Who's excited for Halloween?!?

Halloween is my favorite holiday. If you've been following my blog for long, you'll know I've done many, many posts about Halloween and Halloween mail. Partly this is because I adore bats, but also because I just like the spooky autumnal mood. I can't really explain why I love Halloween so much, I just do.

So it tends to be around Halloween that I'll jump back into Swap-bot for a couple of Halloween-type postcard swaps. I just participated in a Bat-themed Halloween postcard swap, which involved a handmade bat postcard. Can do! I had great fun using my bat washi tapes and stickers.



Of course this was a perfect occasion to use one of my brand-new Batman stamps, just issued last week.

Now that I'm posting the photos, I just realized that I never used any of my great bat rubber stamps on it! Oh well, there is plenty more mail (October and otherwise) for that.

Happy Halloween mailing!

It's almost Monster Time!

Bump - just three days left to sign up for theMonster Postcard Swap #2 swap that I'm hosting on Swap-Bot! If you're interested in sending and receiving some mail monsters, do join in and sign up.

Just in time for Halloween... another Monster Postcard Swap!

Just in time for Halloween... I'm coordinating another Monster Postcard Swap on Swap-bot. All the details are on the Monster Postcard Swap #2 page, so have a look if you're interested, but here are the basics:

Send one postcard featuring a creepy monster -- vampires, werewolves, zombies, Frankenstein, bigfoots, yetis, ogres, banshees, etc -- to one partner. Signup deadline is Oct 19, send deadline Oct 26.

In case you're wondering, the postcard image above featuring bloodthirsty zombies comes from Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies: 30 postcards by Chronicle Books.

Magical Creatures Postcard swap

Do you like fairies? Dragons? Unicorns? Elves? I do! And I love fantasy artwork. I feel like I could use a little magic in my life right now, so I created the Magical Creatures Postcard Swap on Swap-bot. If you're interested in swapping a magical creature postcard, do check it out!

It's an international swap, with only one partner, so you only need one of those magical postcards on hand. The sign-up deadline is on August 13, and the send deadline is a week later on August 21. I hope to see lots of interested folks joining in the swapping of magical creatures!

Mailbox postcard swap on Swap-bot

Yay! There's another Mailbox postcard swap up on Swap-bot. I just adore postcards featuring mailboxes (um, not postcards that have a little tiny mailbox that maybe if you were told it was there and you squint, you might sort of see it, which is what I received in the last mailbox postcard swap - but that's another story) and was happy to sign up for this swap the second that I saw it. Granted, it helps that I have more time for swapping this month, but anyhoo - if you like mailbox postcards, too, do check out Mailbox postcard swap and join the fun.

The postcard pictured here features a mailbox photo by Catwrangler. For more about that fine postcard, check out my original blog post about it from Feb 2010.

Show and Mail

There's a fun new hashtag on Twitter, started by the National Postal Museum tweeters, called #ShowAndMail. The idea is a sort of postal "show and tell" to share one's daily mail, sent and received. I forgot to photograph my outgoing mail today before it started its journey, but here's what I received today. Typical for a Monday, it's a fun assortment.



I got a very fun assortment of foreign postage stamps, mostly from Postcrossing postcards.



I am most taken with these Dutch stamps - the meta mail-looking stamp in the upper right corner, and the one on the bottom with what looks like a leaf gnome surrounded by birds -- that one looks to be an older, maybe vintage stamp.

If you want to see some fun mail that's being sent and received, I highly recommend taking a look at the #ShowAndMail items; there are a lot of philepistolists (those obsessed with mail - thank you, Craftgasm, for coining that fine word) who tweet about mail and postal-related items regularly. Oh, and of course, I do a lot of mail tweeting, and you can follow me on Twitter, too.

What did you get in your mailbox today?

{Edit/Persnickety luddite clarification: I don't text. None of my tweeting is done on my phone. Did you know you can do Twitter all through the internet? That's what I do. I'll play with Twitter when I'm online only.}

Halloween postcards with Halloween tape

I spiced up a lot of my Halloween mail with some recently discovered Halloween paper tape - from Martha Stewart Crafts, of all places. I don't know if one is allowed to call this "washi tape" as it's not Japanese, but it is paper tape and tears essentially the same way. Of course the bat tape is my very favorite, and I found this Swap-bot Halloween postcard swap the perfect occasion to use one of my skull envelope stamps. A sparkly bat sticker, also by Martha Stewart (who knew her Halloween stuff was so great? I didn't!), livens things up.



