Postcrossing Blog

We know that in big touristic cities (or smaller towns) postcards can get quite expensive, or even hard to find… sometimes all there is left in the local paper shop is a stack of yellowed cards in a corner box.

Fortunately for us, Amazon.com has a great selection of postcard books which will cover your every need! They’re also surprisingly cheap yet very good quality, so we decided that a little roundup was in order. Here are 20 of our favorite postcard sets:

• The Art of Star Wars Comics: 100 Collectible Postcards
• Hi Postcard Book: 30 Postcards
• Wanderlust: 30 Postcards for Insatiable Travelers
• Rex Ray Postcard Book (set of 30 postcards)
• Happy Animal Time: 30 Postcards
• Where’s Waldo? The Phenomenal Postcard Book (set of 30 postcards)

• Pantone Postcard Box: 100 Postcards
• The Art of Vintage DC Comics: 100 Postcards
• Greetings from The Onion: 100 Rectangular Postal Cards
• Postcards from Penguin: One Hundred Book Covers in One Box

• Secret Weapon: 30 Hand-Painted Spam Postcards (Postcard Book)
• The Cutest Sneeze in the World – Postcard Box (set of 30 postcards)
• XOXO: Hugs and Kisses (Postcard Book) (set of 30 postcards)
• If You Don’t Love Books, You’re Going to Love This Book (someecards): 45 Cards for All Occasions, from Extremely Important to Utterly Pointless
• Bunny Suicides (Postcard Book): Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don’t Want to Live Anymore (set of 20 postcards)
• Indexed Postcard Book (set of 30 postcards)
• Vintage Postcards from Vanity Fair: One Hundred Classic Covers, 1913–1936
• Charley Harper: The Animal Kingdom: A Book of Postcards (set of 30 postcards)
• Charley Harper: Birds: A Book of Postcards (set of 30 postcards)
• I Feel a Sin Coming On: 30 Postcards

What a bargain! :) Happy shopping!

I’m sure you’re anxious to hear about the results for the House of St Junior giveaway! Here are Scott and Neil, the inventors of the postframe, drawing the names out of their magic helmet:

And the lucky postcrossers are…

…CamJP, Fiona89 and SecretSquirrel1904!

Congratulations to the 3 winners, and as always, thank you to everyone who participated!

We’ll be back this weekend with another giveaway – stay tuned! :)

martinha (aka Marta) is a very active member on the forum's Portuguese community. Like many of us, she likes UNESCO images and other historical places on her postcards. Here is what she had to say:

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

Back in 2006 a friend send me a text message with the site. He read about it on a magazine. I thought it was one of his silly messages but as i was working in front of the computer i decided to check the site. This sentence caught my attention “It’s a project that allows anyone to receive postcards (real ones, not electronic) from random places in the world.” After a bit of reading I registered, a few days later I sent the first cards and started doing some private trades. That was in September and in November I discovered the forum and then it got serious. Since then I’ve been receiving cards almost everyday.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Apart of collecting cards, I love to take pictures and travelling. These three hobbies are closely related to each other. My last travels were truly influenced by Postcrossing and by the lovely people I got to know these last years due to postcard exchanges.

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

I have 4 or 5 post offices in my city but this one is the biggest and the one I use the most. Some of the workers already know me, some call me the “stamp girl”; they don’t need to ask want I want, just how many stamps do I need.

This is my not so pretty mailbox but it sure makes me happy every time I find nice cards inside it.

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

I’ve got more than 4000 postcards, choosing a favourite card is impossible, I have too many favorite cards. As you can see on the picture, i truly enjoy beautiful landscapes and architecture. Every time I travel I try to visit historical places with wonderful architecture or breathtaking landscapes. The world is too big and I won’t be able to visit a lot of places; getting cards from places like that is the best and cheapest way to see the world.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love the excitement of opening my mailbox and finding cards; getting an address, reading the profile and finding the perfect card to that person and most of all getting in touch with people around the world. Thanks to Postcrossing I’ve met great friends.

Have you met any other members in real life?

I’ve met a lot of postcrossers from different countries and I know the most active members in the Portuguese community. We’re a great group of friends now and we often have meetings or travel together.
I’ve been to 2 big international meetings, the international one in Zurich last year and the Köln meeting last April. Both were wonderful opportunities to meet postcrossers and make great friends. I’ve also met a few postcrossers that were visiting Portugal.

The winner of last weekend’s PostCarden set was kate101 – thank you to everyone who participated throughout the week!

For this weekend’s giveaway, we’d like to introduce House of St Junior, a small company based in London. It was founded by Scott Sloan and Neil Gillespie, who explain the concept behind the company:

We love artwork, but sometimes we can’t afford it, nevermind get it framed. So we started St.Junior, postable, framed mini-artworks… to help you start your collection!

Scott and Neil invented a genius product which they named the postframe. These consist of special edition postcards, framed in black matte foam and covered with a sheet of shatterproof lightweight perspex. Postframes can be easily mailed just like a normal postcard – ours arrived fast and in perfect condition!

Here’s how it works:

Neat, right? And the best part is, today we have 3 postframes to give away!

For a chance to grab one, visit the House of St Junior’s homepage and leave a comment below telling us what your favorite postframe is! :)

Comments will be open until midnight UTC September 10. Good luck!

For the second post of the Stationery makers series, we’ve talked with Liz, from dicky bird. We found her online shop by accident, but were immediately drawn to her fresh and eye-catching illustrations. Her collection of greeting cards put a big smile so big on our face, so we knew we had to feature her on the blog :)

Liz started her stationery business a year ago, but says that it was years in the planning in her head! She creates the illustrations on her Mac and then the cards are printed in heavy uncoated paper, for a muted and slightly textured feeling.

Below are her answers to our interview.

How did you get started doing stationery design?

I worked in Graphics for 10 years, so I knew a fair bit about print production, design and marketing. My love of bold colours and simple shapes led me to illustration and, later, the creation of ‘dicky bird’.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Oh, in so many things – nature, 50s and 60s patterns and textiles, Dick Bruna, Japanese life, Mid-century design and all things Scandinavian. I take a lot of photos and sometimes I get ideas that way. I also love living in London – there are so many interesting things to see and do – odd little museums, galleries (huge public ones and small independent ones), beautiful parks and quirky shops.

If you could define your style in 3 words, what would they be?

simple / graphic / positive

Are you a postcard or letter writer yourself?

I’m definitely a card writer. Not keen on the phone at all! I still love to send and receive things in the post – it’s so much nicer.

Can you show us a picture of your studio or workspace?

I work from home on a laptop, so my workplace can be the kitchen table or the sofa!

You can find dicky bird’s greeting cards at dicky-bird.co.uk. Liz also writes and shows bits of inspiration at dicky-bird.blogspot.com