Postcrossing Blog

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

January is often a time for resolutions and figuring out what we want to focus on in the year ahead, so this month we decided to prompt you all to write about a skill you plan to learn!

I’m one of those people who really enjoy learning, so I’m fired up about this prompt! I’m studying pretty intensively at the moment, so my main commitment is learning to apply and interpret statistical tests… I know, I know, I’m yawning too about this idea! But it’s really important for complex biological systems, so I’m going to give it 100%.

I do enjoy doing crafts in my spare time, so I might try my hand at designing really small cross-stitch patterns! I’ve already done a few small ones, like the one pictured… but that one is 1.5 inches (less than 4 cm) in diameter, and I have a couple of even smaller frames that are just 1 inch (3 cm) wide. I’d love to design something tiny but recognisable, and make it into a necklace!

So now it’s your turns! What skills are you hoping to learn or improve on in the year ahead? We’d love to hear from you in the comments to this post, but you can also turn to this prompt if you’re stuck for what to write on a postcard!

Masha (aka MMokeeva) is a Russian postcrosser living near Moscow, passionate about books and literature. She stumbled on Postcrossing a few years ago, and has been hooked since then, even opening her own postcard shop, starting a podcast about postcards, and this year Masha even launched a book about Postcrossing, titled “Postcrossing — Book of Secret Knowledge”! It’s a beautiful book, featuring stories about the website, interviews with postcrossers and lots of other postcard-related knowledge and interesting facts. We’re happy to invite Masha to the blog today, to tell us all about how postcards took over her life. 😊

Where did your interest in postcards come from? Have you always been a person who liked mail?

“Once I got lost in Moscow. There was a heavy snowstorm. I went to the gift shop to ask where I should go. I was wearing a large bearskin coat that I had inherited from my ancestors. It made me a little clumsy, and I knocked down the postcard rack. The postcards lay like a carpet in front of me, bright and beautiful, with the image of the proud Red Square. And I fell in love with them!”

I would like to have such a fascinating story of happy meeting with postcards, but in fact my story is quite ordinary :) When I was a child, I wrote paper letters to other children. It never even occurred to me to send them postcards, because no one was doing it around me!.. When I got older, I used to buy postcards as fine pictures to put them on the table or use as a bookmark. I started sending postcards just when I found Postcrossing!

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

One day I was looking for a postcard for a gift to my granny and I saw the strange word “Postcrossing” on the website of that online postcard shop. The next day I ran to the post office with my first five cards! I just fell in love with every moment: when you pull out an address, read the profile, view the received and sent postcards… it was like rediscovering the world and the people around.

You even created your own shop selling stationery! How did Amelie Cards get started and how is it going?

I did start it about 5 months after I began to send postcards though Postcrossing. 😊 I was so impressed by this huge postcard world… and I was unemployed. I decided to try to open an online postcard store and printed postcards that I couldn’t find in Russia: with Russian writers, reprints of ads from the Russian Empire, funny “Keep Calm”. Then I started paying more attention to themes what other people need, and so the range expanded! Currently, the most popular sections are the “My Russia” series with atmospheric pictures by independent Russian photographers, illustrations by Russian contemporary artists and quotes from books and movies.

Where did the idea for a book about Postcrossing come from? What prompted you to write it?

When I became interested in postcards, I was curious: what stories hides behind them? Who creates postcards and why? How do postcards reflect our life? What research and collections exist? What is the situation with postcards in other countries? I couldn’t read about it in Russian anywhere, just some scraps of information. My first attempt to answer some questions was my podcast Открытки Амели in 2017. After 11 episodes, I realized that people are interested in learning more about postcards, but it would be more convenient for them to read about it rather than listen to it. So I wrote a plan for the book and started working on it in my spare time. I was writing a book that I wanted to read myself.

Could you give postcrossers an overview of the book? How would you describe this book to someone who hasn’t heard about it before?

This may sound strange, but this book is for people who want to know the postcard as a person: from all sides. Its character, talents and story of the life. It’s also the book about people who love mail. There are seven chapters: about Postcrossing Project, the text on a postcard, postage stamps, postcards, postal connection, postcrossers and postcard shops. There are also life hacks, dictionary of postcrosser words, and 100 ideas for a postcard message.

I have already received more than a hundred warm reviews that make me very happy. People write that they learned a lot of new things from the book, and that they had registered on postcrossing.com or came back to the Big Game after a long break after reading it!

What was your writing process with this book, and what parts are you especially proud of?

There was a lot of very diverse work! It was like making stained glass window from different fragments. And it was important to fit these fragments together and make up a beautiful and logical narrative. Besides, I wanted to make this book fun and easy to read. To achieve this ease, I had to rewrite the text several times. This was a very valuable experience for me as for a young writer.

I’m especially proud of the most original parts: where I talk about Postcrossing’s place in the world of ideas (from the ancient Greeks’ letters to the 21st century with its technologies and popularity of danish Hygge); the first mail artist Alexander Asarkan in the Soviet Union for whom creating postcards was a way to make conceptual art in totalitarian state; who and how creates postage stamps in Russia (there’s a very interesting interview with the leading artist of the publishing house Marka, where he tells all the details of creating a postage stamp, who works on them, what their values are and what they think about stamps of other countries); the interviews with unforgettable postcrossers; and my favorite part is about how postcards were published and sold before, how the circumstances and place of postcard in people’s lives changed and how we came to what we have now.

I wrote the book in chapters, in order. When I finished one, I gave it to the artist Maria Vasilyeva and she drew the next part of the comics about the adventures of postcrosser Asya. I’m proud of this cartoon too!

