Stamping Overload

I've been a little stamping mad this week




Hopefully these will arrive soon!

A Little Bit of Paddington

Paddington seems to be making an appearance in my snail mail these day as I own quite a few stamps with him on...

From 1994, I remember using this whole range in my teenage years and loved it. The title for these stamps is 'Messages' and all the characters are writing or reading something.

This was published in 2006. I never buy smilers but I'm now thinking I should pay more attention to them as I love the ones that I own.

And this is from January 2014 so I own quite a few of this selection and can continue buying it for another year if I want to,

The top one I posted on my Instagram which resulted in someone wanting to swap the stamp so it resulted in this...

I'd bought all the postcards to match this set of stamps as I thought it would be fun to send maxi cards on Postcrossing but I doubt I'll be exchanging anymore postcards on there as Royal Mail put the prices up by 9p! It cost 97p to send a postcard, 10g worldwide or 20g to Europe so it seems silly to spend that amount on a postcard now. I'm sure postcards many years ago had a price of their own so I wonder why that changed. It doesn't help either that in the 6 months I was part of Postcrossing 8 postcards expired so I can't even resend those now.

 

After posting this on my Instagram I got a request for a swap, at first I said no but that person was a little insistent so I agreed as she was happy for me to send things in an envelope.

At the moment she only thinks I've sent these 2 things but what she doesn't know is that it also includes 2 more postcards...

When decorating the first envelope using the Paddington Bear rubber stamp, I thought to myself that it would be so much fun to take Paddington on an adventure using the same image. This was the perfect opportunity to do that and as this is going to Russia and I could send something to the weight of 20g it resulted in 3 fun postcards. I had 2 problems with this, the first is that I'm such a doughnut and decorated my envelope upside down and then wrote on one of the postcards upside down! ~Sigh~ The other problem is that I've tried buying felt tips but they end up so dry when colouring with them that I've stuck to pro-markers but I find they end up bleeding and blending in with other colours so it was such a task to colour these in. I do feel I spoilt them a little bit though because of it. Maybe you can recommend decent felt tips to me?

A Postcard Paradise!

I haven't bought any stamps at all this year even though I do have last months range which I ordered in December. I won't be buying anymore though unless I really need them as I don't like the sound of this years stamps at all but I really need to see the designs first.

 

That doesn't mean though that I haven't spent any money on postage items at all... oh no! I am well and truely hooked to postcards and when ever I see a design that I truely like and think is affordable I have to get it. I have such a collection now that it should last me a lifetime but that probably won't stop me buying more.

Here are some of the ranges I have purchased so far.

I always really wanted to receive some shaped postcards so it was exciting to come across these transport ones that I can use myself. Its even nicer that I got an un-expected 2 sets when I assumed it was just one.

 

Have you made any great purchases lately?

Its a postal thing...

The first photo is of the postbox I use to post all my letters in unless I have to go to the post office. This resulted in me asking others to show me the post boxes they use. One of my friends ended up showing me 3 post boxes from 3 different countries and telling me its now my turn to show her 3 boxes from 3 differrent countries. As that was unlikely to happen I told her that I'll show her 3 British post boxes but instead it resulted in this!

Who knew that their were so many different types of post boxes. I'm going to keep taking photos of these kind of post boxes but in different locations. I know there are some types I still haven't taken photos of but these are local to me at the moment, either in the city, supermarket or on my way to my sisters.

 

If you fancy showing me your post boxes please link me in as I'd love to see all the different ones around the world. So far I've seen U.S, Holland, France and Germany. Quite sad considering all the countries in the world.

 

I'm in the process of taking photos of phone boxes which are appearing on my Samash81 account on Instagram.

These are amazing!

The stamps above were my collection of stamps to use. It looks like a lot but when sticking these gems to envelopes I could easily use 3 at one time per envelope, sometimes more which means that they run out so quickly that at least every 2 months I need to buy some more.

 

I knew already that I needed to buy some more lower value stamps but when looking on eBay I couldn't bring myself to spend 50p on a 20p stamp, even today when I looked there was a £1 stamp going for £5! Its great if you're a collector but I wanted some to use. Just by chance the other day I came across a listing for a bag of stamps selling for under their value so I bought them.

They are absolutely amazing and I spent some hours admiring each and everyone of them as well as sorting them out in to their sets. Its going to be so hard to use them when the time comes.  However I started putting them in to little plastic wallets when I ran out. I ended up buying some more wallets but as I was puttng the rest in to them I just thought I could easily lose some and I wouldn't know about it.

 

About 2 weeks ago I purchased a stamp album for these stamps I received in this post and for some others that I received recently. I'd put those stamps in already but ended up taking those out to put these ones in.

I managed to put all my small value stamps in to the album but not the ones in the first photo. I really want all my stamps in one place and before I even purchased these ones I was already thinking that I need to find an alternative way to store the ones I have as they are all in an A4 envelope that Royal Mail sent with my first stamps a year ago so its starting to look a bit worse for ware. I've now ended up buying a 64 page album to put all my stamps in and hopefully that will arrive soon.

