Outgoing Postcards

This card went out to someone in Japan that loved NYC. I was very happy to accommodate.

These are two of my favorite NYC used postage stamps.


This card was for a lighthouse postcard swap. The person lives in South Carolina and also loves birds.

I have the entire collection of the lighthouse postage stamp series. The Audobon Columbia Jays stamp is one of my favorites and was issued in 1967.

Outgoing Postcards

Year of the Dog Postcard Swap. This series raises money to offset the costs of shelter dog adoptions. Each card features a dog needing adoption.

I love the Chinese Zodiac stamps. This one is from 1994.

This card is going to a space lover in Russia. This is from a series based on NASA photos.

I love the Space Race stamps of the 60s and 70s.

Outgoing Postcards

This postcard is going to a Japan and Kawaii Lover. This is one of my favorite views of Mt. Fuji.

Japan always has the cutest postage stamps. I never get tired of looking at them.

This is for another Japan Lover. The theme of the card was J is for . . .


The used postage stamps were typically Japanese.

The original program that was using to upload photos needed to be updated and stopped working on my iPad. I found another program that would allow me to upload pictures from my cell phone. As soon as I paid for the new app, the original was updated after a three month hiatis.

Glad to be back to blogging.

Outgoing Postcards

This is a postcard for a swap called Q is for . . . The card is going to a space and sci fi lover in Arizona. This is a card from a series of postcards based on NASA photos and shows Stephan's Quintet (a group of five galaxies) so it qualifies as the Q of the swap.

Having grown up in the 60s during the height of the Red Scare and the US vs USSR race to the moon, I have always been intrigued by postage stamps depicting space, space travel and science fiction. The two decorative stamps show space exploration through the eyes of USSR and Hungary . The CCCP stamp was issued in 1961 and the Hungary stamp was issued in 1963.

Outgoing Postcards

Today's postcard is part of a swap called "Year of the Dog" where we are supposed to send our partner a postcard with an image of a dog.  This card is from a set of dog postcards that raises money for pet adoptions from no-kill shelters. The money from the sale of these postcards goes to offset the care and adoption of these dogs.

For the postage, I used a 1994  Year of the Dog postage stamp and the new strawberry 3 cent stamp for the make up postage. I also provided two used dog postage stamps: a 1991 stamp from Malagasy Republica (now Madagascar) and a 1979 stamp from Great Britain.

Outgoing Postcards

This postcard is going to Romania. She specifically wanted a touristy card and a standard size. I have always loved this card because of the blue colors that are used.

For decorations, I used the 1939 released New York World's Fair stamp and 1997 Statue of Liberty stamp. This particular version of the Statue of Liberty stamp is one of my favorites because of the background colors used.

Outgoing Postcards

Today's postcard was part of the a swap called "L is for . . ." My swap partner didn't list anything in her profile regarding anything starting with L. I was going to take the easy route and send a Lion postcard but that seemed too simple. Since she lives in Florida, I thought that I would send a lighthouse postcard and postage stamp.

She did list in her profile that she liked birds so I added two used postage stamps featuring birds--one from Australia and the 1963 Audubon stamp from the U.S.

Outgoing Postcards

Today's postcard is for someone in New Mexico who loves tourist cards and kawaii. Since she loves kawaii, I decided to send her a postcard highlighting Tokyo. The postage for this card is the Cherry Blossom Friendship Forever Stamp. This stamp commemorates the gift of the 3000 Japanese Cherry Blossom Trees to Washington D.C. as a sign of friendship between the two countries. The trees were a gift to President Taft in 1912. In return, the United States sent flowering dogwood trees.

The decorative stamps are from my collection.

Outgoing Postcards

I seem to have come across of a lot of cat lovers in my postcard exchanges. This one lives in Alaska. The above postcard is from a series of Japanese postcards. The Japanese people love cats (and all animals) so I was glad to come across this series.

To go along with the cat theme, I included postage with cats. The new postcard rates went into effect today. Standard postcards are now 35 cents. First class 1 oz postage (non-traditional sized postcards) increased to 50 cents (new forever postage stamp price). International 1 oz postage remains the same at $1.15 (forever global stamp price).

