Postcrossing Blog

Last week we introduced you to Christine’s postcards, and gave you a chance to win some of them in a fantastic giveaway. Hundreds of you participated by leaving a comment, and we bet you’re anxious to know who got one of the postcard sets… but first, here’s a word from Christine herself:

Dear postcrossers,
I was overwhelmed by the fantastic response on the By Kris Give away. I congratulate the winners! To say thank you to everybody else that did not win: if you place an order this week in my etsy shop, I will charge NO shipping costs. Just use the promo code: FREESHIPPING.
Happy Postcrossing!

Christine/ By Kris

Sweet! So without further ado, here are the 10 lucky winners: Iefonnuh, Saouri, fory, zphyrs, Linni, Hildegarde, ParallelSouls, Sisko1, WeepingWillows and red_sun. Congratulations! You’ll be receiving an email from us shortly!

A huge thank you to Christine for sponsoring the giveaway, and also to everyone who participated!

This week on the Spotlight interview, we feature Rita (Gogge1), from Denmark. Besides being an avid postcrosser, Rita is also into penpalling and baking!

Here is what she had to say:

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

One of my old penpals told me about Postcrossing, and I decided to give it a try. Soon I was totally hooked on this project! And I have to admit that I just love it. To me it is not just sending and receiving postcards from all ower the world. Well of course thats a huge part of it, but at the same time, I see a lot of views from arround the world, and I also “meet” a lot of great people. And then I do learn a lot about both my own country (I love to write and tell about what’s on the cards I send out) as well as many other countries. That’s a huge part of it for me.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Oh yes, I love history, which goes a bit hand in hand with Postcrossing, doesn’t it? I also enjoy penpalling (but sadly I haven’t much time for that these days because I’m studying). And I always bake our own bread, which I’ve done for ages. I also bake some cakes etc. now and then.

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

Here are my own mailbox where I pick my mail 5 – 6 days a week and the postbox where do send most of my postcards from. It’s standing just outside the local liborary in the tiny town I’m living in.

Sadly there aren’t many post offices left in Denmark. They close down, and we have to drive around 13 kilometres to the nearest post office.

I keep my postcards in albums and boxes.

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

This is difficult, because I’ve received so many beautiful cards… It’s simply sooo hard to pick one, two or even 10 cards and make them to favourites. But these are some of those I really do love (among many many cards I love):

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Surely it’s exciting to see which card I receive myself – I like that very much. But my favourite part is to find nice cards, and to pick them for each person I’m going to send a card. I always try to find the perfect card for each postcrosser, if its possible for me at all. And I always read the postcrossers wishes for cards and try to fullfill them.

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

Yes! Places like Tuvalu, Turkmenistan, etc. I’d never heard of these places before I started Postcrossing.

Have you met any other members in real life?

I’ve meet Dorthe from Denmark and Christa from Germany several times to meetups arround Denmark. And at the Postcrossing meetup in Copenhagen in September 2011, I’ve meet GForp from Denmark, Lotty from Belgium, Ritva, Dollart from Finland and several more from Finland, Poland, etc.

When Christine (aka Chriz) joined Postcrossing back in 2009, she would had never guessed where it would lead her. She loved postcards but quickly discovered that she also really liked to make her own cards, especially through collages…

Everyone seemed to like receiving her special made creations, so she decided to print them and open a webshop! Things were going well and half a year later, a publisher found her cards on a local bookstore and got in touch with a business proposal. These days, By Kris cards are sold all over the Netherlands (and also abroad), in giftstores and bookshops, both online and offline!

In her own words:

I think it’s amazing how one step can lead to another. Yes, it was scary and yes it was exciting, but I learned to believe in myself and not to be afraid of challenges.

Christine says Postcrossing brought a lot of good things to her, and so she’s happy to give something back – by offering 10 sets (of 10 postcards each) to 10 lucky postcrossers! :)

To win one of these packs, visit the By Kris shop, and leave a comment below, letting us know which card is your favourite! We’ll pick 10 random winners on Monday next week. Good luck!

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.

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 albums that are ideal for keeping your postcards looking like new for years to come.

From left to right: Hobbymaster postcard album, Hobbymaster linen style 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.

And 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!

Back in May, the city of Sochi, (which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics) experienced a Postcrossing day! The event was organized by Polina and Alena with the help of Katya. It included an exhibition, contest and lottery, a postal fairy and even a dragon – with postcards hidden on his mouth! :D

We were so impressed by what the three of them managed to accomplish that we asked them to tell us all about it! Alena described the event for us:

It was a bright sunny day in May, when Rivera Park in Sochi became a meeting place of postcrossers and future postcrossers! :) For one day, the park was turned into a fabulous Postal Square. The Carrier-Dragon went among the old trees and every brave child could try to get a postcard from his mouth. The Postal-Fairy flew near the rainbow of the fountain splashes and brought gifts to the children who enjoyed the event.

It was the Postcrossing day in Sochi! All the members had a lot of fun and the fun of Postcrossing was showcased to the visitors. Moreover, the event was also very informative, people could learn greetings in different languages and also find out more about countries that are participating in Postcrossing. Many of them were surprised and interested in the project. Some of them got a postcard as a present, but not immediately – the winners addresses were written on the postcard, and after a couple of days they received it on their mailbox.

We hope that such events would bring more people to Postcrossing and be thrilling for both organizers and visitors. Maybe soon we will read about the Day of Postcrossing in your city too?

Bravo! We bet everyone had a blast! :) If you’d like to see some more pictures, we highly recommend Polina's gallery of photos from the event!