme from Postcrossing members related, which were then displayed as part of the exhibit.
This collaboration was so successful that we repeated the request to all Postcrossers for this years “A Cow and Bull Story” show to celebrate the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Ox. And once again, many were very enthusiastic and contributed with postcards to exhibit.
Mishelle at the Museum sent us some photos to share with everyone:
This exhibit will be on display till August, so if you have the chance to be in Singapore, be sure to pay a visit!
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
