Postcrossing Blog

Every single day Postcrossing lights up thousands of smiles across the world, literally making it a happier place. We are very proud of that and so should you! And today, Postcrossing brings to you an initiative that allows you to create even more smiles through your postcards. Interested? Read on.

On the 10th of May it’s International World Lupus Day, which has the goal of bringing more awareness over this chronic disease that affects over 5 million people worldwide. If you don’t know what Lupus is, here’s a quick summary:

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). Chronic means that the signs and symptoms tend to last longer than six weeks and often for many years. In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs (“foreign invaders, ” like the flu). Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues (“auto” means “self”) and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.

Lupus occurs nine times more often in women than in men, especially between the ages of 15 and 50, but it can also affect men, children, and teenagers develop it too. To learn more about Lupus, check Wikipedia or the Lupus Foundation of America.

So, how is this related with postcards? The German Lupus Association and Postcrossing have joined efforts around the World Lupus Day, and you can participate too! We call it LupusCrossing – Butterflies are crossing the world and all you have to do is to send a butterfly postcard (butterflies are the Lupus symbol) to the address below to express your support towards Lupus patients on this special day. The goal is to bring worldwide awareness to this problem while at the same time bring smiles to those affected by the disease. You can write on the postcard whatever you want, and you can ask questions about Lupus too.

All received postcards will reach the hands of Lupus patients. In return, the German Lupus Association will send thank you postcards to 3 randomly chosen Postcrossers of each country they receive postcards from so don’t forget to write your address on the card! A photo of the postcards received will appear on their website. Moreover, the German Lupus Association plans to design a roll-up display out of these cards that will be shown throughout the 80 regional groups.

Ready to spark some smiles? Then grab a postcard with a butterfly and send it to:

And don’t forget to check the German Lupus Association website for the progress.

Happy LupusCrossing!

The Postcrossing meetups seem be springing a bit all over the world. These month in addition to the Finnish meetup, there were another another two in Germany: one in Cologne, and another one in Würzburg.

Although smaller, these meetups always include many postcards signed and stamped while visits to local postcards shops to re-stock are also common. The participants in the Würzburg meeting also had the chance to visit the Würzburg Residence (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and the beautiful gardens of the Veitshöchheim castle.

Here are some photos that better describe it:

So we told you about those cool postcups and about the world’s tiniest and cutest telegrams in this blog. We’re sure you guys are still hungry for more cool and unique ways to send telegrams to your loved ones, relatives, friends, and of course, your Postcrossing buddies!

Well, here’s another lovely and rare telegram mode that you can use to “wow” your receivers and “mmm” them at the same time.

Introducing… the delicious Chocotelegrams!

Yes, they’re basically telegrams that are made from delicious, high-quality milk chocolates! Imagine your letter recipients opening a cute wooden case and seeing blocks of delicious Belgian chocolates speak for you. This is just so sweet! Literally.

The most popular company that both produces and sends these chocomails is United Kingdom’s Choco Mail UK, Ltd. Their service is very easy to use. All you have to do is click on their telegram-making interface and write a message that you would like to be inscribed on your chocotelegram.

Your message must be 7 to 60 letters long, which can include various symbols such as smiley faces, clover leaves, stars, Christmas trees, hearts, deer, and even a menorah.

You can also choose the type of chocotelegram package you’d like them to use. You can send your chocomails in brightly colored cardboard boxes, regular wooden cases, and luxurious wooden boxes.

Another website that offers this service is the Netherlands’ Tasty Present. The chocotelegram customizing steps at Tasty Present’s website are basically the same with the ones at Choco Mail. The only difference between the two is that Tasty Present offers a few more chocolate arrangements in addition to Choco Mail’s traditional rectangular arrangement. At Tasty Present, you can ask them to arrange the chocolate tiles into a heart-shaped or letter-shape chocotelegram.

You can ask the company to either directly send your chocomails to your intended recipient or send them to you. This is a really great telegram idea for Mother’s Day, graduations, Valentine’s Day, thank-you letters, and anniversaries, etc.

Oh, and it’s not just the United Kingdom and the Netherlands that have this service. Portugal has it too and even if you are not in one of these countries, look around, it might very well be that there’s one for your country too!

Oh yeah, Easter is coming up so why don’t you do something different this time and instead of sending Easter egg chocolates or marshmallow chicks, use a Chocotelegram to both express your Easter greetings and fill your recipient’s tummy with choco goodness!

On the 13&14th earlier this month another large Postcrossing meetup took place, this time in cold Tampere in Finland. The meetup had over 25 Postcrossers with some coming from Germany and The Netherlands.

