Postcrossing Blog

Yay! It’s our birthday today! Time does fly when you’re having fun, eh? Every single year, we’re in awe of what this (once) tiny project has become, and how many lives it has touched. We’re immensely grateful for your kind words, enthusiasm and continued support throughout these 7 years! :)

We know you’re dying to know which videos we’ve picked… so here it goes, in no particular order:

Giacatalan, you have some great video skills! :)

LeishaCamden, your words mean a lot to us!

And Ejsirk, what a nice stop-motion video – we loved to see you jump!

Congratulations! The three of you will receive your prizes from MOO and Postcard Locker!

This was a very tough choice… we were seriously impressed by all the nice videos that many of you took the time to make, and had a lot of fun (and even got a little teary-eyed here and there) checking them out. You rock!

Now it’s time to send some postcards, blow some candles and eat a piece of cake! Please do have one too! :)

How’s your Postcrossing video coming along? Have you seen the lovely submissions we got during this week? They’re great – we’re in awe of your skills and dedication!

If you haven’t rolled up your sleeves yet and need a little bit of motivation to start shooting, let us tell you about the lovely prizes we have for the winners!

We will pick the 3 best videos, and each will receive:

• A voucher for printing 20 postcards from MOO (shipping included!). You can take advantage of MOO’s Printfinity technology, and print 20 different postcards with it!
• A pack of 25 cool animal postcards from Postcard Locker, shipped directly from Guyana!

Thank you MOO and Postcard Locker for sponsoring this contest!

So what are you waiting for? Dust off your camera, and start filming! You only have until July 13th…

On July 14th, it will be Postcrossing’s 7th birthday… and a birthday means a party! Are you up to some birthday goodies? :)

Your mission, if you wish to accept it, is to make a short video, telling or showing the world why you like Postcrossing. Put your imagination to work, and surprise us!

Put it online, and leave a comment below with a link to it until July 13th, by midnight UTC. There will be prizes for the best ones!

We look forward to seeing your creative videos!

Marianna7 (aka Marianne), is from Germany but moved to the UK in 2001. In this Spotlight interview, she tells us about her life-long passion for letter-writing… and bread-baking! :)

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

I’ve lived since 2001 abroad (not in Germany) and my favorite weekly newspaper is “Die Zeit”. I try to get it, either from an airport or when friends/family bring it on a visit, but very irregularly.

On one of those I found an article about Willi, the German postcrosser who has sent the most postcards from Germany. At the same time I found life pretty stressful, being self-employed and I wanted a positive change in my mailbox (something else than advertisement, junkmail and invoices).

The other reason why I joined is this one: a good German friend of mine and I have been penfriends and friends for 11 years. Our friendship started more with letters, because I met her just before I left Germany. But we developed it over the years and last year, at our 10 years anniversary, we arranged an exhibition with our best envelopes (handmade), statements from letters of these last 10 years and our own arts (I do photography, Daniela does painting). This meant, we both read through the letters of 10 years again, we discussed which statements to use and which not over mail and phone and letters (obviously) and exhibited in Hamburg, Germany. It was a very interesting experience to go public with parts of our private thoughts, doubts, fears, happiness etc… anyhow, the exhibition exhausted us a bit and we are writing now less than before – so I missed the input of written words in my life.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I bake my own bread (buns, scones, croissants, bagels, ciabattas – you name it!). I call it a hobby, because it is a very satisfying work. It is so essential, so basic, but it fills a house with a beautiful smell and everyone comes running and wants some warm bread. I like walking with my sons and my partner most. Photography. Reading. I love languages. Arts!

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

This picture is the picture of my main postoffice in the village – but I go for miles all over the North East to send my mail.

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

RU-884413 a letter, very unexpected and mindblowingly beautiful

NL-1056976 one of the very first cards I received with great words

US-1652878 a handmade card on rice paper

I’ve also received mind-blowing letters and postcards with just a few words, which made me stumble. All words, I receive are precious to me. The fact that a complete stranger writes a few sentences out of his/her soul, is absolutely amazing to me.

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

Yes, my son :-) He is only 8, but a fanatic reader and writer (is true) and he collects stamps. So one day I told him I wouldn’t give him my stamps anymore, because I didn’t want to ruin my precious cards/words. That’s when he joined Postcrossing! The only thing I help him, is a)to get the address of recipient right, b) to send cards on time and c) to help him match the recipient’s preferences.

I’m trying to get my mother on it – she is very old and would have to learn to use the pc, but I am sure it would change her life for the better.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Requesting a postcard. What type of person will it go to? What cards do they like?

I also like the process of finding the right card, though sometimes it takes me days to find one (it’s very rural here and i have to travel far for a card).

And lastly, I also like to receive a card. Who is the sender? After registering, I find it extremely exciting to read the sender’s profile.

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

No, not by the places… But very often I’m surprised by the messages on the cards; the sentences in unexpected letters. I am surprised by the wonderful things other postcrossers are sending. By the passionate words of postcrossers. By the openness of peoples minds towards a complete stranger. I have greatest respect to every cards/letter I receive.

If you have ever seen an Anne Taintor postcard, mug, or greeting card, you would know. Her website tagline is, “Making Smart People Smile Since 1985”. Taintor takes classic photographs and old-fashioned drawings and adds clever words to them, in a newsprint style. For example, her very first piece used an old picture from a National Geographic magazine photo. The photo shows a businessman type wearing a pressed collared shirt, shorts and dress socks. He is with two women in classy dresses and they are standing on a balcony overlooking some exotic location. She clipped out the newsprint worlds, “intellectuals gone bad.” It was funny and offbeat and spawned many more creations.

How did Anne come up with her kooky collages? According to her website, it was 1985 and Taintor had suddenly gone from a stay-at-home mom to being the sole breadwinner of her household. She needed to make money – and fast. She went to a career counselor, where she was asked what skills she had. Her response? “I can make collages.”

She started from there, cutting out magazine photos and making collages. She clipped the words and added them, poking fun at society and gender roles. She even started typing her own words instead of simply cutting them from magazines! She was told to give up many times, but Anne persevered. Her style is defined by clever and witty observations of images from the past that many people would simply have taken at face value, but she turns the image on its side and points out the hilarity of the situation!

Today, Taintor is well-known and her many classic creations make people chuckle all over the world. You can find more of her work on Amazon.com, as well as in gift shops and greeting card stores everywhere.