Thank you so much Masha, for taking the time to answer our questions about your book! For anyone interested, “Postcrossing — Book of Secret Knowledge” (in Russian-language only) can be purchased on Masha’s store amelie-cards.ru and soon on Wildberries as well.

Today we bring you a friendship story that went beyond borders to bring together Carrick (aka geocarrick) from the USA 🇺🇸 and Milad (aka orange_memo) from Iraq 🇮🇶! Carrick tells the story of how they first got in touch, and eventually met.

Milad contacted me the first time back in September 2010 asking for direct swap, and since I never had received postcards from such a rare country like Iraq, I was thrilled! We swapped a couple of postcards, which I received in November 2010.

I mentioned to him that I’ll send him a postcard from Shanghai World Expo 2010 since I was going there. At the time, I enjoyed visiting the Iraqi pavilion and tasted the famous Iraqi dates over there.

On July, 9th 2011, and much to my surprise, I received Milad’s mail address through the Postcrossing system and mailed him the “Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum postcard” (US-1200218) which he received and registered on July 20th, 2011.

Milad and I kept writing to each other through Postcrossing from time to time. We both enjoy swapping postcards, penpaling and traveling, making new friends and learning new languages and cultures.

On May 2012, Milad wrote saying that his sister and her family were moving from Baghdad to Anaheim (California). At the time I lived close to Anaheim and my postbox was there too, so he wrote to tell me the news and let me know he was going to send some postcards with his sister for me. I met his sister and her family in December of 2012, and got another set of beautiful postcards from Iraq.

We kept exchanging postcards and news from time to time, and on April 2016, Milad let me know he was going to try his shots and apply for a visit visa from the American Embassy in Baghdad. In order to do that though, he needed a sponsor letter. I decided to help him and provided him with an invitation/sponsor letter, and after a lengthy process and much anticipation, Milad was granted his visa and came to California. We were very excited to finally meet on Sep. 22nd 2016. We went to Rodrigo’s Restaurant in Anaheim-CA for a nice dinner (Milad’s first time trying Mexican food) and two days later and on Sep. 24th 2016 I took him on his first-ever visit to Disneyland resort to celebrate his birthday.

We always tell our friends and fellow postcrossers that it’s truly a small world, and how postcards and Postcrossing can shorten distances and build friendships. It’s been almost 4 years since we first met in real life, and we’re still talking about that. We’ve had trips to Disneyland twice and to OC Fair

Thank you Carrick and Milad, for taking the time to tell your story! We love hearing about the friendships and connections that postcards bring to life. 😊

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

A lot of kids have really firm ideas about what they want to be when they grow up, whether it’s based on shows on TV or their day-to-day heroes… and we thought it would be fun this month to prompt people to share exactly that: what did you want to be when you grew up? Or if you’re still a child, what are your big plans for your future?

As usual, I’ll go first! I think I had a lot of imaginings as a child about what I might do or be when I grew up: I’m sure I had my share of bizarre ones as a younger child. Hippo-keeper at the zoo, probably? Or giraffe-keeper in my parents’ back garden, since I wasn’t shy about wanting a giraffe for a pet—and I had an answer for every quibble, including volunteering our next-door neighbours to have a giraffe too so mine wouldn’t be lonely! Once I got a bit more realistic, I went through phases and thought about teaching, becoming a geneticist, maybe becoming a lawyer or a doctor… but I never really settled on one thing.

At the age of 31, you’d think I’d have it all figured it out by now, but I can’t say I have! I still have all kinds of dreams…

But now it’s your turn! What dreams do you or did you have as a kid? And did you achieve them—or something even better? Do you have a weird journey to share? From hippo-keepers to astronauts and everything in between, we’d love to see you share here in the comments… and if you’re stuck on what to write on your postcards, we hope this prompt inspires you to share!

This year of 2020 has been rough and it could definitely use some extra good things in it, so it makes us extra happy to announce our yearly partnership with Deutsche Post on the Cards for Literacy campaign, where postcards count for a good cause! Without further ado:

So if you’re in Germany, all you need to do is to send postcards! If your December postcards are registered before the end of February 2021, you will be contributing to this cause and entering a draw to win some neat prizes! Seven lucky postcrossers (residents in Germany only) will be randomly selected to receive one of these:

• One voucher for the Marke Individuell Online Shop worth 100€.
• Three vouchers for the Marke Individuell Online Shop worth 40€ each.
• Three post-themed messenger bags from Deutsche Post.

So by sending postcards from Germany in December, you’re not only helping a good cause, but can also win some customizable stamps or maybe a cool-looking messenger bag. Hurray! Each postcard sent is worth one entry, so the more postcards you send, the more chances you have to win one of the prizes.

And although only postcards sent from Germany count, there’s always a receiver in every postcard exchange — so each time a card from Germany is registered, the recipient will be indirectly contributing to this donation too. So don’t forget to register your postcards promptly, so that more can be sent!

As usual, Paulo will run his random number generator in March next year, and we’ll reveal the total amount of postcards sent (and money raised for Stiftung Lesen) here in the blog. Last year, an unbelievable total of €9,968.30€ was raised for this good cause, breaking all previous records and nearly going into the 10K level. The bar has definitely been raised for this year! 😄

Stiftung Lesen is a German non-profit organization, working to increase literacy in the population, especially among children and adolescents. Their activities include reading clubs, media literacy projects and initiatives to promote the learning of German language by refugee families in the country.

We hope you’re as excited as we are for the 8th edition of the Cards for Literacy campaign. If you’re in Germany, gather your stamps and postcards and get ready for sending lots of postcards in December to make them count for this good cause! Everyone else, keep an eye on your mailbox for those postcards!

P.S. – As always, we respect your personal information and will not share it with any company without your explicit permission. The full details of this campaign can be read here (German only).