Snail Mail: Not Dead Yet!

I'm really excited about these two new updates to my etsy shop. First we have the creepy, skully, "Snail Mail: Not Dead Yet" design.

Don't you hate it when someone says "snail mail is dead" or "no one writes letters anymore" or something like that? I do! I put those sentiments to work in my slightly creepy, goth-inspired, Monty-Python-quoting design.



The postcard reads "Snail Mail: Not Dead Yet" alongside a black-and-white graphic of a skull holding a letter, accented with a red seal on the envelope. (The real postcard won't say "proof," of course.) This skull design has a high-gloss image side, and the writing side has a slight gloss but is still fountain-pen friendly...



...so I took a picture to prove it! This is a close zoom with two different inks (Noodler's Eternal Hunter Green and Legal Lapis, for those who are curious).



I also have a reprint of my Vintage postman illustration design. The original set from moo.com is almost sold out, and aside from being not terribly friendly to fountain pen ink (a bummer, in my book), they are also quite expensive. They cost lots more for me to print, so they cost more for you to buy. I decided to try out a different printer for this run, and I'm really happy with the results, as well as the fountain-pen friendliness. I chose a recycled, matte paper for this postcard.

I have to be honest and say the precision at moo is better. I am a little piffled that the trim on the Postman postcards is inconsistent; nearly always uneven, but sometimes moreso than others. I think I'll have to size the next batch in a more exacting fashion. I'm learning as I go...



If you're indecisive like I am, or you like variety, I'm also selling them in combination packs: 5 postcards, you choose how many of each design.



Here you see the backs of the postcards, with the matte Postman on the bottom and the glossy skull on the top. The matte color isn't quite as bright white.



The frame on the back is a perfect fit for the current design of 29-cent postcard rate stamps, the correct postage rate if you're sending domestically within the USA.

I'm really excited about these postcards! I'm sure I'll be using them for a lot of my own correspondence, too. I'd really, really love your input, though: my blog readers give me the most valuable feedback, and I cherish it. What do you think? Would you buy? Why or why not?

Just an update

Wow, two whole days without a blog entry? You know something must be up with me!

I was feelin' kinda casual about the whole computer crash thing, since I stored all my data on a nice portable external hard drive. Except my external hard drive crashed two days after my desktop did.

So, I've been in a whiz of laptop shopping, tech mystery sleuthing, and trying very, very hard not to cry over spilled milk... or in this case, lost data. Yes, I was stupid, and I didn't back anything up. I thought this external hard drive was the way to go. Well, I'm still investigating ways to retrieve my data from it, but for the time being I am assuming years of data (music files, photo files, a whole lot of other personal things) are just gone. If I get them back, it will be a boon.

But yeah, I am missing a lot of photos, and I don't have all my old software re-installed on my new laptop, and I may not be able to resurrect some things. Like, I can't find my Photoshop disk... anyway, this is a long and rambling entry to say that I hope to be back in the business of blogging about all things letter, postal, and snail mail... but I'm still working on the numerous high-tech glitches. (Don't even ask me how many letters I've written in the past few days... not many.)

Thank you, loyal blog readers, for all your patience, and I promise I will be rolling back along as the Missive Maven as soon as I can.