Scooby Doo Postage Stamp Release is July 14 in Minneapolis

Exciting times are here in Minneapolis as we look forward to the stamp release event for the new Scooby Doo postage stamp this Saturday, July 14 at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN.

I heard about this event at the Postal Times website. There is a doo-good campaign going on in conjunction with the stamp release. Scooby-Doo has teamed up with generationOn, the youth family division of Points of Light, to inspire, equip and mobilize kids and families to create meaningful change in their communities! It’s all about DOO-in the right thing. Find out more information at the Mall of America on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or visit the website here.

You can pre-order your Scooby Doo stamps (sheet of 12 for $6) at the USPS website. I think it costs $1.25 for postage to have the stamps mailed to you, even if you order more than one set, or additional stamps.

Postcard Giveaway from Chewy Tulip

Chewy Tulip donated a set of 5 Evergreen postcards to the recent giveaway, but somebody (me) neglected to add them to the monthly giveaway. So this package of cards will have its own giveaway. I will even include five $.29 stamps. Woo-Hoo!

Contest is open to all and will end at midnight on 12/23/11. Just send an email to Jackie (at) LettersandJournals (dot) com with the word EVERGREEN in the subject line.

12/26 Update: The winner is Jane from Champaign, IL who has already been notified of her good fortune. Congratulations, Jane! And thanks to Chewy Tulip for donating the prize!

Christmas Stamps

Introducing the 2011 Holiday postage stamp set, Holiday Baubles! For you traditionalists who send holiday cards, this year's stamp set is bright and colorful.

It's probably no surprise that I love to send and receive holiday mail. The annual tradition of selecting the stationery, the stamps and the cards is something that I look forward to each year. And receiving cards from friends and family is a meaningful ritual as well.

In the past I have purchased stamps from Errol Murphy who sells unused vintage stamps (holiday and regular) at face value. Murph offers a wide selection of stamps in many different categories. If you're interested in purchasing some holiday stamps, you'll want to get those soon.

 If you decide on some older Christmas stamps (my favorite are the Santas), you can email Murph at emurphy(at)cot.net and ask for more information. Many of you may know Murph from the Missive Maven's blog as she has recommended him in the past. Missive Maven is also offering some of her holiday themed stamps for sale on Etsy.

Store Contest Winner

I'm pleased to announce the winner of the store database contest from the July newsletter - Melissa K from WI.

I'm trying to build my database of stores so I asked for people to comment with their favorite stationery store.

Melissa listed her favorite store, As You Wish located in Fon du Lac, WI.

The prizes listed here include 5 postcards from my collection, 5 different .44 stamps, 1 gel pen, 1 notebook and a set of note cards from Tilia Press.

Enjoy your winning package, Mel K!

Letter Links

Since there was such a positive response to the first blog with Letter Links, I've decided to do this regularly. It keeps me on my toes looking for links to share. Enjoy!

 Paper Party in Lincoln, NE at Porridge Papers
Futurebird's Notebook Collection
CappuccinoandArt Journal You Want Mail?
Julie at Whatever reviews her blank book from Book Journals
Lost Art of Postcard Writing by the Benevolent Postcard Society
Journal Addict's Journaling Challenge: A Week in Your Life (starts 8/22)
Missive Maven tells us about the Stamp a Day Program which highlights the 2012 stamps

I call this Letter Links even though they are not all about letters. Seems to have a nice ring to it. Maybe I will think of something better later. Or you will.

Ephemera Winner Announced

Sheila S from NC was the winner of the July E-newsletter Ephemera contest. Odds of winning were 1 in 82.

Some of the items include:

• used stamps
• old postcards
• new postcards
• old envelopes
• library cards
• stickers
• copies of old photos
• map
• dictionary page

 

I'm amazed at how easily ephemera accumulates in my home.This contest is a great way to spread some of the ephemera love.

Postmarks

I've recently begun saving postmarks from letters and giving them their own page in my stamp album. There's a certain thrill for us postal geeks when we find a perfectly preserved postal marking. This is especially useful when you come across old letters and you're trying to determine if the date reads '1918' or '1928'.

 These photos are from an assortment I've collected in the last few years. I decided to keep them together in the in the SuperSafe stamp album I purchased last year at the National Postal Museum store. I had not really considered myself a stamp collector, but now that I have an album with a few stamps in it, I guess I have to rethink that.

In addition to collecting nicely defined postmarks, I also collect a few different themes of stamps that appeal to me- holiday, authors/writing, cartoons, US states and a handful of cute or colorful stamps that just appeal to me.

I prefer the round postmarks as pictured above and below. They are more evocative of the postal imagery than the machine stamped postmarks that are more common these days. I save all of the letters I receive and every few years I'll go through the envelopes and cut out the stamps and postmarks that I want to save.

The 'Forman' postmark above is from my hometown of Forman, ND. I'm not sure where this stamp came from or what year the postmark is from.

Stamps and postmarks. Just part of the fun and ephemera of mail from today and yesterday.

April is National Card and Letter Writing Month

If you need a reason to write a letter, then let me remind you that April is National Card and Letter Writing Month. Many of the people who follow this blog are already letter writers and need no outside impetus to propel their actions in this regard. But for those who need to be enticed, consider this...

Start with a nice writing area...

Add fountain pen and bottle of ink...

Some kind or encouraging words...

A colorful stamp or two...

Address and seal the envelope...

Drop off at the post office...

Wait for your return letter...

Because if you send them, you will receive them. That's just how letters work.

Letters & Journals Magazine Update

The launch of the print version of Letters & Journals is scheduled for 2011. It's been a long time in research and planning and the challenge in 2010 has been to build a following of potential subscribers.