More Halloween tape here, though these stickers are decidedly NOT Martha Stewart.



Finally, a shot of a bunch of Halloween postcards together before they went out for their swaps. I love these vintage reproductions! They came from three different postcard books: Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear Postcard Book, Old-Fashioned Halloween Cards: 24 Cards (Dover Postcards), and Halloween Postcard Book by Darling & Company. Very few are actually spooky, most are cute, and some are just downright weird, like the bottom right-hand corner card that shows a kissing couple standing in a Jack-o-lantern.

Happy H-OWL-oween!

This postcard is from one of my vintage Halloween postcard books that I purchased via Amazon.com, but in all honesty, I forget which one. It was either this one or this one.

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a fun and spooky day.

One more for Halloween postcard?

We need ONE more for the Halloween postcard... USA only swap, though more than one would certainly be welcome! Any takers?

Giveaway: handmade swaps organizer

I received this today in the Swap-bot 100,000 swap, the swap celebrating Swap-bot's 100,000th swap. (Wow, that was repetitive.) It calls itself "My Swap-bot Swaps Organizer." It is handmade, clearly with love and effort, and it is something that I will never, ever use for anything. (In all honesty, I would have preferred a groovy postcard, but there's the Swap-bot smorgasbord serendipity for you.) But it's hard to throw in the trash, since someone put so much effort into making it, and maybe someone would use it... does anyone else want it? I imagine someone does. So, I'm offering an immediate giveaway for anyone in the USA. Sorry, USA only because I can send this very inexpensively via media mail, but it gets much pricier beyond American borders.



Inside the front cover there are some post-it notes of different sizes.



All pages inside are blank, and there are a few plastic tab dividers.



Behold the back.

Want to take it off my hands? Read the rules below and comment on this post.

THE INEVITABLE RULES

1. HOW: To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post. One comment/entry per person, please.

2. WHO: No anonymous comments will be approved. You need a blogger profile to enter this giveaway (simply because I need to know who you are - I'm not going to count through "anonymous #7"), and if you don't have a blogger profile yet, just make one. It's fast, easy and free, doesn't require a blog, and I think only requires a valid email address. Also, your profile with email address MUST be viewable, or you must provide a valid email address in your comment. If you don't have an email address in your comment or viewable from your Blogger profile, and I don't magically randomly already have it, I won't approve your comment/entry. Lastly, keep your eyes peeled for this magical phrase after you submit your comment/entry: "Comments will be visible after blog owner approval." If you miss that and comment twice, or three times, or more, I'll delete duplicates.

3. WHERE: USA only. I will be sending this Media Mail.

4. WHEN: The deadline for comments/entries is Saturday, October 29 at 12pm EST. I will announce the winner Saturday afternoon or evening.

Halloween postcard swaps!

I adore Halloween! I have a bunch of awesome Halloween postcards, and have already participated in a couple of great Halloween postcard swaps on Swap-bot.

There are two more that close today and tomorrow; if you're looking to sign up for a Halloween postcard swap on swap-bot, the more, the merrier!

Halloween PC swap: this one is technically international, though right now all the swappers signed up for it are from the USA. Last day to sign up: TODAY, October 14.

Halloween PC... USA only swap: Last day to sign up: tomorrow, October 15.

Come join the spooky postcard fun!

Star Wars postcard carries random info

I sent this fine Star Wars postcard for a Swap-Bot swap last month. The postcard comes from The Art of Star Wars Comics: 100 Collectible Postcards set from Chronicle Books.



This particular swap was for "random info about oneself," so I wrote about my particular aversion to jewelry. It's a tactile-sensitive thing.

Hot postcards!

I had a lot of fun picking postcards for the Hot postcards swap on swap-bot. I do love me a good pin-up and a little bit of sizzling salaciousness, and nothing was better for this swap than postcards from the fabulous Hellcat Amazons postcard book.



