Postcrossing Blog

Wow! Last week’s Tasty Cards contest was incredibly popular, with 427 comments! Everybody had really nice suggestions, and we’ve heard that they’re already considering your ideas for new postcards! :)

Without further ado, here are the names of the five lucky winners, chosen by Paulo’s random number generator: Calaquendi, transfer, elpis, aberline and riledup!
Congratulations, each of you will receive a pack of Tasty Cards.

No luck this time? Well… what if we told you there are more contests to come? :) Stay tuned!

PS – By the way, do you take amazing food photos? Get in touch with them, they’re looking for new creators!

Kristin (aka Volvomom) is a schoolteacher in Massachussetts, USA who shares Postcrossing with her sixth graders. Here is what she had to say to our spotlight questions:

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

I found out about Postcrossing in the US magazine ReadyMade. I was hooked from the start! As a child I started off with pen pals, which evolved into hosting foreign exchange students. My family has hosted from France, Bulgaria, Russia, and Norway, to name a few. Postcrossing seemed like yet another way to make the world smaller.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My main hobby is my eleven year old twin sons. They are the light of my life! Each card I send has two smiles, which represent my sons.
Of course, my username indicated my other hobby – Volvo cars. I’m passionate about Volvos. I currently am on Volvo #5. It’s at 131,000 miles, but I swear it will hit one million miles someday!

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

I have to give a big shout out to the staff at the Chelmsford Post Office. They’re great with the volume of mail I receive! I also have to thank my dad and mom, who pick up my mail when I’m not home!

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

I have two postcards that are my favorites, out of so many, it was hard to choose.

The first is from user Thaddee_Calisson. It’s a vintage Volvo ad. I have this card framed and hanging in my home. It’s classic – in French and a Volvo. What more could I ask for?

The second card is an official from Anna in Sweden. What’s unique about this card is it was part of three cards. The other two cards went as officials to other users – one in China and one in Finland. I loved that I was part of a world puzzle!

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love meeting people from all parts of the globe and hearing their unique stories. Each time I receive a postcard I am reminded of the human experience.

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

I am passionate about education. I am a Spanish teacher to middle school students. Next year I will be teaching a World Cultures class once a week, so if there are any other teachers in the Postcrossing world who would be interested in working with me on this project, please let me know! I strive to teach my students tolerance and understanding, as it is a necessity in today’s world. Postcrossing is helping me do that with them. Thank you for that opportunity!

So August is here, and as promised, we have another contest for you! This one is sponsored by Tastycards.co, who kindly offered to send us 5 packs of their delicious postcards to give away.

How could we say no to this irresistible fusion of food, photography and postcards?

Tasty Cards feature mouthwatering pictures of food, from appetisers to desserts, taken by their talented photographers. The recipe used to make each postcard is on the back, and you can pick the language (English, Swedish and German available). Don’t worry, the cards are big (125 × 207 mm), so there’s still plenty of space to write your message!

Afraid the mail carrier will eat your brownies? Can’t send some soup across the world for a sick friend? Send it with one of these postcards! :)

To take part on this contest, visit Tastycards.co’s website and leave a comment below telling us which recipe you think they should add to their collection! Comments will be accepted until August 14th 11:59pm (GMT), and on the next day we’ll pick five winners at random. Good luck!

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

As some of you might know, the theme for 2011 is Forests, in honour of the current International Year of Forests.

Here is a small selection of the stamps in the run-up:

Picking the best one is going to be a tough job, there are so many nice designs, don’t you think?

To vote, go to the competition page and pick your favorite! You have to hurry though, the deadline ends on August 7th.

PS – Which one did you choose?

This week on the spotlight, we feature Jamie1972 (or Alex), from Switzerland. As a mother of 2 small (and really cute!) children, Alex is understandably passionate about children’s rights. Here is what she had to say:

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

My dear penfriend from Poland told me about Postcrossing and curious as I am I had to check out the page. I started slowly with just sending out few cards and had a longer break then because of a difficult pregnancy.

When I got back to Postcrossing I also discovered the Forum more and more and then it started to be real fun. Suddenly you know a bit about the person you write too – which is fun.

These days it is funny – there are weeks I only write “officials” – then are weeks I feel only writing to forum members – both are a lot of fun.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I am a mother of two little children, Billy who is 5 and Sarah who is 2 years old. So I am a bit busy.

We also have two dogs and I love to go out with them for walks. I usually take my camera with me then – wich leads to my other great passion – photography. I love to take pictures of everything and I have now two external harddiscs just to save them!

I write a lot – not only letters and postcards but sometimes also short stories or I wrote a children’s book for my children about a little pirate. During my studies I did a children’s book with illustrations together with three collegues – and we printed it too – it was such a great experience.

I love to read a lot – but usually I can only do it in bed before going to sleep – and I start to buy only paperbacks because I wake up regularly because my book has fallen on my head because I fell asleep during reading.

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

My son Billy at my favourite mailbox where I usually mail my postcards, and little Sarah signing cards at the Bielefeld meeting:

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

To choose special cards is so difficult – there are just too many! I have to say that a lot of postcrossers really try to send you something special, which is so great!

One of my favourite subjects: Jip en Janneke

here is a bunch of cards that just came in my hands flipping though my postcards and I love every single one of them!

This one is a very special card – it’s a wooden one from Poland!

This card says: “After the last night with you I am only a shadow of myself”… This card prooved me that my mailwoman is looking at my postcards – I met her before I saw what was in my mailbox – and believe me her look at me was very strange and shocked!

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

I know that some of my penfriends are postcrossers as well – I usually tell people about it when they see me writing bunches of postcards!

My son Billy started now in the kid’s round robin and he loves it. I guess in about a year or so when he is really able to write on his own he will want to have an account too.

And my little one, Sarah – she is mad about postcards and she loves to look at them. Usually she is really upset when I take them away to register them! It happens a lot that my children sign my postcards too – so if you get a postcard with strange signs of it – this is Sarah’s greetings :-)

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love to draw addresses and read the profiles. Often I know then wich card is best to send – and usually really hit the taste of the reciever. I love to choose the “perfect” card for everyone. Something I love too is sending and getting RAS cards. Those are really big surprises!

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes I did. When the first Swiss meeting was taking place in February 2010 I had some of the foreign postcrossers thew day befire in Lucerne and showed them around. In the evening we were at my place having Fondue and a lot of fun! The meeting itself was fun too – all the three Swiss meetings.

And I went to the big Bielefeld meeting last December – three days in a house with all those crazy postcrossers and it was a very special experience! I am always surprised how open all these people are and usually easy going. There is a great respect for everyone in the group and no one feels left out – at least this is my impression.