Postcrossing Blog

If you’re one of the only people who still hasn’t heard about PostSecret, here’s where you can (and should) check it out – www.postsecret.com. BUT WAIT! Before you click on the link, you might want to finish this article, because reading people’s secrets is as addictive as eating cookies or watching episodes of your favorite TV show…. once you start, you can’t stop! Which is precisely the reason that Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret, knew this concept would turn out to be a big hit.

PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, where people from all walks of life anonymously mail in a secret of theirs on a homemade postcard. There are no rules or restrictions made on the content of the secret, only that it be a real secret that has never been spoken before. Each week, a selection of received postcards are posted on the PostSecret website.

The anonymity of these secrets is what makes the concept so brilliant and compelling. Admissions range from one’s secret desires, embarrassing facts about themselves, to hopes, dreams or just silly quirks. The website is updated every Sunday, and there are always at least a few secrets that you can directly relate to. Knowing that someone else out there has the same secret as you is comforting and empowering and has a healing effect on both the writer and reader, according to Warren.

PostSecret was reported as the 10th most popular site amongst female students in USA, according to Youth Trends in 2008. Due to the success of the site, Warren came out with a book, PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives, in which he talks about his experiences with people all over the world who were inspired by PostSecret, allowing them to have dialogue on topics they felt they couldn’t before.

In addition to the initial book, there are now three other books that showcase PostSecret postcards, as well as some other Postsecret-themed events, which you can check out here.

What about you? Have you ever shared a secret on a postcard? :)

PostEurop is once again hosting their yearly competition to choose the best EUROPA stamp of the year!

If you’ve seen the new stamps, you’ll know that the theme for 2013 is Van of the Postman. Every country has its own means of moving mail around – from bicycles to trucks, old school or futuristic options. They are a visible and recognisable symbol of the postal services’ connection to their communities.

Here is a small selection of the stamps on this year’s competition:

PostEurop says:

Those vehicles painted with distinctive colours are seen each day on almost every road and even highways across Europe, carrying personal effects and messages to millions of customers each day. The modern day vans are quick, efficient and more ecological compared to historical vehicles. Depending on the country, its culture, terrain and climate, each postal operator has their own story to tell. So, philatelic designers had set out to work on their interpretive designs capturing the past and/or present and the results are here.

Aren’t they all lovely? We hope to receive a lot of postcards with EUROPA stamps this year… but first, let’s vote on which one of them is the best! :)

To see all the stamps and vote, go to the competition page and pick your favorite. May the best stamp win!

PS – We’re always curious to know… which one did you pick?

Meet sevvie (aka Hanna), who lives in Helsinki, Finland. She likes films (and going to movie festivals) and practising the different writing styles when a member provides the address in their native alphabet or writing script! :)

Here is what she had to say:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I think it was a cold autumn day some 6–7 years ago when a friend of mine from school mentioned having Postcrossing as her hobby. She might have been on her way to post some cards or buy a few stamps and I might have asked what they were for, I can’t quite recall, but in any case I got rather curious about the whole thing. I have always loved snail mail and Postcrossing seemed like a great way to find people who thought the same, and not just within Finland but practically all over the world. I also thought it would be a rather inexpensive and not a very time-consuming pastime, but I’ve later had to revise that idea a bit. Also, cards can really take up space! But I don’t mind any of these things because all in all Postcrossing is a wonderful hobby.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

As much as I love receiving cards, I have to admit that choosing a card to match each recipient is by far my favourite part. I enjoy writing small messages on the cards, preferably so that there is not much space left afterwards. It’s also great if someone requests a drawing, or if the recipient has included their address in their native language as well. It’s nice to get to practice different writing styles, and I expect it’s also easier for a postal worker to handle the card that way too. I especially like writing Cyrillic and Japanese/Chinese addresses. So far I haven’t seen that many Korean or Thai addresses, and I’d very much like to try Arabic as well. Although I’d probably be a bit nervous doing it. With unfamiliar alphabets there’s always the risk of writing gibberish instead of something understandable. But it is always great to try.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

We finally got a new mailbox some months ago. It was not ours to buy, so we had to wait nearly a year for the new one. The neighbourhood we live in is known as “the rainiest place in Finland”, so having a leaky mailbox that suspiciously looked like someone had bumped against it several times with their car was not very pleasant. Often my cards would be if not soggy and a bit torn, then at least slightly damp, and they would curl oddly as they dried. So we were glad to get a new mailbox. Even though it doesn’t look that special, we like it a lot.

I store my received postcards in albums and keep my cards-to-send in old shoe-boxes. Or that’d be the ideal situation anyway! Often the cards are anywhere there is some free space until I have time to organise them, which can take a while. I also upload my received cards on Picasa for easy access, though obviously without all the wonderful messages, handwriting styles, stamps, postmarks and stickers.

