Postcrossing Blog

We’ve been biting our tongue for the past few months, but now it’s official: we’re thrilled to announce that Posti, the Finnish Postal Services, will publish not one or two… but four different Postcrossing stamps this year! :)

The colorful stamps were created by design agency Kokoro & Moi, and will be available on a folded stamp sheet from September 9th onwards, both on post offices and online.

Which means, Finnish postcrossers will soon be able to send their postcards using these playful stamps! How cool is that?

It is for us an extraordinary honour to have Postcrossing featured in a stamp, and we’d like to thank not only Posti, who thought the project worth of such recognition, but also all the postcrossers who over the years persistently asked for a Finnish Postcrossing stamp! On 9th September, their dream (and ours) will come true! :)

Meet las424 (aka Lila), who lives in the United Arab Emirates. She’s a self-proclaimed stationery addict, and likes to take trips to discover the places featured on the postcards that she receives… isn’t that an excellent idea?!

Here is what she had to say:

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

I’ve been exchanging letters with my best friend from high school for over a decade now. Three years ago, she sent me an article about how there are still people out there, like us, who are keeping letter writing alive. The article also mentioned Postcrossing, and the huge number of postcards sent by postcrossers. I was intrigued, so I visited the site. Five minutes later, I signed myself up! I was skeptical at first as I couldn’t imagine actually receiving postcards from random strangers, but a few weeks after sending out my first 5 cards, lovely postcards started trickling in – a nice end to busy workdays!

I’ve been writing letters since I was little, so sending out postcards seemed like a natural extension of a hobby – how could I not get hooked?! I love how a small rectangular piece of paper can bridge the huge gap between me and a complete stranger living a very different life in a very different part of the world. We postcrossers are ambassadors of our individual countries, mailing out postcards to make the world a smaller, more peaceful place.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Traveling is a big hobby of mine – I try to go on a few short trips a year to explore different places. Postcrossing has inspired me to visit places which I wouldn’t ever have considered before such as Tallinn, Estonia. There’s something magical about seeing something on a postcard then seeing it in real life. It’s also nice to get advice from postcrossers on what to do in their country – it’s like having 400,000+ expert travel advisers to consult.

On the left are postcards I’ve received, and on the right are photos I’ve taken of the same places.

I received EE-100335 from user HelleVee – such an enchanting view of Tallinn’s Old Town! The Grand Place card came from users cdnstar and Cindy79 when they were in Brussels. User Gogge1 sent DK-12918, a nice view of Nyhavn.

I am a bit of a stationery addict – I’ve got enough letter sets, cards, stickers and pens to last me a decade or two! But every time I enter a stationery store, inevitably, I’ll walk out with something.

Lately, photography has started to interest me – I’m a complete amateur, armed only with my iPhone, but it’s nice to try to take photos similar to those on viewcards :)

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

Clockwise from the top left, you can see 1) where I mail my letters, 2) PO boxes, 3) a close-up of the mailbox, and 4) the inside of the box in which all my stamps are stored.

In the UAE, we don’t get mail delivered to our homes. Instead, we can either get a private PO box, or get mail delivered to our workplace. Every day, on my way home, I make a trip to my PO box to see if anything has come in, and to drop off any letters or postcards. If it weren’t for Postcrossing, I certainly wouldn’t check my mailbox more than once a week!

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

What a difficult decision! There are so many cards which have made an impression on me – either for the picture on the card or the message, or both. One of my favorite types of cards are those which depict the four seasons. There are times when I long for autumn and spring – here, we have ‘winter’ which is nice and cool, around 12 to 25 degrees Celsius, and summer which is very hot, around 30–45 degrees so I do like to see cards showing the differences in seasons. I’ve received a few gorgeous ones:

AT-63204

DE-934658

NL-744880

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Before the friend who unintentionally introduced me to Postcrossing got married, I created an account to collect postcards wishing her and her fiancé well. A year later, right before her wedding, I sent her a box of these postcards. She was so touched by all the warm wishes of people from all over the world. In addition to the postcards being displayed at her wedding, she presented all her guests with blank postcards to jot down their thoughts and wishes for the bride and groom.

A few years ago, my mother brought back some gotochi cards from Japan. They were so cheerful and fun that I began collecting them. In the process, I’ve managed to turn most of my relatives as well as a few friends in Japan into gotochi card collectors.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

For the most part, I love getting sending out cards. From the thrill of requesting an address, to going through someone’s profile to gauge what the person is like, to finding a suitable card for that person, to picking out the perfect stamp combination, then finally writing out a message! When I first joined, I barely had any postcards, but three years on, I’ve become quite the expert in touristy cards from Dubai, and have accumulated quite a collection, so many that one of my new year’s resolutions was that I wouldn’t buy a single postcard this year except when on vacation. We’ll see how long that lasts! I also enjoy introducing Dubai to postcrossers, and giving them a flavor of what the city is like.