I included two Japanese cat stamps for decoration.

Outgoing Postcards

This postcard was for a postcard exchange called K is for . . .

The recipient's name was Karen so I was going to be slick and send her a postcard with the letter K and be done with it but then I rethought the situation. She collects State Map cards like the one above so I decided to send her K is for Kansas.

The postage was a different situation. I struggled with what to use until I looked at the card and realized that the State Flower of Kansas was the sunflower. I knew I had a book of the sunflower stamps so I used it for postage. I only needed 34 cents but went with a 42 cent stamp because it fit the theme.

I then looked in my stash of "flower used stamps" and found the two stamps below: one from Maldives (issued in 1975) and one from Germany (issued in 1964).

One of the benefits of collecting stamps is finding the history of the stamps. But also, I have learned so much more about geography by collecting and researching stamps. I never would have know about the Republic of Maldives, let alone its location. What I did find out is that the stamp that I thought was a sunflower was in essence a stamp celebrating marine flora (in this case, coral).

Outgoing Postcards

This was a fun card to put together. The card is going to a Space lover in Staten Island, NY. This is someone who has received postcards from me before so I wanted to do something special for her. She loves Star Wars (especially the latter episodes) so I decided to send her a Star Wars illustration postcard (unfortunately, it is from the original episodes). The size is a panorama sized postcard (4 inches by 9 inches). It only requires a single Forever Stamp if mailed within the US.

For the decorative stamps, I used: a 1965 Russian Space Stamp; a First Man on the Moon Stamp issued in the US in 1969; and a 1993 Fantasy Space Ship Stamp.

For the postage, I used a Modern Age Wonder Woman stamp.

Outgoing Postcards

Today's postcard was sent to the Ukraine. The person did not have a filled out profile so there were no particular requests for stamps or style of postcard. When this happens, I will always send a touristy style New York City postcard.

Since the recipient didn't specifically state that she collected stamps, I used the generic Global Forever stamp which is currently valued at $1.15 which is the cost for sending out a less than 1 oz piece of mail (whether a postcard or envelope).

The Statue of Liberty Air Mail stamp was issued in 1961. I like it because it features my favorite color--orange. The Ely's #10 Locomotive Stamp was issued in 1994 and commemorates the beginning of the modern locomotive. The third stamp is the Korean War Veteran's Memorial stamp and was issued in 2003.

Outgoing Postcards

This is another New York City postcard that is being sent to Taiwan. The person likes touristy postcards and Disney. I like this particular photo because it is a great evening view of New York City. 

The three decorative stamps include the New York Statehood stamp that was issued in 1988, the New York Public Library Lion stamp issued in 2003 and the 1962 Dag Hammarskjold stamp. According to Wikipedia, Dag Hammarskjold was a Swedish diplomat, economist and author who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961.

For postage, I used one of the current forever stamps from the Disney Villains collection.

This is what usually happens when I prepare these postcards. I get so excited in finding a theme, used postage stamps for decoration and the perfect current postage that I forget to take a picture. Here, I caught myself before getting to far.

Outgoing Postcards

Front

This is another postcard sent out this week. This is for a cat lover in Pennsylvania.

Back

The postage for this swap are two of the four stamps in the cats series issued in 1988. The cancelled stamps are from Switzerland (issued in 1990) and Great Britain (issued in 1995).

So definitely a cat lover's postcard.

Outgoing Postcards

Front

I put so much effort in sending out my postcards that I decided to share them with you. I always try and find the right card and the right postage stamps to send. I am so proud to live in New York City and The United States of America that I try and show my pride in the postcards that I send out--especially to foreign pen pals/postcrossers/swap-bot swappers.

The problem is that I so often get so excited to send out the perfect postcard that I forget to take pictures before either addressing the card or writing on it. So now, I make a concerted effort to slow down and take pictures before the point of no return.

This is a postcard that is being sent to someone from Germany. She likes city postcards that show buildings or monuments. I have a lot of Statue of Liberty cards so I often send these out when the person has no specific request.