I used to leave my cards in the Post Museum special cancellation box, but now that the museum has moved to Tampere I use the General Post Office’s special cancellation box. I also like to attend First Day events to send cards with special postmarks and brand new stamps.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I have received so many wonderful cards it feels strange to try to narrow them down to one favourite, or even several. I prefer art cards and cards related to books, films and television, but as long as a card is visually pleasing, I’ll love it. Here there are three official Postcrossing cards I have found especially lovely:

US-761954 from Karen-Campbell, DE-2024899 from Kaate, PL-643913 from krystyna (with an honourable mention to DE-1524632 from glaesmann). And below are three direct swap cards from Jodie05, Lucia28jp, and WY, respectively. All of them have made me even fonder of – and more fascinated with – the world we live in.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Well, I don’t know about interesting, but I really enjoy films. Surprising, I know. But I think watching films is actually rather similar to Postcrossing, in a way. You get to see small glimpses of other cultures, traditions and ways of thinking. I also love languages and music, so I’m always equally as eager to hear a film as I am to see it. It’s a wonderful thing that there are so many outstanding film festivals here in the Capital Region. Film festivals definitely do broaden the selection and you get to see films from all over the world. The newest additions are, I think, Helsinki Cine Aasia and Season Film Festival, held for the first time this March and April. I was glad to go and see three films at Helsinki Cine Aasia, two from China and one from Japan. I usually buy a festival voucher that allows you to see ten or eleven films during a festival. My favourite festivals are Espoo Ciné and Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Love & Anarchy), the two major ones, but there are numerous smaller ones that I also like to attend.

Besides films, I love reading speculative fiction and tending to plants.

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

Passionate is a rather strong word and perhaps not something I’d easily describe myself with; I just try to live my life the best way I can and enjoy it to the fullest. I suppose that is something I am quite eager to realise, in a way, though it’s a rather difficult goal to be sure. Obviously there is much that I view as very important, such as my family and friends, the state of the environment, and so on, and things I really enjoy doing, like reading and cooking. Overall I think I’m also a bit of a do-gooder, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I believe I’d be quite unhappy if I weren’t vegetarian, hated recycling or never bought clothes and furniture second hand, and so on.

And if I think about all the wonderful things I’d miss terribly if they’d suddenly be gone, the list would be at least as long as the number of kilometres our postcards have travelled. Stories and dreams, dancing, music, songs and singing, everything in nature, solving a puzzle, baking a cake, the feeling of joy I get whenever one of my postcards gets registered… Even the tiniest thing can really make a difference. I could say that I’m quite keen to make myself appreciate these things, big and small, as they deserve to be appreciated.

Saying that I’m actually passionate about life feels a bit trite, but I guess that’s exactly what it is at the end of the day.

One of the most frequent ways members find out about Postcrossing is through penpals… which leads us to believe that many of you love to write long letters as well as postcards! So for those of you, today we have a recommendation of a special league, a sort of penpal club with a twist… meet the League of Extraordinary Penpals!

The League of Extraodinary Penpals (LEP for short) was started by Laura of Please Deliver To and Julie of Penpal of the Week, both postcrossers and penpals. Their goal was to connect lovers of letters and postcards with other extraordinary mail enthusiasts.

You might be wondering what makes it so extraordinary… well, everyone in the league goes by their superhero alterego, complete with superpowers! These range from “composing legible letters while hurtling through the New York City subway system” to the ability to make “super duper awesome envelopes”. :)

Subscription is paid but well worth it: members have access to their monthly newsletters, filled to the brim with interesting articles, printables, member’s spotlights, mail challenges, stationery offers and of course, penpal opportunities! Plus, there are exclusive LEP groups on several social media websites, on which you can chat and exchange ideas with other members of the community. But be warned – they’re extremely addictive in their contagious enthusiasm for all-things snail mail & stationery!

Sounds interesting? Then head over to their page for more details!

Remember last year, when we announced a group of Taiwan members were preparing a special Postcrossing cancellation mark? They’re doing it again this year, for their fifth annual Postcrossing meetup! :)

This time, the meetup will take place in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. This Friday (June 7th), there will be a postcard exhibition at the National Taiwan University 1st Student Activity Centre, and then on Saturday, the meetup itself will take place.

Weital has once again designed a fantastic cancellation stamp for the occasion:

Isn’t it special?

Dodd, the meeting organiser, and all the other attendants are happy to share this special Postcrossing cancellation with other postcrossers and are therefore offering to send a postcard to the 50 members who first leave a comment below!* – All postcards have now been given away, thanks everyone!

For more information on this event, please check the meetup’s forum page.

(*) This means that if you’re one of the first 50 commenters, we’ll share your address with the member from Taiwan who will send you a postcard.