To date we have a list of 2,300 names of possible subscribers/buyers. Our goal is to get 5,000 names. Once we have a list of 5,000 names then we will begin approaching advertisers and following up with the ones who have already expressed interest (thank you!).

If you know some people or groups who would be interested, please encourage them to sign up for the website, the e-newsletter or just let me know to add them to my Magazine Updates Only list. None of the lists are being sold or shared and there is no obligation.

Thanks to the many loyal followers who offer their encouragement and share in the excitement of all the things that Letters & Journals represents; pens, paper, ink, pencils, notebooks, diaries, journals, note cards, stationery, mail art, pen pals, postcards, mail, stamps, letters, ephemera, etc.

A Visit to the National Postal Museum (Part 2)

One of my favorite stops in the National Postal Museum was a display celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the museum. It was called the Alphabetilately A to Z.  The room was set up with 26 different stops and each letter had its own theme and artwork. I spent so much time zooming in trying to capture the quality of the photos of some of the letters, that I neglected to capture some shots of the room itself. Lesson learned (I hope).

In a corner of the room when you first walk in is a standing display case of a free set of postcards that match the theme of the room with the A to Z motif. The perforated card set has 8 cards attached and each card offers a collage of postal related items.It almost inspires me to create my own postage themed collage. I scanned them and added the photos to Flickr if you want to see them.

Thinking that one or two of you may want your own set of these cool cards, I grabbed a couple extras. Leave a comment if you would like one and I will draw two names to send them to. I will send anywhere so this is not limited to US residents.

The photos in the blog are different than the postcard images. If you want to see the postcards click here to visit my Flickr account where they are located.

9/16/2010 UPDATE with the names of the contest winners- Pamela G left a comment on Facebook and Vixen left a comment on the website blog. I will contact these two people and get their mailing information. If I can't reach them then I will draw again and post another update. There were a total of 9 comments in the 3 locations and I numbered each person and drew two numbers to get the winners. Thank you!

Planning a Visit to the National Postal Museum

We are planning a trip to DC in September and we have it on our itinerary to visit the National Postal Museum. I've been reading some interesting blog posts about it and am very excited to spend a good half day there- meeting other interested folks, seeing the history of the postal service, getting story ideas, taking pictures. 

 

James at Everyday Correspondence has a great 3-part blog post on the National Postal Museum.

Pushing the Envelope is the blog of the National Postal Museum.

British Postal Museum has a blog 

The Traveling Wheelchair's post on the museum.

All My Hues has a July 2010 post with pictures

Have any of you been there? Do you have recommendations of what to see and do there?

Fun Stamps!

Who doesn't love an envelope decorated with fun stamps? I try to keep an assortment of stamps so that I can dress up the envelopes and postcards as the mood or occasion allows.

I have an envelope of used stamps (see photo) that I will use in my scrapbooking and card making. I used to take all of the stamps off my letters and send to a pen friend who collects them and sends the extras on to charities. But recently I've decided to leave the stamps on and have them be part of the letter's story. I still get enough stamps to send on to Dulcie for her collection and I have plenty of used stamps for my other crafting needs.

I'm curious. What do you do with your old stamps?

Some Survey Results for Letters & Journals

I've been watching the surveys come in for the letter writing and journal writing surveys that I've been conducting. I'm trying to gather additional information of what types of articles people want to see in the Letters & Journals magazine. I've gotten some great feedback and am taking copious notes for future articles and potential advertisers.

In this post I will focus on the letter writing survey. In my next post I will look at the results from the journaling survey.

Letter Writing
For the letter writing survey 50% of the 100+ respondents said that they write between 1-3 letters per month. 17% said they wrote over ten letters a month (I would be in this group) and 16% said they wrote 4-6 letters per month. I realize that the survey is skewed because most of the people taking the survey are letter writers, which drives the number up. It's not like surveying the general public of which many would say they write 0 letters a month.

Some of the articles that people said they would like to see in Letters & Journals include:

58.7% Product Reviews of Pen & Stationery items
57.9% Art of Mail Art
51.6% Pen Pal Corner
50.8% Letters in the Attic (Genealogy)
49.2% Desks of Famous Letter Writers (and Readers)

Some interesting suggestions that readers offered include these great ideas:

History of letter delivery (in the US and other places)
Letter writing protocol over the ages
Postcards (web sites that promote them, collections, etc)
Stamps (like an intro to stamp collecting)
Letter writing campaigns- Do they work?

If you haven't taken either of the two surveys, you can visit them here. They take less than 3 minutes to complete (unless you're in the mood to offer lots of suggestions, which are very welcome). Please forward this link on to others who may be interested. Thanks!

A special thanks to my friends who took the surveys even though they don't write letters or keep a journal. Thank you!

Magazine Update

Daisy Mae Design has been busy! I started reviewing potential flags (logo/branding) of the magazine this week. It's very exciting trying to bring together what's in my mind- as I envision this book like quarterly magazine- with the reality of what's available outside of my mind. I also want to find the balance between current trends and classic styles.

Letters & Journals will contain articles on all kinds of writing related products and activities:

Letters Today/Yesterday
Different types of Journals- Art, Nature, Family, Historic, Blogs
Love of Pens and Notebooks
Mail Art
Best Stationery Stores in the area
Profiles of Artists who have created their own card/stationery line
Penpals
Postcards
Stamps
Reader's Desk/Writing Area (send in your photos and tell us about it)

So many subjects related to the same thing- writing and sharing. If you come across articles that you think may be right for the magazine, please share that info to the comments section on this blog or forward them to me at jackieflaherty@yahoo.com. THANK YOU! And thanks for visiting.