I'm a big fan of the campy-ness of these classic pulp images. This one promises to be "revealing." Ha! I received one of my two postcards for this swap yesterday, and it's a bit too risque for me to post it here!

This swap was a play on hot weather/hot postcards, but I do believe the summer is gone. Labor day is past, and it certainly seems like fall here now.

Elton John, 1975 earns fashion hunks

I got this FABULOUS Elton John postcard months ago on a swap-bot swap for LGBT people. I am so taken with this image - Elton (he wasn't Sir Elton yet, then) in his closet, surrounded by shoes, with a little stuffed replica (of him, most likely?) on his shoulder, beatific expression on his face, complete with hat. It's one of my favorite postcards ever.

Weird coincidence: when I pulled this postcard out of my mailbox, an Elton John song was playing on the radio in the UPS store that holds my mailbox. I think it was "Tiny Dancer."



My excellent swap partner DID put a return address on his postcard, so I finally got around to sending him a thank-you postcard. I don't have anything that is on par with Elton John, but I thought one of the fine underwear postcards from Catalog Man: Mail-order Fashion Hunks from Chronicle Books would be about the best I could do in these circumstances.

AMAZING writing bat postcard from Carroll!

If you know me at all, you know I absolutely plotzed when I saw this postcard. It came to me in my own Monster postcard swap, and the amazingly talented Carroll. Oh my gravy. A bat, holding a fountain pen and writing a letter to me? Incredible! And what a fine bat it is!

You can't tell from this scan, bit it's like this was a painting painted right on canvas. Carroll worked her magic somehow to make this beautiful yet tough, and it arrived in my mailbox today in absolutely gorgeous, perfect condition.



And here's the back. Of course she used bat postage stamps! She also used a wonderful hand-carved stamp of a skeleton holding an envelope, and I'll wager that is bound to be Carroll's own handiwork. If you've been following my blog for a while, you may have seen some of her hand-carved stamps featured here...



...most touchingly one she carved for me showing my dear cat Memo ("Memo guards the mail") which I received just a few months before he died.

Carroll, you have outdone yourself once again!! What a treat!

Literary postcard swap sent

I sent my postcards for my Literary Postcard swap, and really enjoyed the process.

It helps that I am entirely in love with the "Postcards from Penguin: One Hundred Book Covers in One Box" by Chronicle Books. They take fountain pen ink so nicely, and the designs are wonderful - lots of variety.



The book that I raved about, not coincidentally, involved a tiger: The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht.



Even Soda liked it!

Happy summer reading and writing... I think I'll go write a letter now.

My mistake on the Literary Postcard swap

I have to send a last-minute apology for a mistake I made in setting up my Literary postcard swap! I had noted in the swap description that newbies (unrated swappers) were welcome to join as long as they had a filled-out profile, but I neglected to check the box in the swap setup that allows unrated swappers to join the swap.

Mea culpa!

It's fixed now. If you just joined swap-bot, or are an unrated swapper who is interested in joining, you can now do so. Hop on over to the Literary postcard swap on swap-bot to sign up. I will assign partners by noon tomorrow (oops, Tuesday) EST.

Swap reminders: last chance to sign up!

Observant readers may recall my recent blog posts about the Monster postcard swap and Literary postcard swap I'm hosting on swap-bot. The signup deadline for the Monster postcard swap is today, and the signup deadline for the Literary postcard swap is on Monday. If you're thinking of singing up, pull that trigger now!

Monster postcard swap
Literary postcard swap

And since this is tangentially related to the concept of a Literary postcard swap... did you know that Saturday, August 6 is Do Nothing But Read Day?

Unicorn postcard swap update

Remember my Unicorn postcard swap? This is what I sent. I jazzed up the back because I know the recipient, and she really likes rainbows, too - so I tried to incorporate those on the stamps. And of course, glitter and stickers. The silver borders were made using silver washi tape.



I did indeed use this fabulous rainbow unicorn postcards by Pagey on etsy for the swap.

Hope everyone else who participated loved their unicorns! I got a really perfect unicorn postcard for the swap, myself, but of course forgot to scan or photograph it.

She is too fond of Books and it has turned her Brain

I am so, so, so very much in love with this postcard, made by the fabulous Stella Marrs. I've held on to it for ages, but just sent it out for a Swap-bot swap. I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do!