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!

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

Remember PostCarden, the postcard + garden combo? Another Studio for Design, the company behind this lovely invention has just come up with MatchCarden, a garden in a little matchbox!

Aren’t they the cutest? We wouldn’t mind growing a few of these on our desks!

To celebrate this new launch, they’re offering a set of PostCardens (includes 4 cards: Allotment, City, Football and Botanical) to one lucky postcrosser. To participate, visit their site, and tell us:

What architectural building from your country do you think should be turned into a PostCarden or MatchCarden?

Answers on the comments, until midnight September 3rd UTC. Good luck!

This week on the blog, we start a series of posts about the people behind some stationery brands that we’ve seen and liked. We hope to keep it up more or less regularly!

On this first post of the series, we’ve talked with Anna, from Lila Ruby King. Anna is an Australian native living in Athens, who divides her time evenly between her illustration work and jewelry making.

She started selling eco-friendly stationery in 2007, under her micro-label Lila Ruby King. Her postcards feature hand-drawn patterns of birds, twigs and other curious objects, printed in different types of recycled paper. They’re sturdy and slightly textured, almost begging to be touched! And each postcard includes a small playful drawing on the back side – which is a nice little detail :)

We were intrigued by her unique style and asked her a few questions.

How did you get started doing stationery design?

It all started when I first moved to Greece, I needed cards to send home to family and friends for birthdays and Christmas and that sort of thing, but the range here was very uninspiring, and so I started to make my own.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Most of my inspiration comes from the natural world, every day there is something new to learn and discover which is amazing! I’ve also got some new pieces I’m working on, that are inspired by the nature and animals featured in the fables and folk stories of Europe.

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

Simple, playful, natural.

We couldn’t agree more! You can see Anna’s stationery collection and other products on her Etsy shop.

If you enjoyed this feature (or not so much), give us some feedback in the comments below! What would you like us to change, or what would you ask the stationery makers?

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.