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Postcard storage: boxes, albums and more!

Nobody loves their postcards like postcrossers do - and so we want to make sure that they are safe and sound at all times. We're often asked the best way to store and transport them, but with so many options and alternatives, it's hard to cover them all... Nevertheless, we thought we'd give it a try!

Postcard boxes are a popular storage method and you have tons of color and pattern choices to select from. Amazon sells a number of different postcard boxes, but often you can also find them in local card shops.

postcard boxes

From left to right: Vaultz acrylic box, Vaultz locking cabinet and Semikolon file box (comes in all sorts of colors).

If you cannot find a fun color or style that you like, you can get creative and decorate the outside with fabric, markers or anything else that speaks to you. Some of these boxes have dividers that make it simple to store the cards and then find them easily using the labels on top of the dividers.

There are also sells a variety of different postcard albumspostcard album that are ideal for keeping your postcards looking like new for years to come.

postcard album

From left to right: Hobbymaster postcard albumpostcard album, Hobbymaster linen style albumpostcard album and Trademark postcard organizer.

Make sure that any album you choose is acid-free, as well as free from PVC and has plenty of quality pocket sheets, which will really keep your cards covered nicely. Place the cards inside of the plastic and they will be kept out of harm’s way for good safekeeping.

postcard shower curtainAnd now for something slightly different...

A fun way to show off your postcards and keep them stored in style might be by placing them in the pockets of a shower curtain. Yes, there is such a thing! Urban Outfitters sells a shower curtain with vinyl pockets that lets you keep your postcards in a safe place and display them in style. Check it out on their website for more details.

We'd be slightly worried about humidity damaging the cards - so you might want to keep your most beloved cards away from it, but other than that, seems like a nice solution for a postcrosser's bathroom!

So don’t just throw your postcards in a drawer! Keep them safe and sound so they can look great for a long time to come. :)

PS - How do you store your postcards? Share your tips in the comments!


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67 comments so far

Stasele, Netherlands
The 50 nicest postcards I got (arranged by size and themes) decorate the cupboard in my office, and advertise postcrossing to my colleagues. The rest go to a shoebox, ready for redecorating those cupboard doors after a few weeks.
And even though this may provoke outrage: Yes, I occasionnally do get cards that I don't like. I'll write a polite thank-you note to the sender, and throw the card away, keeping only the stamps. This way I am sure that every time I open my shoebox, I can enjoy the wonderful treasure of my favourite cards, which show the diversity and caring attitude of postcrossers around the world.
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kugusch, Germany
Well that showercurtein looks awesome! I think it would be a great option also for a different type of display..on any large wall (behind a couch, for example) a curtain rod could be mounted on the flat wall with that shower curtain hung from it.....especially in somewhat modernly furnished rooms it would look awesome!!!!!!!
Now I think I need to repaint a wall in my house white so I can do this myself....

How do I store MY cards?
I have various Photo-Boxes for the regular cards...I have indexes by country sent from for the standard cards, and drawers with indexes for my themed collections.
My antique cards (dating back to 1911) are kept in protective sleeves and then in a plastic box so they are safe from any spills etc.(we have a leaky roof, so I'm taking no chances LOL)
My MAIN collections like Frogs, Statue of Liberty, B/W/Color etc. are in Binders. For this I buy regular binders and Acid Free, but standard Page Protectors, and I mount the cards on Paper with Acid Free Photo Corners. It's a lot cheaper than the special Postcard albums, I can put even the odd sizes and shapes in there, and the cards are still safe!

Great topic, can't wait to read more comments as they get posted!
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bergsuechtig, Germany
A friend of mine gave me a selfmade stitched bag, also called utensilo (similar to the examples here: bit.ly/Q6SKvN). It looks very nice on my cupboard because it's not such a boring box :) My nearly 200 cards go in it very well and I don't sort them.
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pcbuyer, United Kingdom
Great article. I have always struggled to find postcard albums and over the years I have stored my collection in shoeboxes with a few photo albums.

I have found recently that IKEA DVD boxes are ideal for holding cards, especially those that are slightly larger than the norm.

