Postcrossing Blog

Can you imagine the avalanche of happy mail that landed on Postcrossing’s mailbox for the 150th anniversary of postcards? 😅 It was *a loooot* of postcards, each of them unique and special in their own way, and all filled with excitement for this historical milestone.

Admiring and reading through all this lovely mail was an overwhelming task which took way longer than we had anticipated, and picking just a few postcards to award in the categories of most creative postcards and best message was a really tough job. But we had a mission, so after many days rearranging postcards on our desks, here is our choice for the top three creative cards sent to the 150th anniversary contest (in no particular order).

The postcard above came to us from Antonia (aka housecatAntonia), in the United Kingdom. She hand-painted and crafted this card showing an old British postbox with postcards inside. Photos don’t do justice to this card though, because you can’t tell that the mailbox is covered in transparent film, allowing you to peek at the postcards floating inside. One of them is even a mini-replica of the postcard itself!

The backside is equally nice… despite Royal Mail’s mutilation of the stamps 🙄. Antonia writes that she learnt how to read and write late in her childhood, and that the prospect of writing used to fill her with dread, but that this changed through writing letters and postcards, and that she has finally found her voice. What a wonderful message, in a truly exquisite postcard.

Next, we have a postcard from Indonesia, sent by Cherlita who is a design student:

The illustration is simply gorgeous, and we love the stamp and postmark details that work together to resemble a maxicard. The actual stamps used to mail the postcard are on the reverse side, and they’re personalized stamps using the same image as the front of the card — neat!

Cherlita has a charming handwriting, and she writes about how postcards can take us in a “small, physical form” to our loved ones, strengthening our bonds with them.

And last but not least, Franziska (aka Franzi-ska) from Germany crafted the most unusual postcard.

One side of the postcard looks like a normal postcard, with a beautiful message about how much her young sons Tim Mikesch and Tom Lukas enjoy sending and receiving postcards. When you turn the postcard around though… magic!

The reverse of the card resembles a German postbox, and what could be hiding inside? Postcards, of course! Lots of mini-postcards of the children’s favorites cards, as well as happy moments the family has shared featuring postcards. How sweet is that?! Each card is lovingly written and stamped, and a mini-treasure on its own.

So there you have it, these are the three winners in the most creative category for the 150th anniversary contest, each of which will receive a box of 100 postcards. Hurray!

As you can probably imagine, there are many, many more postcards that we want to show you because you guys truly outdid yourselves in this call for postcards. So we hope to feature more special postcards on our social media as well as here in the blog in the coming weeks.

Next task though should be picking the best messages… wish us luck! 😅