Postcrossing Blog

Remember around this time last year, we asked you to send us a photo of you mailing your postcards, and then did a neat little video?

Well, we loved it so much we want to do it again this year! We love seeing your smiley faces!

So, for Postcrossing’s sixth birthday, we would like you to send us a photo of yourself, holding 6 postcards, like Paulo is doing below:

Mail it to birthday@postcrossing.com until July 13th. After that we’ll mix them all together and make a neat slideshow with all your smiles and postcards! :)

And of course there will be prizes! We’ll do a lottery with one kit of the World’s smallest post service and two sets of Playmobil Little Mail Carriers. Awesome, right? Go go go!

BraveJ is our spotlight feature today! Ana, from Serbia, is fond of geography, Native Americans and tango! Here’s what she had to say:

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

Some years ago I was into penpalling and one of my penfriends told me about Postcrossing. I liked the idea and I was hooked immediately!

I’ve loved postcards since I was a child. Even before I could read and write properly, I enjoyed looking at the cards that my family received from their friends and relatives. For years I loved to send cards from my holidays to my friends, and to receive them, too! But, that was until modern technology took over and most people just stopped sending real postcards. I missed that and Postcrossing seemed to be the perfect place to quench my thirst for real mail!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Just like many other postcrossers, I also collect stamps. I guess it somehow “goes with the territory” when you’re into postcards or letters. I enjoy beautiful stamps as much as postcards.

I love reading (I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm) and I enjoy wandering around bookstores. Many of them also sell postcards, so it’s a perfect combination! I often use my received postcards as bookmarks and I have this silly habit of trying to match the card to the story of the book I read.

I’ve been doing different kinds of fitness for a very long time and I love it. After many years it’s not so much about keeping fit anymore, but about the positive energy I get from exercising, from interesting choreographs and great music, and the people I meet there.

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

This is the post office closest to my home and I send most of my cards from there:

I also often use this mailbox in the city centre. This photo was taken by another Postcrossing member after our mini-meeting, look how many cards we signed!

I keep most of my cards in boxes and I love going through them from time to time. Here are two of my “treasure chests”:

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

I won’t say anything new if I say that most cards I received are special to me in some way and it would be impossible to show you all my favourites! So, for this occasion, I chose three cards. I’ve been interested in Native Americans since childhood and this card is one of the loveliest I’ve ever received:

Wolves are my favourite wild animals and wolf cards are an important part of my collection. These two wolves are among the most beloved members of my “pack”:

I love cards with tango, there is something indescribably beautiful about this dance. This is one of the very few tango cards I received, so it’s even more precious:

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I can’t say that I have a favourite part, because I enjoy everything – the anticipation of requesting a new address, picking the right card, writing a message, finding wonderful surprises in my mailbox almost every day… Postcrossing opened a whole new world to me. I like to think about it as a way of opening doors or windows to the world. I can’t afford to travel much, so I “travel” through postcards. They introduced me to many amazing places that I may never be able to visit in real life.

But for me, one of the best things about Postcrossing (beside postcards, of course) are the people behind the cards. Since I joined this project and especially since I joined the Postcrossing forum, I met so many nice and friendly people who brought a huge smile on my face with their cards and messages many times. Because of those people, I’m incredibly happy to be a part of the big Postcrossing family.

We know many Postcrossers take their yearly break in the upcoming weeks to relax and visit new places.

If you are one of those and you’ll be away from your home or school address for a while, we recommend you to switch your account to the Inactive status – you can do that easily just by editing your Postcrossing account. This will tell Postcrossing not to give your address to any other member while you are away.

When you’re back, all you need to do is to switch it back to Active and you’ll be back in business again! Rest assured, all your due postcards will then be sent your way.

Oh, and don’t forget to re-stock with postcards from the places where you’ll be spending your days away!

Bon voyage!

Ever wondered how ships receive their mail? Sure, they can get it in ports, but some actually receive mail as they are underway!

The J. W. Wescott company has been in service since 1874, making deliveries to cargo ships that are passing through the Great Lakes, 24 hours a day.

It’s a challenging and unique system, which you can see on the video below:

Remember the World’s smallest postal service we wrote about two years ago? They make tiny customisable letters that you can send to your loved ones, and which look like this:

Cute, right? It’s impossible not to smile when you get one of these in the mail! :)

Lea Redmond, the Postmistress of the Word’s Smallest Post Service, has recently teamed up with Chronicle Books to make a do-it-yourself kit that allows anyone to do those amazing tiny letters and packages at home!

The World’s Smallest Post Service kit comes with paper, pen, minuscule stamps, stickers, packing material and even a little magnifying glass, so that you can write and send your own tiny letters and parcels.

The kit is available at Amazon.com.