I have numerous albums, dating back from the early 20th century to the modern albums, but the majority of my cards are stored in these IKEA boxes. This allows me to store the cards carefully and neatly (think I may have a little OCD).

I've also seen a coffee table with a glass top, where it was possible to place cards under the glass. This allows the cards to be changed and is a great conversation piece.
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TaintedVampyre, Canada
This is an awesome piece since just recently I was looking for ways to store postcards (once I get them)
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hmassese, Australia
I store my postcards in ikea dvd boxes that I turn sideways. Each country is has a laminated divider with name and flag on it. A lot of cards fit in each box. My favourite few are up on a wall display.
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rosenbusch, Germany
I have boxes and sort the postcards according to the date. Of course I find some cards more beautiful than the other. Not all postcards took my fancy, but I treat all equally.
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ankehelene, Germany
I have beautiful wooden boxes in different colours - bought in a community for handicaped people: www.lebensgemeinschaft-bingenheim.de and I sort the postcards by date.
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ankehelene, Germany
Look after: Arbeiten - Schreinerei - the last photo you can see white boxes...
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mschrock, United States of America
The ones that don't fit into something I specifically collect all go into a basket. This basket is almost too full, & I appreciate this topic & all the comments. Some co-workers & I make a yearly trip to IKEA, & I may need to look at those boxes when I'm there this year.
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Cinderellis, Netherlands
I also have a photoalbum!
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SandyLeone, Netherlands
I have a special postcard photoalbum, for the Dutchies: verkrijgbaar bij de V&D: http://bit.ly/OdjBtK

I really love my albums ♥
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SandyB, South Africa
This facebook group http://www.facebook.com/groups/postcardz/
has several creative ideas on how postcrossers store their postcards. Please feel free to join the group.
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Lovesworthit, United States of America
I bought a large 3 ring binder, and for Christmas my family bought me photo binder pages with various sizes. They even sell pages that fit large posctards perfectly. Very inexpensive compared to photo albums or speciality postcard albums! I plan on leaving the binder on my coffee table so people can look through and enjoy my passion for postcards!!!
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sandersalamander, Netherlands
I put them in a map from the first one I got to the most recent one! ;)
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jana23, Germany
i painted the wall of my bedroom blue,bought a map of the world - wall tatoo and arrange them around it,near to the country where they come from.if my wall is full,I need a new idea but until then I store them on my wall :)
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shiel185, United States of America
I use the Ikea Deka curtain rod system (which is just a piece of wire with clips attached to it) to display my favorite cards. I just screwed it into the wall and clip the cards to it! And, because I get new cards all the time, my wall art changes all the time too!
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Trekkie_Gal, United States of America
I use photo storage boxes from the craft supply store for all of my normal sized postcards. I had to get an index card file from the office supply store for the slightly larger ones. And the really large and panoramic cards go into a basket.

Also, all of my cards except the oversized ones are in protective sleeves.
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krishnaraosridhar, India
Excellent article... Keep it up... I use Photo album...

Happy PostCrossing days...
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AlBakri, Iraq
i LOVE storing by albums
it is the easiest way to show them and brag about them ;)
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lucymonty, United Kingdom
I use storage boxes but they're about shoebox size, so they fit larger cards as well as the standard 6x4 cards. I make my own dividers to fit :-D I've filled 2 boxes and need to buy another one soon... but I'm running out of shelf space for the boxes!
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pefawm, Norway
I bought these Ikea dvd boxes and the are nicer then the shoeboxes i used before.
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HeikeG, Germany
That is a Great article. At the moment I have the cards in Albums. But now I have many other ideas...
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Dingre, United Kingdom
Just found a lovely lovely DIY photo ledge. I think I am going to do it for my postcards :) http://content.photojojo.com/diy/make-a-diy-photo-ledge/
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geminiscp, Portugal
I store my cards in my room, all over my room, in fact! :D I have 2 big Ikea boxes under the bed and on several shelves I have smaller boxes with specific collections (Unesco, foxes, castles, cards from trips, etc) and 2 boxes of cards to send. Only have one album with the first fox cards. :)
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chrissybaby, Ireland
I have most of my cards stored by countries and subjects in boxes. Actually I started with photo albums but it took too much storage space as my collection got bigger. But still some of my unusual cards (shaped, bigger ones...) are stored in special albums to protect them.
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AdirondackJoe, United States of America
I store my postcards in these and then in photo boxes.
http://www.bcwsupplies.com/products/postcard-toploaders/6-x-4---topload-holder-or-4-x-6-sideload-holder.htm
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Fireblossom, Germany
Postcards are a real treasure for me - and they are stored like that: http://shijakjin.deviantart.com/gallery/38879283#/d5b5u5g

