Friday, July 12, 2013

Postcrossing; It's a process.

I am all caught up with my Postcrossings.
I now have eleven postcards in transit including the eight I just sent today.
I love Postcrossing but it takes me almost as long to write a postcard as it does a letter.
I'm sure most people just scribble a line or two but it's a process for me.
First, I read the profile of the recipient and then I check out his/her favorites wall.
Then I go through all of my postcards which are not organized in any way, to find the perfect one.
Then, before I even write anything at all, I must affix the postage.
That entails a process too.
There's the preview of the layout before I glue the stamps to the card.
I need to make sure they will fit and also that they will look visually appealing.
I have a leather pouch where I keep all of my stamps, most of them vintage and of lower postage rate.
(I have hundreds of dollars worth of postage in my leather pouch)
It takes awhile to get the correct postage amount.
After I affix the stamps, I address the card to the recipient.
I always do it in this order because it allows me to use all of the rest of the postcard for writing.
I used to start writing first and then address the card and then try to affix the stamps.
But after a few times with the stamps covering up my writing, I learned.
I do my best to write something personal about myself as well as a current event or something of interest about my city. 
I also write the date and current temperatures etc.
If a recipient requests something specific such as a quote or favorite movie, I'll include that as well.


These are the eight postcards I addressed this morning.
One of the recipients likes American humor so I chose this Prairie Dog Watching card for her.


The other side of the cards from this morning.
These are on their way to Ukraine, Hong Kong, Finland, Mexico, China, Singapore, UK, & Belarus.

What do you write on your postcrossing postcards?
Do you write the same thing all the time or do you write something different for each recipient?
Tell me your process or give me feedback on my own.
I would love to hear your opinions.

Thank you for stopping by.

3 comments:

Sabrina said...

Your postcards sound super interesting! And 100s of dollars worth of postage? That's amazing!

Scriptor Senex said...

Your process is exactly rhe same as mine. I thought it was only me that did everything in such a logical order and spent so long on a single card!
Like you I also have hundreds of old commemorative stamps ansd try to fit the stamps to the theme of the card or the likes of the postcrosser. (And to make sure the address will fit)
I don't write the same thing unless the postcrosser has no profile in which case I have a standard 'I am a 63 year old married man with grown up children and I come from Liverpool...' type wording.

Medical Librarian said...

I learned the hard way about putting the stamps in place first, too. I usually try to write something a little different for each person. If I noticed a common interest while reading that person's profile, I mention that. Otherwise, I usually try to put something about my day or something within the past month.