Here’s what happened described by Soili, one of the attendees:

Some of the guests arrived Tampere on Friday already and they spent some time in a pre-meeting in the night life of the city. The main meeting day was on Saturday. The day was cloudy and streets were slushy but it wasn’t too cold. Some snowflakes came down from the sky every now and then. At 11 am one part of the group went to visit the Tampere cathedral and another part gathered in a postcard shop. I myself arrived Tampere later than the others and the first thing when I got there I went to that shop to check out if they had left any postcards for me. :D Then I phoned them to find out their location. So, we met each other in Moomin Shop downstairs of Tampere library. Those who visited the cathedral were there already, too.

Then we went upstairs to the library cafe and had a cup of coffee and tea. Then we started writing and signing postcards to fellow postcrossers. Previous evening I had prewritten and stamped some postcards already but since I didn’t have any Tampere postcards at home I had to write them at the cafe. It took a while to sign all the 354 postcards. Postcards kept coming endlessly to our table. Luckily, my user name is short enough to write it over and over again. :D After about two and half hours they were all signed. We put postcards to a mailbox next to the Moominvalley to get a special Moomin cancellation to them.

Our Dutch friends gave to the participants delicious gifts they had brought all the way from the Netherlands. Thanks again! Also recycling is in! Anyone could bring unsed postcards they didn’t want to keep anymore to the meeting. So anyone could take as many postcards as they wanted. Someone’s trash is someone else’s treasure. I found many beautiful postcards in the trash piles. :D

At this point some of the participants left the group. The rest of us headed for an Italian restaurant Bella Roma. On our way to the restaurant we popped in another postcard shop to buy low-price postcards. I never miss a chance to buy postcards because in the village where I live the postcard assortment is poor and they are also expensive. So, I left the shop with 60 postcards. :D

At least I was hungry when we got to the restaurant. Bella Roma is a cosy Italian ristorante. Pastas and pizzas were delicious as well the desserts like real Italian gelato (ice cream). Yummy! I was stuffed when I finished the dinner.

After 7 pm it was time to say goodbye. Some went home, some for a drink in a bar. After a couple of hours’ driving I was back at home at 10.30 pm. It was a long day but worth it.

It is great to meet other postcrossers in the real life. Some of them I had already met earlier because this was my 8th Postcrossing meeting already. It is wonderful to get to know new people, too. The disadvantage of a meeting this big is that there isn’t necessarily time to talk to everyone but maybe next time.

Luckily enough, Finland’s FI-500000 was sent from this meetup with meeting signatures. Congratulations too all Finnish members for the achievement!

(pooca with the 500,000th card to be sent from Finland.)

Don’t forget to check the forum for updates in the upcoming meetups!

PS: For more photos of this meetup, check here, here, here, here, here and here :).

Sometimes when we are surfing around on the interwebs, we find little pearls that we want to share with you all. Today we want to tell you about the “World’s smallest postal service”!

Anyone can use this to create the tiniest and cutest little letters. Here’s how it works:

“You write a letter (up to 120 words!) and it is transcribed onto tiny stationery (1 × 1.5 inches) with a magical transcription device. It then goes into a tiny envelope which gets addressed, stamped, and sealed with a minuscule wax seal with your initial on it.

The letter then goes into a see-through folded coin case and is packaged up with a magnifying glass in a larger glassine envelope, finished off with a large “World’s Smallest Letter” wax seal. It is put in a sturdy mailer for shipping. I can send your letter directly to a recipient of your choice, or to you if you would like to distribute it yourself.”

The result is completely adorable and the only problem is that we might want to keep it for ourselves instead of giving it someone else! And it can be used for so many things: thank you letters, birthday cards, super cute love letters – they even have a “World’s smallest card from the tooth fairy” one!

This idea was created by Lea Redmond, who explains it like this:

In the summer of 2008, the idea just popped into my head and it was so hilarious that I had no choice but to materialize it. For the first “performance”, I strapped my miniature desk to my back inside my grandmother’s old wicker suitcase, filled the milk crate on my bicycle with tools and supplies, and coasted down to Sweet Adeline Bakeshop in Oakland, CA, nervous as all heck. I was delighted to find that there are lots of people out there that are equally charmed by these little curios.

Impossible not to love it! And if you are San Francisco area, you can actually see it in person and get a handwritten version of it! But if you are not, you can order everything online and she accepts international orders so be sure to check the website for more information about it!

PS: Do you know other postal-related cuteness online? Share it with us!