First the case was only brown, then I decorated it with all the stamps. Friends always ask if they can have a look in the treasure chest, all the treasure cards... :)
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tornadogrrl, United States of America
The most recent cards are displayed along the top of a wall in our dining room. After they move out of the most recent display they are just in a pile on my desk, so this post is perfect for me! I have been pondering the best way to store them for months.
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HM, Netherlands
I keep them in shoeboxes or other cardboardboxes from the supermarket. Wineboxes will do very well for this - if you cut them to seize. This is for me the most cheap and environmentalfriendly way.

I don't keep all cards in boxes, some card
- are given away as promotional for postcrossing [only add the website to the card]
- used as businesscard -> my name and address are there already, only add a mobile phonenumber and emailaddress
- re-used as decoration, in artwork etc
- just put in the bin
- or the best: put them on a display everywhere in the house and car
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motherbrando, United States of America
a 6 foot store card carousel FULL, I get to rotate different ones to look at all the time. I also have them on the wall in my Computer area.And last but not least I took old dictionaries and folded every page in half. so it looks like a 1/2 moon, i stick the cards in it as I get them,it looks like a postcard porcupine.They are Everywhere!
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kk12, United States of America
I usually just store mine in the paper shredder...
Just kidding.
I actually put them in protective sleeves in binders organized by year, then by the time received,then by whether it's a normal postcard or a swap,and by country. What I would really like to do someday though when I'm rich, which inevitably is gonna happen ;)is to have a big room with a glass wall in the middle where I would put all of the cards up on display and depending on which side you were on you would either get the message or the picture. But for now they're just in a couple of binders in my closet.
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honzuki, French Polynesia
I found a huge photo album which pages (without pockets) are slightly sticky and doubled with transparent plastic sheets : I can put cards of all shapes and sizes in it, even panoramic ones. I love it and am thinking of buying one more ! I also keep some cards in a pretty sugar box that can hold cards until 17x12 cm, and I hang some others on my wall.
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agsippl, United States of America
We have a wire display on one wall of our living room (see it here: http://www.mnlocavore.com/2011/10/stamppot-mashed-potatoes-with-kale/) where our 100 most recent postcards hang. Each time we get a few new ones, I slide them to the left and hang up the new ones. Each one is on the wall for about 6 weeks for friends and family to see before heading to a postcard box sorted by country.
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pantherfan, United States of America
I have 2 card boxes from Hobby Lobby with alphabetic dividers. One box is alphabetic by other countries and one box is US by states with a special section for US state map cards and State capitals which are select collections. I also have one plastic file box for over size cards. I used to display them on my cubicle wall at work...I'd connect them with paper clips so as not to damage them.
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Kooks-CA, United States of America
Weird! I just made two recent posts about our storage of received cards. I originally started using a scrapbooking album: http://kooks-ca.blogspot.com/2012/08/displaying-received-postcards.html. Then we created our own postcard shelf: http://kooks-ca.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-postcard-shelf.html.
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humptydumpty, Australia
I found an old store card carousel at our local dump and bought it for aus $5!!!and painted it in a funky colour.It was a great find and the perfect way to display my postcards.
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hickorykr, Korea (South)
This is a great post! I was looking for ways to store postcards until yesterday. Though I decided to use A5 size clear files, I want to buy one of these for the next time :)
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Pient, Netherlands
So far, I haven't thrown away any, that would be a pity. Someone has taken the trouble to send them to me - even if they aren't totally to my liking.
I collect flat tins and make two hobbies into one: I picked a nice tin for my cards, and in went the first received one; not anticipating that within a year I'd have way over 200 cards. Get this: I didn't believe the project would work and was some sort of chain-thing...