As you know, I collect postcards, postage stamps and used postage stamps. I always try to find creative postage stamps to cover the cost of sending the postcard. On many occasions, I will spend excess postage just to provide a variety of stamps or a stamp theme. For this international address, I only needed $1.15 and I ended up spending $1.16 which isn't bad. The postage stamps are two different Forever flag stamps and a 1981 Battle for Virginia Capes Stamp.

If I am sending a postcard internationally or sending a postcard to stamp collector/enthusiast, I will often decorate the card with cancelled/used postage stamps. The three stamps here highlight NYC. The top stamp is a 1964 World's Fair Stamp. The second stamp is a 1953 300th Anniversary of NYC Stamp. The third stamps is a 1947 NYC Skyline Stamp.

So--this is totally a NYC postcard.

Week of Swaps--Day 1

Japanese setting sun

This week, I wanted to share with you some of the swaps that I have completed on swap-bot. The first was a postcard challenge. The theme was "put a map on it. " My swap partner has an aversion to anything purple so I had to get creative.

My partner likes blues and greens though. I knew that I wanted to do something with some scraps of Japanese paper that I had laying around. First I used my stencil that simulates the Japanese setting sun. I used alcohol inks to provide color. The layout worked in reverse than I wanted. Rather than start over, I simply decided to reconsider.

To simulate the sun, I decided to use my paper scraps to represent the sun's rays. I chose three coordinating papers and used the stencil to cut out the rays.

Sun's rays

I wasn't quite happy with the half-round shape that I achieved. I took a red crane piece of scrap paper and used a hole punch to punch a circle. I pasted it in place and trimmed so it was flush with the card.

Much better

The upward flying crane is a symbol of good luck and it seemed appropriate.

I still needed to add a map so I took the circle punch and added the two maps to fulfill the theme of the swap. One was in black and white and I was sure to use a non-purple section of the Tokyo Metro map. I added three other images from a free guide booklet to complete the front.

Getting there

I had picked out some postage stamps to use but I just couldn't figure out where to put them. The front of the card still needed something so I dug through my stash of decorative papers and found this metallic speckled mulberry paper. It is a see through paper normally used as an overlay in Japanese gift wrapping. The gold and silver flakes are supposed to be good luck for the recipient. I ran the card through the Xyron machine and placed the paper on top of the card. Unfortunately, you only get one chance to get this right. There was a lot of deep breathing during this stage.

Finished card front

Mulberry paper detail

It then came time to concentrate on the back of the card. I had the perfect stencil to use--a koi stencil. I used my alcohol inks to create the koi. Remembering that my partner liked blues and yellows, I used those colors to fill in the background. My partner also collects used postage stamps so I added some Japanese stamps from my collection. I used the US-Japanese Cherry Blossom Forever stamp to apply postage (since the card is oversized, it requires first class postage).

Finished card back

I hope my swap partner likes the card. It is on its way to Belgium.

Studio and Craft Hacks--Day 4

Postage Envelope

OK. So this might not be an earth shattering hack like an IKEA hack or something. But it is an organizational tool that is really helpful if you do a lot of mailing like I do. This is my postage envelope. They are really called check accordion envelopes in that they are supposed to be used for storing and sorting cancelled checks--but really, do people still write checks?

Some people use them for coupon sorting which is where I got the idea. Not only do I collect used postage stamps, I also collect current US postage--mainly because I mail lots of stuff. I have always needed to find the correct postage quickly and I came up with this idea.

Each of the folds holds an envelope with different postage. I keep the forever stamps nearer the front. After that, the stamps/envelopes are put in ascending order according to price.

Forever stamps up front

Stamps in ascending order

Marked stamps

On the outside of the envelope, I also label the special needs for certain type of stamp so it is easier to calculate postage. Additional ounce (Forever stamp plus additional ounce stamp).

Square cards cost more (and even more if they are overweight)

The big denominations are in the back ($1 and $2) plus all of the oversize stamps.

Also in the back are extra envelopes should I need to mail something out in a hurry (like bills, etc.). I have regular envelopes, decorated envelopes and handmade envelopes depending on the need and situation.

Special Envelopes

So, I always travel with my postage envelope. I just throw it in my bag or backpack and away I go.