Postcards

I love getting snail mail and have for, well, decades.  

In the late 70's, early 80's, I had penpals in Australia, England and the Soviet Union.

Now I mainly just participate with Postcrossing.  Very non-commital.  Postcard out, postcard in.

Sunday, I sat down and caught up on some special requests from Postcrossing members for Montana postcards.

First, I had to clean off my desk of all the 'stuff' which had been piled there.  I sorted through piles and stacks and did some 'chores' and got the desk down to a manageable and usable status.

I sorted out the postcards I had to send and the ones I have received over the past few weeks.

This postcrossing member went overboard and I got 5 postcards.  I had to chuckle over the Tupperware postcard.  They are everywhere!

Sometimes, the journey isn't always smooth for the postcard, as seen by a huge chunk (the stamps it seems) off the card.  But I get everything from famous paintings and city scenes to humorous ones.

I also recently participate in Liberate Your Art.  You create six postcards and send them in.  Over a few week period, you get six postcards back, all with original artwork on them.  I sent out a postcard with one of my mandalas on it.  I went through MOO.com to get them printed and think I will be making more to send out.  Often, with postcrossing, I get requests for 'art' postcards, rather than tourist-style postcards.

Three of the postcards were created with photography and some manipulation in Photoshop (or something similar).  Three more were artwork created by hand.

All my postcards I receive are taped to the back of my bedroom door and the front of the bathroom door.  Then at the end of the year, I'll take them all down and put them in a box and start over again with the new year.  Already, my doors are getting a bit full.

Sunday, my assistant had to create her own postcard to mail.  So loaded with stickers and 'colors', there will be a postcard sent to her grandfather and step-grandmother.  She loves looking at the postcards as they come in.  I have a future snail-mail-participant.

But the 'mailing' item is now off my to-do list for the month.  Now I need to get a list of all the counties in the world and a list of states, so I can check off where I have cards from.  Guess I will start the 'postcard-from-every-state-and-country' challenge.  The hard one is already achieved as I have a postcard sent from Antarctica.

Now to finish up a letter to a friend back in North Carolina and wait for my 'new' penpal's letter from France.

Note:  For anyone with children interested in Postcrossing, I can highly recommend it.  I have been a member for years and never had a problem with it.  Great way for kids to learn about the world.