I also have a lot of new tins... What better excuse to buy them? The cards I receive in the current month are clipped to the calender and dotted around the house. The ones I really think awesome are kept on my desk and on wall behind that. I also framed a couple of particular beautiful ones.
I like the clear file idea and will do that as well.
The cards I want to send are in boxes with dividers; map cards, flags, dolphins, flowers, etc.
Thanks for all the ideas!
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bodrumlu, Turkey
nice boxes
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christiaan_r, Slovenia
All mentioned postcard storage chances can be used if all of your cards are of standard size. However, not all users send them and as soon as you put a note on your profile that you would like to get only standard size card you became rude an not grateful for received card.
I use two paper boxes for my cards, one for normal size cards and second for oversized, different shaped and those that are not so cool. In this box I also keep cards from rare and special countries because the first box is almost full.
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Caramellia, Mauritius
I stick all my postcards on the wall ! I don't have a big collection yet so it's still possible ; when I'll have too many, I think I'll start to stock them in shoe boxes - it's cheaper than other kind of boxes and I can decorate them the way I like.
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Matthew07, Malaysia
I kept all the postcards in shoeboxes. So far I have 3 full boxes now. I am planning to buy a large photo albums to put the selected beautiful postcards in it.
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Electric_Sheeps, Germany
I have a curtain, like the showercurtain for my wall. I keep there my beloved Zoo-postcards, but as they're to much already I change them from time to time!
Some cards I also hung up at a wire and all other not displayed cards are in up to now 2 shoeboxes.
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tinkx, United Kingdom
We are a class of 6 year olds, and we share the postcards we receive by reading them to each other, then our teacher pins them up onto our display board so that other classes, teachers and parents can read them. We also have a big map on the board so we can see where all our postcards have come from. At the end of the year our teacher tells us she takes them all down and puts them in a special box, then starts again with the next class!
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justM, United States of America
Right next to my front entry door I have 4 yellow vertically hung ribbons that are about 5 feet long, with small wooden clothespins hot-glued to the the ribbons, each ribbon has 8-9 clothespins on it. I do have them attached to the wall with decorative pushpins, but by using the small clothespins I have few holes in my walls. I clip each postcard when I receive it, and each card stays displayed for about a week, then another card is clipped on top. I take the cards down when there are 3 on each clothespin and file them in a box similiar to the one shown here. I haven't yet filed them in any order, but by country is a great idea! I like the file box as it takes less space than an album.
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Sprinkledonut, Canada
I like to display my favourite cards with this simple method. You'll just need some thumbtacks, fishing line and paperclips. Put two thumbtacks on either side of your wall. Attach the fishing line, making it nice and tight. Then secure your postcards with a paperclip, repeat and enjoy. Make one row or as many as you want. Curate your very own museum at home!

* I welcome direct swaps. If anyone's interested, send me a message! *
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MegaMadness, Australia
I put all the post cards I recieve on notice boards which then go on my bedroom walls as art. :)
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mia24, United Kingdom
all of mine are tacked to my walls! they really brighten up my room at uni! :)
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Aijai, Finland
Delightful and useful articel! As you can see from my avatar, I store part of my cards on our bedroom rear wall. Others are in shoebox under the bed, but I've been thinking something better for those also. Maybe I'll get an idea from these comments. Thank you all!
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gingo728, United States of America
I keep my received postcards in a photo album. The postcards that are too big, I just let hang out of the sleeve a little. The postcards that I'm ready to send to someone (since I have a lot) are stored in an old photo box I had lying around that is about the size of a shoebox. I really want to display my favorite received like this when I get the chance: http://www.etsy.com/listing/66486459/postcard-set-paris-postcards-collection

