I know World Postcard Day (WPD) is still a little over two months away (1st October is marked in my diary)…but in Postcrossing terms…that means I need to start thinking about it now!
The competition for a WPD card design has closed I think…and I can’t wait to see what the winning design will be. I will probably get a few printed up to send out. I use Vistaprint and have been very happy with their premium cardstock quality.
But I’m also thinking about making up a card design myself and getting it printed out. You might read that and wonder why I didn’t enter the design competition myself…the answer is that I’m not a very good illustrator…and I generally use clipart that I’ve bought from Etsy to make cards - I made illustrated cards for both Twosday and Easter this year. I could not enter a competition with a card design made this way…as I don’t own the artwork that I use.
I’m also thinking that I will need to start saving ‘send’ slots from maybe late August onwards. Last year, having only become a member in early September…and knowing nothing about World Postcard Day…I saved no slots and almost had no slots available to send on the day! Arggghhhh!
In the end, I got very lucky and my very first Postcrossing card sent, also became my very first postcard to arrive. It arrived at its destination in Germany after 23 days travelling, on the 27th September…freeing up a precious single slot, just in time. That WPD card that I sent out officially was also subsequently registered (phew)…so I earned the WPD badge too.
The fact that World Postcard Day (WPD) falls on a Saturday makes obtaining a 1st October postmark a little bit more challenging here. The post counter at my local, licensed post office closes at midday on a Saturday. The post shop in a nearby shopping centre closes at 1 pm…giving me an extra hour. I’ll need to be organised!
ETA: as @Florallle has kindly pointed out below…it is not essential that one acquires a postmark on the 1st…this is just something I will be aiming for personally.
I’d love to attend a meetup on the day, and given I’ve now discovered a fellow Canberran here in the forums…this is now an actual possibility. We’ll see!
So how about you? Do you have any special plans for World Postcard Day? I’d love to hear about them!
You don’t need a 1st October postmark to qualify for the badge. You just need to get the address from Postcrossing on 1st October. When you put the postcard into the post is irrelevant.
That’s so true! Thanks for the reminder Louise. It would most certainly make it much easier to do it that way, if a meetup were planned, and I had lots of cards to write (LOL…who am I kidding??..I only have ten send slots total…it’s hardly going to be a crisis for me ).
I will still try for a 1st Postmark though, I’d prefer to have it that way.
I will save up some slots, both earlier years I have sent 5 cards, so I will probably keep this tradition. My own profile will be inactive as I’ll move up to Lapland again in November. If things are like last year I will definitely feel guilty for that.
For the 3rd time now, I will engage my students into writing the official card to the many children in a Greek refugee camp. I can have them printed at school and students may write to whomever they wish, but in class we’ll write to those who haven’t had any mail for a very long time.
Of course, I can’t do this on Saturday (no school). That day I will join my 2nd meeting ever, this time in the city where I teach. Would you like me to send you a meeting-card, Sam?
I think it’s so awesome that you bring WPD to your students Karina. I imagine they love it! I would have loved such an activity at school. I was very keen on penpals in my youth and would write massively long letters. Now…I am finding sitting down to write a letter a huge struggle. But postcards, I love them! And I would dearly love to swap a card with you on WPD!! Thank you .
I think I’ll try Vistaprint as well for cards, thanks for the hint @Tinkatutu! Last year I was at a meetup on WPD, that was so cool! I have the hope that someone will host one again this year. (And I can’t wait for the winner of the design competition, aaaaah! ) If there’ll be no meetup, I think I’ll write 10 cards or so.
I haven’t found a lot of choice for postcard printing in Oz. Moo comes up as an alternative, and you can get smaller quantities of cards (25) than at Vistaprint…but they seem to then be shipped in from overseas.
Vistaprint print somewhere down in Victoria, and minimum order is 50 cards, but the per card rate is cheaper than Moo.
I order their premium cardstock. Glossy for photographic images and matte for illustrations. They supply very quickly. And I’ve been very happy with their quality.
I hope you find a local meeting to attend!
I’m guessing you won’t need to halt your sending waaay in advance, in order to save your 10 send slots! It’s kind of a bummer that this is what I’ll need to do…but one day I hope to have mucho send slots in reserve.
I’m not enjoying the big jump from 50 to 99 cards sent. It’s going very slowly!!! I’m at 77…and literally watching the pot boil .
).
I usually write cards at weekends so if it’s a Saturday I might end up sending, or wait until the next day as I don’t like badges 
.
) If there’ll be no meetup, I think I’ll write 10 cards or so. 
.