 

I've sorted all my stamps in to set, then small value to large... very OCD I know. I did consider putting all of the same price stamps together but I'm glad I didn't as it has the wow factor every time I open the album and I then can't help looking at every page. Once I get my bigger album it will be even better to have my main stamps in their too but I know already I'll have to put them in first as they are the ones I mainly use.

How do you store your stamps?

Movember and Flying letters...

A while back I bought some Postal Moleskine Notebooks as a friend asked me if I knew anything about them so I got her one and myself 4 to be creative with.

The first one I've used is the almond one to create a mail tag for a friend. I  ended up doodling/writing in the notebook but added no colour to it as I don't have any decent felt tips but also I get the feeling that they would have soaked through the page like most notebooks. For this reason I stuck to a black and white theme.

I wanted to be super creative with the cover but due to the size and needing to add stamps and address there just wasn't space. I ended up using scrapbook paper to add some detail.

I didn't take photos of the inside except this one...

My friend sent me a prompt last time to send a newspaper clipping from this country. Unfortunately I don't buy a newspaper so I waited until I went back to work to search through the pile that's always left there. Thankfully the first page I turned to was exactly what I wanted about Movember. I added the newspaper article in to the pocket.

 

This little mail tag also resulted in me making the 2 rubber stamps too that you see. I love the moustache even though it means drawing in the curls on the end as it was impossible for me to carve them (I need some decent, stiffer rubber I think). As for the envelope its the first time I've create an outline of something so I was proud of the outcome.

 

Here's what ended up going to my friend but the problem I'm having is finding space for the stamps as I just need too many and they are too big... still I'm not complaining as its amazing to have such a selection of fantastic stamps to choose from...

I hope to have some fun with the rest of these postal notebooks soon as I have 2 left with having sent one to a friend to be creative with.

Have you had the chance to be creative lately?

Love Summer....

Even though we are still in summer I'm convinced it has ended and we've headed straight in to winter as its so cold. We even sit at work in our work coats as we can't warm up but the heating probably won't go on until the end of October (brrr....).

I thought since its still officially summer I should get a move on and post my latest mini letter which took me so long to get around to creating.... It revolves around my summer...  

With the heatwave we had in July we had such a number of mini beasts floating around, butterflies were one of them. I also discovered a new shop where I bought the washi tape that I've used and it was placed in a spotty bag that I recycled by using it on the background.

As I mentioned we had a heatwave which soon turned into typical british weather of heavy rain storms, a bit like a tropical rainfall. It doesn't sadly seem to have stopped but with time its getting colder and colder... sigh!

I had such a great summer holiday that of course as usual I didn't want it to end. My niece and I twice went to City Park where she enjoyed it herself until her hearts content. She asked to go again but I unfortunately had to say no as we went on the last day of my holiday and it was so much cooler then when we first went.

 

I had so many lovely experiences to remember and some not so nice ones too.

 

Did you have a great summer?

Take it easy....

Yesterday I showed what I received from people on Postcrossing. Today I decided to share what I have sent just so you can see what I've been able to fit around the themes on other peoples profiles. I posted these ones on my first Postcrossing post

 

It's fun to choose a postcard but even more to read the response of the person receiving them. I really hope I never send one that a person truly dislikes.

 

Some facts for this one too.

The longest distance I have sent to is Malaysia

It took the longest time for a postcard to reach Malaysia and Russia, it took a whopping 23 days for a piece of card to reach its destination which is really something in my eyes. Its taken less for a letter to arrive.

U.S.A is the quickest destination my postcards have travelled to, taking only 4 days to arrive (since my latest one I sent on Monday and it got there today already!).  I have sent there 3 times and all have been fairly quick.

I've never sent mail to Ukraine, Belarus, Taiwan or China until now.

I've sent an eye watering 15 postcards so far considering I haven't been part of Postcrossing for a month yet! Its why I need to force myself to stop despite having the option to send more right now.

I love being creative with the background of my postcards but sometimes its finding the time to do it. 

Hou Doe

As you know I've joined Postcrossing. I decided to share all the postcards I've received so far as its fun to see all the variety together.

I love the complete mix of postcards I've received and its interesting what people have chosen to send me despite me being so vague on my profile.

 

Some facts about these postcards are that...

 

3 of the 8 postcards are from Holland which is almost half of my postcards.

Most of the people I write to are from Holland too so maybe its a sign to visit the country maybe?

Hou Doe translates as Hello in a region of Holland.

Apart from 1 postcard all others are from Europe.

The one that's not from Europe I received from Singapore.

I don't understand why people don't explain whats on the postcard as I'm quite curious.

Also one postcard I received from a Dutch postcrossing meet up. Its fun to see all the names on the card even though they weren't completely handwritten.

 

I will try not to send any more postcards this year even though its been so nice to come home to mail everyday nearly due to receiving a postcard. Its really exciting to see a postcard and wonder where its come from. I need to consider the fact though that I will be sending out postcards for Christmas like I have done for the last 2 years.

 

I'll show you what I've sent tomorrow.