(first picture) All I need is some twine and clothespins...
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mattandreba, United States of America
We have ours on our wall - we suspend ribbon between two thumb tacks and then use mini colored clothespins to hang them. It's very colorful and allows us to show off all the cards without damaging them. I've recently re-purposed the room they were in, so I've relocated it to a smaller spot where I'll keep my absolute favorites. For my growing collection, I'm using the links you all posted to find an album. Thanks!
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jemma9580, United Kingdom
I have one of these in my lounge room for displaying my newest and most favourite postcards: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Umbra-Multi-Display-Christmas-Holder/dp/B005UMDF7I/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kh_3
I love it!
After that, they go into boxes and I love just sitting and looking through them :)
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TwiggyBlueNose, Portugal
I've discovered Postcrossing less than a year ago but I've been collecting postcards for many years now. At the moment, I still store all my cards in shoe boxes but I'm not really happy with this solution. I don't want to buy just anything better than a shoe box though but I'm waiting until I see a storage solution I really
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TwiggyBlueNose, Portugal
love at first sight. I'm pretty sure it won't be an album though as I prefer an order other than chronological and wouldn't want to reorder them all the time.

I also like the idea of the shower curtain. Sometimes I receive cards which are very nice but don't fit in any of my personal collections and that's a lovely and funny way to display them.
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Corydoras, Austria
I use the 39x28x14cm "SAMLA" box from Ikea. Just the right size and really really cheap
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Manganet, Portugal
I put them in my bedroom's wall! All the way from ceiling to floor :)
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freshwater, United States of America
My personal collection is in 2 over-sized shoe boxes, sorted by country. I use dividers (for 5 x 8 inch index cards) to separate them. Long skinny cards are filed along the long sides of the box.
For the account I set up for my 3rd grade students, I taped a world map and a US map to the wall in the hall where students line up for lunch. When we get a card we read it and discuss it, and then find it's location on the globe. Then I attach them to the maps with a post-it note tag announcing the country from which it came, so that the whole school can see them. Last school year we displayed more than 50 cards! Students often ask about them, and several adults expressed an interest in postcrossing because of our display.
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BOOGIE_PIPPIN, United Kingdom
I buy postcard albums from Amazon, each album holds 100 cards. I'm on my 8th one at the moment, it would be more if they did albums for larger cards. I keep those tidy in a strong carboard box until I can find an album which will hold them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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caoyang, China
Sealed with a plastic bag, collected in my Stamp Album.Classified storage！
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Famvanweerlee, Netherlands
I just started postcrossing, but i really like it! Today I received my first card! For the blank cards I have, I decorated a shoebox with wrapping paper and special glue. It's nice to be creative and have this usefull box! I also use the boxes of the shoes from our children, cute little ones!
Have fun!
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avatar404, Hong Kong
i store all cards in photo album and over size in folder. other still not cataloge in paper folder.
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avatar404, Hong Kong
i store all cards in photo album and over size in folder. other still not cataloge in paper folder.
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sensuelle, Russia
I store my cards in a swiss chocolate metal box, but I have few of them yet :) thanks for the great ideas. I love the boxes for storage.
And Kris' postcards are so wonderful, I really love all of them!
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aitch, Canada
I found a nice brown box at my local craft store, very inexpensive. Then to make it more interesting, I used rubber stamps to decorate the outside and make it personal. it's about the size of a shoe box
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Polen, United Kingdom
I put my postcards one after across my wall. It looks astonishing when it looks like the wall is made up of postcards! Especially if they follow a theme. I also decorated my school locker with some. It makes it look strangely unique and creative.
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quinncreative, United States of America
The shower curtain would be perfect in a guest bath. Ours get a lot of use as it is the bath visitors use for washing hands, etc. Not a lot of steam, but a lot of visibility as it is straight down the hall. Now we can leave the door open! I store my cards in accordion folders I make with Monsoon Papers (colorful handmade paper, I make myself) and using photo-clips that connects cards vertically and horizontally. I create photo scapes using fronts and backs, if the stamps are gorgeous.
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