Announcing my Postcard Swap!

Sign-up info is toward the end of this post...

Do you like to get mail? Do you shuffle through the bills, circulars, credit card offers, and magazines in hopes of finding something with a handwritten address and a real stamp? I know I do. And these days, due to the speed and convenience of email, personal correspondence is at an all-time low. Now imagine if you got 10 pieces of personal mail in one week! Then--and don't let your head explode here--imagine those 10 pieces of mail were miniature pieces of art, sent straight from one kind, crafty soul to another. If you are still with me, you're probably thinking, "Where do I sign up?!" (Call now! Operators are standing by! If you sign up in the next ten minutes, you get two for the price of one! That's not all! A bonus postcard is yours free! Sheesh. I'm all about the hard sell. Damn infomercials!) Hold on a sec and let me explain the details.

If you sign up, you agree to make 10 postcards and mail them to the addresses I provide you with. In return, you will receive 10 unique postcards from people all over the country. You can make 10 of the exact same card, 10 similar cards, or 10 completely different cards. The only rule is they have to be hand-made (i.e., not store-bought). The suggested theme for this round is "Transitions." I am very anxious for spring to arrive, especially now that I am living in a state where the change of seasons is more than a date on the calendar. But I wanted the theme to be as open-ended as possible, so that's how "Transitions" came about (thanks to some brainstorming help from my knitting friends!). Your postcards can be about spring, or about any other transition you can think of. Caterpillar to butterfly. Day into night. Night into day. Child to adult. You get the idea. If you want to participate but think Transitions is a difficult theme, you can still sign up and let your own inspirations guide you.

Guidelines

Materials
You can create your postcard using any art supplies you have on hand such as paint, markers, glitter, watercolors, felt, fabric, ribbon, or even just pencil and ink. Some may wish to do a collage of some sort. Photography is also welcome. There are no restrictions per se on what you can use to make your postcards, but keep in mind that as a postcard, what you create will need to be sturdy enough to make it through the US postal system intact. If you are concerned about your creation's safety, you can always mail it in an envelope.

Size
The size should be about 4" x 6" (I'm going to start with blank index cards).

What to write
If you have a blog, which I'm assuming most participants will (although it is not required to have a blog to participate), please include your blog address either on the front or back of the card. Otherwise, you don't have to write anything on the card if you don't feel like it (except the recipient's address of course!).

Photos
Don't forget to take a picture of your cards before you send them, and then email me the photo(s) so I can collect them all and display them on Flickr. That way you'll get to see everyone's cards.

Sign Up
Send me an email with your snail mail address (required) and your blog address (optional) to blogpostcards[at]yahoo[dot]com. Since this is my first postcard swap, I'm setting a realistic goal of 11 participants--me plus 10 more. But if more want to join, all the better! The deadline to respond is March 12, and if you participate you are agreeing to mail the postcards sometime during the week of March 20, the first day of Spring.

Please feel free to email this post to your friends who might be interested, or link to it from your own blog. I've created a little Postcard Swap button (see sidebar) that you can put on your blog if that's your thing. It's kind of international looking, and I highly doubt I'll get any participants from overseas at this point. But hey, aim high, right?

I have to credit this site with giving me the idea in the first place. I would have signed up for their swap but the deadline had already passed--so I'm creating my own! You can check out some of the little masterpieces they traded by going here.

All right, that's my spiel; now it's up to y'all to sign up for this and make it work. If you have any ideas on how to improve this little experiment, please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks for reading!