The Postcrossing Forum is also fun as it’s a great place to exchange postcards with other postcrossers, and find people who share many of my interests, from people who like long messages on their postcards, to trying out teas from different countries! The Round Robins are VERY addictive.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

My second postcard was from Finland – I was so surprised as I knew so very little about the country, it seemed so exotic and far away to me at the time! I visited Helsinki for the first time in October, and loved it! Naturally, I visited the central post office there and marveled at the huge selection of postcards in the post office store, and how pretty the stamps were! Is it just me or do all postcrossers feel that post offices in foreign countries are a tourist attraction?

The last time we heard from the Little Mail Carriers, they were knee-high in snow in Siberia, but that was a long time ago… We were wondering what they were up to, when we received this exciting report from Chicago! Turns out, they’ve just spent some time with Heather at the fantastic Curt Teich Postcard Archives!

We’ve written about their Greetings from postcards before, so we were curious to see what Little Paulo & Ana would discover “behind the scenes”…

Hi everyone!

In April we traveled to Wauconda, Illinois, in the far northern suburbs of Chicago. There we visited the Lake County Discovery Museum’s Curt Teich Postcard Archives—the world’s largest public collection of postcards! Our first stop was the mailbox located at the end of the drive. It was quite roomy and gave us a chance to stretch after the trip.

First we saw the reading room and library, which is open to the public. We decided to do a little research. Postcards are sleeved before researchers handle them, and we were only given a few at a time to look at. Pencils only for note taking!

Next we were given a behind-the-scenes tour. The core of the archives is from Chicago printer Curt Teich & Co (1898–1978). The Teich Company specialized in printing postcards, and saved copies of everything they printed. During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, it was the world’s largest volume producer of postcards. The archives literally holds millions of postcards from the Teich Company and other publishers.

The postcards are stored in archival boxes in cabinets. There are a lot of cabinets to hold all of the postcards. The archives also has production files that were used to create the postcards. Some contain original photos, notes, artwork and samples of wallpaper, carpet, or products. This client sent a carpet sample to get the colors and pattern just right.

When we were there, postcards from the Detroit Publishing Company were just being entered into the computer database.

Many of the postcards are digitized on a flatbed scanner at the archives and made available online at www.idaillinois.org. While visiting the digitizer, we made some new friends!

Later, we headed over to the museum building to tour the exhibits. We saw what the original off-set press looked like (that’s Curt Teich Sr., company founder, on the right).

We also discovered a “Top Secret” map! Did you know that during the Second World War, the Teich Company had a contract with the United States Army Map Service for printing maps?

There are lots of different types of postcards on exhibit.

It was great to meet the staff and see how the postcards are cared for at a postcard archive. They love postcards!

P.S. May 5–11, 2013 is National Postcard Week in the United States!

What a fantastic trip – sounds like postcard heaven to us! Thank you for showing them around, Heather! :)

Now they’re off to their next destination… the adventure continues!

I saw this call for postcards on the Letter Writters Alliance blog and couldn’t resist re-posting it here.

Smarter Every Day is a Youtube channel that explains interesting science bits. It’s run by Destin, a father who is really excited about science… and high-speed cameras! The videos are contagiously enthusiastic – the one about the mystery of Prince Rupert’s drop is a favourite around here!

So in this video about teaching his kids how to skip stones, Destin asks for help getting postcards to cover the walls of a room in his house. I think we can give him a hand… if there’s one thing postcrossers are good at, it’s sending postcards! :)

So if you have an extra postcard, please send it to:

Destin’s Wall Project (or something funny)
Smarter Every Day
PO Box 63
Hartselle AL 35640
USA

He doesn’t ask for a specific message, but you could always mention your favourite science bit, ask a question, or say that you come from Postcrossing! :)

We’re looking forward to see how that room turns out!

Postcards are inherently fun. Buying them, sending them, receiving them, and collecting them are all happy events in their lifecycle. But what if you could add another step to the whole process? Like interacting with them! Here are several types of puzzle and game postcards that make receiving one in the mail twice the fun!

Build your own…

How would you like to have your own little desktop version of a car, a famous building or animal? The possibilities are endless! Check out this amazing Flickr gallery for some examples.

Crosswords

An internationally beloved hobby, solving crossword puzzles is a stimulating way to pass the time. Postcard puzzles have been around for awhile, although modern day versions can be tricky to find…

If you have some time though, you can always try to make your own, and test the recipient’s knowledge of your country or city with a fun challenge! :)

Find the…

There is a special category of cards, in which you have to find a specific object or character… Some examples are the “Where’s Waldo (or Wally)?” set, or Lali cards! They’re fun and challenging… and definitely not just for kids!

Cutout models

A great way to send a greeting to someone who loves flags is by sending them a flag-shaped postcard!

Likewise, there are cutout model postcards for almost all modes of transportation, food, sculptures, animals, everyday objects, toys, not to mention famous global landmarks or gotochi cards!

Jigsaws

The first jigsaw puzzle postcards were seen in the early 1900’s. The recipient tore along a perforated edge of the card to remove a jigsaw made from light cardboard. Printed score sheets were included in a pack of six, intended to be used at “Progressive Puzzle Parties” by players who were to record the time it took to complete one puzzle.

Nowadays you can find jigsaw puzzles of all types, even postcards that reveal a message under the pieces of the puzzle!

Do you know of any other types of interactive postcards? Do share in the comments!