I’m very new to the postcard world, and haven’t done much crafting in, well, ever!
Anyway, I’m trying to create some handmade cards, and couldn’t find any clear policy on yarn. The attached pics are a couple of options I’m testing on a scrap postcard. Think either/both styles would make it through the post? Suggestions on making this work?
Cool ideas! I haven’t tried that exactly, but I would say no - I’d put it in an envelope. There are many machines that our mail has to go through at high speed & I think there’d be a good chance the yarn would get caught & either rip the card or just send it into the special handling or damaged/scrap mail bin.
You could try sending a few to yourself & see what happens.
I have received cards of both options without envelope. But I prefer something almost like the 2nd option for my own handmades. I use it to sew knitted pieces onto the cardboard. I usually don’t use an envelope. It’s really not necessary.
I hope to remember it but if a profile wishes for an envelope I always use one.
I think there are 2 groups of postcrossers. Those who like travel marks and those who don’t. I sometimes was a little sad when I received a card in an envelope that might have done it without too. But it’s OK for me now.
I really don’t have a preference. In an envelope is fine. Abd without an envelope is fine too. I send handmade in envelopes because I spend hours painting them and I don’t want them ruined. But I understand either point of view
I’m in Alabama, and you basically have to put them in an envelope, unfortunately. When I first started sending similar knit cards without an envelope, a few went through the mail and were ultimately delivered in Germany, though some were somewhat eaten by the mail machine in the process. My local post office held several more though (6), due to “insufficient postage”, because they claimed with the knitted piece sewed on it became a parcel, which would cost $14 per item to send abroad. The worker at the counter that day wasn’t even willing to put them in an envelope and charge me $1.20 to mail it, because she didn’t consider the knitted postcard to be a “document”, now that she was seeing it out of the envelope and knew what it was, she wanted to charge me the $14 each in the envelope too for the “parcel”. I think she was just having a bad day.
I brought them home with me, put them in an envelope myself, added a regular international stamp, deposited them in a different local post office, and wouldn’t you know it a week later they were arriving safely in Germany, 50+ days after I initially sent them. All knitted cards I’ve sent since then, in envelopes, have arrived without problem. You need to put them in envelopes if you want them delivered, unfortunately.