Love Unrequited

I love this card from a German postcrosser. Liebe = love, and she is feeling quite unrequited at the moment. She drew all the demons around her.

A Game Of

A whimsical use of a well-known game on this card.

Creating Partnerships with the Baltics

This postcrosser from Lithuania thought my request for card-altering was crazy and felt very strange damaging the postcard. Hmm interesting interpretation of altered postcards. Nonetheless, I loved the delicate drawings she scratched out on the blue sky, especially the frock atop the bridge.

Beehives and Bones

An intriguing card from a German postcrosser: a composition of bones upon which bees have built their hives. The title of the piece is "Growingt Wild - Dialogue with Bees."

About Me

Work takes me away from blogging periodically, but I'm baaackkk!! Here's a card, not a postcard, from a young woman in Holland. I love her use of post-its to describe who she is is. She wants to correspond but alas I would be a poor respondant with my current lifestyle.

30 Year Anniversary of Creativity Explored

This card was created by Daniel Green, a client artist of CE. They're doing their annual benefit at the Merchant Exchange this year. It's an exciting event where portraits of celebrities are created by the talented artists and funds are raised for their art program. I hope many people will buy tickets to support this amazing organization. I have a large art collection from their many openings. For tickets, go to CreativityExplored.org/ArtChangesLives2013.

Gotochi Cards from Japan

Oriental White Stork

Takoyaki (soup-style octopus balls)



Kobe Port Tower, Mt Rokko. My house is on Nagamineyama, a mountain range very close to Rokko.

 



Himeji Castle

 

My mom finally sent me a set of Gotochi cards from Hyogo Prefecture (my nabes). You can only buy these at local post offices and I've been curious about them for about a year. I didn't have time to look for them when I was home last October. But these are very cool shape postcards. Next time I go home, I'm going to visit local post offices so I can collect cards from those prefectures. 

The Ticking Clock

A collage card from a German postcrosser. Why wait for love? Her biological clock is ticking, ticking, ticking.

Memories of Paris

A lovely card of the L'Arc de Triomphe from a Taiwanese postcrosser. Made me nostalgic for Paris. I must make some plans to go there in a year's time.

Snowy Day

Two snow-themed cards. The top card is from a Swiss postcrosser who painted the snow on the card. She circled the house where her husband's grandfather was born. The bottom card is from the Ukraine. This postcrosser made a snowflake and glued it on a Christmas card. 

Family New Year Cards

New Year cards from my mom (above) and aunt. New Year is the biggest mail day in Japan with millions of cards delivered by Japan Post on Jan. 1. 

Evolution in Time

A lovely collage card from a Finnish postcrosser. She wrote that she got the dreamy image from a German book about evolution. It reminded me of the flu virus, which is multiplying like crazy just about now. 

Of the Sea

A lovely collage card from an UK postcrosser. She took a plain card of the sea and added elements from a paper napkin. My favorite glitter was sprinkled on afterwards. She used lovely stamps of the ocean and fishes to complement the front design. Thanks for a gorgeous card, Mitzi!!

Chickens in Love

A pretty card from a Ukranian postcrosser of two chickens in love. The old-fashioned graphics are just fabulous.

A Special Bike

...so says a Taiwanese postcrosser. Indeed it's quite a spiffy model and so were the stamps of misty mountains, historical buildings, and a beetle.

Sacagawea

Derrick sent this lovely card of Sacagawea. The card describes her as born a Shoshone, but captured by rival Native Americans and sold to a French trapper. She served as a guide for the Lewis & Clark expedition. The National American Woman Suffrage Association adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence. I guess it's like making lemonade out of lemons....

Woodstock Lives!

A blissful postcrosser from Poland sent this summer of love card from Przystanek Woodstock. This is a free rock music festival named after the original Woodstock, and has been going on since 1995. 

A Bitten Biscuit

I am trying to catch up on my postings from last year. Back in March, this German postcrosser wrote, "I am making a diet, one week just eating annoying vegetables." I guess the hunger got to her. Deutsche Post thought they had mangled the card. They politely sealed it in a recyclable bag before sending to me. I love postal interventions such as this!

Freedom Stamps

"Henceforward shall be free..." key words from the Emancipation Proclamation are beautifully imprinted on this January 2013 stamp. USPS art director Antonio Alcalá commissioned graphic artist Gail Anderson to design the stamp and the Hatch Show Print of Nashville Tennessee, one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in the US, produced the effect of Civil War era broadsides. 

Note to self: mail rates go up January 27!

Happy New Year!

What a beautiful night New Year's Eve was! I was surrounded by happy, dancing friends. We enjoyed our bowl of red posole and blew our horns when 2013 arrived. This time, I had the presence of mind to tape Yukutoshi/Kurutoshi so I watched the year change in all the sacred places in Japan before falling asleep. Today it's bright and sunny and I've already made tons of New Year's food to bring to a osechi ryori party.

 

Mike made this card with the snake stamp I got in Japan in October. The New Year's greeting is from a previously purchased stamp.

Mom sent the New Year's stamp sheet from Japan as a Christmas gift. Each year, the Japan Post folks ask famous artists and calligraphers to create their version of "hebi," or snake. It's always cool to see all the variations of that one character.