Halloween Ideas

I am not a big fan of Halloween. It is not a tradition in my country, nor in Morocco.

But anyway, I don't mind having something to celebrate. And as some of my friends do, I enjoy making Halloween cards for them.

I have browsed the net to pick some inspiration. Here you have some bright ideas for your Halloween mail, in case you need:

• Bat & Ghost created by Artist in La La Land. Ready for you to download, print, make and send! 
• Two versions (papercut and standard) for this scary skull card! (Minieco.co.uk)
• Haunted Houses Accordion Card (by Extreme Cards and Papercrafting)
• And what do you think about this hair-raising Halloween girls (by Mr. Printables)? Why not to send them as a postcard? (You can even made a haunted house for them!)
• Nice ideas to draw Halloween envelopes here and here (By Pushing the Envelopes).
• Simple but beautiful cards made of washi tape and Halloween-inspired Kirigami designs by Omiyage. 
• Witch-ed envelope template by tpk.
• Etc.

Do you have more nice ideas?

New Board

I know it is not really original. But I am proud of our new board for postcards! It makes me dream of travelling...

Do not worry if your postcard is not there. It is changing almost every day! (In fact, this picture was taken ten days ago...).

Je Suis timbré and I Am Going Postal

go postal To lash out violently and at random, often in a blind rage. Term taken from the 1990's incidents of workplace violence involving US Postal System workers. I was so angry at work with the new workload, I was afraid I'd go postal.

(Taken from Urban Dictionary. More information about this term here.)

I was amazed when I discovered this meaning in English. I don't think we have a similar expression in my language (or, at least, I can't recall it). But do you know how to say stamp in French? It is timbre. And être timbré means 'to be a bit crazy'. Do you know any other expression like these?

Christophe (France) maybe is also a bit timbré (nothing to do with the fact that he has a mail art project about teeth). He sent this funny comic: 

-Qui est ce qui vous amène? Déshabillez-vous!

-Je vous. Vous avez attrappé une bonne mailartite... rien de grave! 

Juste un peu timbré. Prenez un cachet per timbre...

In case you don't read French: t is about a patient who went to the the postologist (postologue). The doctor examines him and discover that he has mailartitis (mailartite). Fortunately for us all, this is nothing serious... We just need to take a stamp an envelope :-)

Carta

I received this collage from Natercia (France).

That amuses me because in my language (Catalan) we use the same word for letter and for playing card: carta. So this is a perfect carta!

Mail Art Tea Letter

Letter received from Eva (Germany). Front and back of the envelope.

Green Rabbit

Envelope sent to MailPoet (France) for the Mail a Smile Challenge #20. The theme was Your favourite animal. I do not have any favourite animal, but green rabbits could do.

I added two postcards:

World Post Day

World PostDay is celebrated each year on 9 October, the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874. It was declared World Postal Day in 1969.

The purpose is to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in people's and businesses' daily lives and its contribution to the social and economic development of the countries.

Every year, more than 150 countries celebrate World Postal Day in different ways. This includes philatelic exhibitions, free entrance in postal and communications museums, releasing new stamps or products, special cancellations, holding of conferences...

You can see a list of events in this special page of Postcrossing.

Lighthouses from the UK

Postcards sent by John (the UK).  The first one shows South Stack lighthouse in Wales (I had previously received another postcard of this lighthouse). 

The second postcard was sent from Scotland. It's Ardnamurchan Point. The postcard arrived a bit damaged, but it seems a cloud...

The following postcards show also Scottish lighthouses:

 Longhope Bay, Orkney, I like a lot the reflection of the lighthouse on the sea.

The Cloch (in Gaelic: 'stone') lighthouse, in the Firth of Clyde.

Isleornsay lighthouse.

Lighthouses from the World

Some of the lighthouses I have recently got. Well, I'm afraid that some of them were received months ago, but never uploaded to the blog, so...

From France

Postcard sent by Sandrine (France). I have been near most of these lighthouses. I think this region of France, Brittany, increased my passion for lighthouses...

Phare de Boulogne-sur-Mer (bottom right). Postcard sent by Catherine (France).

From Germany

Flügge lighthouse on the stamp of a letter sent by Eva (Germany).

From Hungary

Sent by Micu (Hungary). Lighthouse found next to a trash bin and cleverly reused as a cool postcard!

From Italy

Postcard sent by Bruno (Italy). It shows the port of Castiglione della Pescaia, in Tuscany.  
Update: I have just read that the blue (rare colour!) mole lighthouse is inactive.

From the Netherlands

Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). It shows Lange Jaap (='Long James') the lighthouse of Den Helder. The stamps below, arrived on another letter from Heleen show Eierland lighthouse. (Certainly not the first time it appears in this blog) and Brandaris.

From Russia

Postcard sent by Eduard (Russia). This is a very special limited edition :)

From the United States

Point Robinson Lighthouse in Maury Island (Washington, USA). Postcard sent by Bryon.

Another Knitted

Knitted letter sent to Suus in Mokum (the Netherlands).
Also published here.

Little Princesses

I am not very fond of kings and queens. However, this is a recurrent theme in philately. But not so usual that little princes and princesses appear on them.

The following stamps were issued on 2012 as charity stamps, sold by primary school children to raise money for good causes. They feature the three daughters of king Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (he was the crown prince at that moment). The pictures of the three girls – Amalia, Alexia and Ariane – were taken for their father himself.

The girls are now 11, 9 and 7 years old. If I were them, I would spend all my spare time in writing letters... Just in order to use these stamps!

Green Letter to Little Girls

Letter sent to my nieces (PC). I also drew the letter and sent some pictures with sweet shared memories...

Are Letters Worth Going Through the Rain for?

«The post office has a great charm at one period of our lives. When you have lived to my age, you will begin to think letters are never worth going through the rain for.»

Jane Austen, Emma, II, 16

Mail Art from Poland

Two postcards sent by Robert Znajomski (Poland).

Two Postcards Can Make Your Day

It is amazing how, thanks to this theme in Sunday Stamps I have received not only these  set of stamps, but now two more favourite postcards! 

They were sent by Sheila (Don't you know her blog A Postcard a Day?) from Monaco. Besides the theme, and the beautiful matched stamps, it was the first time I received mail from that country.