Postcrossing Blog

We first saw Kehvola's cards on a pop-up postcard fair organised by the Finnish Postcrossing Friends Association in Tampere, and I confess I was instantly smitten! It’s no secret I have a sweet spot for illustration, but their playful style and daring colour palette was what got me hooked.

At the time, I sent the postcard on the right to a booklover friend, and stocked on others… though I’ve been very reluctant to part with them!

At the time, we talked a bit with the owners, Veera and Timo, who were staffing their booth at the fair, and Timo agreed to answer a few questions for the blog. So ladies and gentlemen, here he is to tell us more about Kehvola!

How did Kehvola get started? Could you tell us a bit of the story behind it?

Veera (my wife) had previously worked as a store manager in the Finnish National Gallery’s museum shops. There she noticed that there are no nice Helsinki cards available. She started the company and asked the nearest and the cheapest illustrator (me!) to draw a set of Helsinki postcards. This was just four years ago.

We’re fascinated by how coherent your collection is — despite being illustrated by different people. How did this group of illustrators get together? And how do you choose the themes for your pieces?

We are illustration fans and we’ve been very lucky with our artists. So far everybody we’ve asked to join us had said yes. I think our illustrators all have something in common yet they all have their own distinct style. Our illustrators have all illustrated children’s books and are capable of creating narrative pictures with strong sense of atmosphere.

Illustrators are free to offer their own ideas but most of them prefer clear orders from us. I myself think what I would like to draw (this could be an old bike or a rubber boot, a big bookshelves, elvis, tiger or an apple pie) and then consider with Veera would somebody be interested in such a card. If we like the idea enough we print it anyway.

If you could define Kehvola’s style in 3 words, what would they be?

Narrative, colorful, warm.

Are you letter or postcard writers too?

Always when travelling. I love bookshops and museum shops and browsing through their postcard selection. Writing a postcards in a cosy pub or cafe after a long day of walking is an essential part of my traveling.

Could you show us your studio, or the place where the magic happens?

Here’s a picture of Kehvola’s "headquarters”, where I also do the drawing:

Thank you Timo, that was lovely! Besides their shop, you can also find Kehvola on their Instagram and Facebook pages.

Oh! And now for the best part: Timo kindly offered a set of postcards to give away to one lucky postcrosser! For a chance to win it, check out Kehvola’s shop, and leave a comment below, telling us which design or designs were your favourites. We’ll randomly pick a winner by this time next week, and announce it on this post. Good luck! :)

Today is the day the trio of new Swiss Postcrossing-themed stamps is finally being launched! Hurray!

As part of the stamp launch, Swiss Post is organising a giveaway to promote their use. Every Postcrossing postcard sent from Switzerland between today and October 31st and which is registered before the end of December this year, will be entered on a lucky draw. Ten winners will be picked by Paulo’s random number generator, and each will receive a 100CHF voucher to buy postage on Swiss Post’s shop, plus the new Postcrossing stamps! Pretty generous, right? The formal rules can be found on this page.

So, if you’re in Switzerland, get some Postcrossing stamps and start requesting addresses to send postcards to! I’m sure everyone will be extra happy to receive your postcards… and you might end up with free postage for many more cards!

And if you’ll be in Switzerland later this month, a meetup + guided tour of a mail distribution centre is being planned for September 30th in Schlieren, to celebrate the new stamps. Check out the forum thread for more details!

Sabine (aka turtles) from Germany shared this photo of the new stamps she also pre-ordered!

Welcome to July! To enter our anniversary month on a celebratory note, we’re starting it with a great giveaway sponsored by Natuurlijkefoto.nl — a friendly website that is perfect for postcrossers who love nature! :)

Run by professional photographer Arnold Voordewind, Natuurlijkefoto specialises in nature photos, including animals and landscapes, with special emphasis on the Dutch ones. His photos are stunning, so it’s no surprise that the postcards are such high quality and so sought after!

Natuurlijkefoto is offering 3 sets of postcards to 3 lucky postcrossers! Here is the 3rd prize, with 10 postcards:

The 2nd prize consists of all those postcards above, plus these 10 below…

And last but not least, the huge 1st prize winner will get aaaaaall those postcards above, plus these ones as well:

Fantastic, right? For a chance to win one of these sets of postcards, visit Natuurlijkefoto.nl's website and leave a comment below, telling us which series of postcards is your favourite! From animals to mailboxes, boats to lighthouses, we’re sure there’s something you’ll find exciting there!

Good luck everyone! Check back on this post next saturday for the winners (randomly picked by Paulo’s number generator, like always).

PS – Until July 8th, Natuurlijkefoto is also offering a 20% discount on all orders above €20. Use the discount code “weekendgiveaway” during checkout to claim that offer.

I believe it was my friend Addis (aka sumares) who first brought visual artist Adam J. Kurtz to my attention, and I was immediately hooked. His works are a mix of pep talk and reality check, funny and honest in equal measures. Adam won’t promise you roses and that everything will be ok… I mean, who knows, right? Like the rest of us, it feels like he’s just trying to figure stuff out as he goes along. So whether he’s cheering you on, reflecting all our insecurities, celebrating the little everyday successes or just making a joke at his own expense, his work is candid and mostly optimistic, and never fails to bring a chuckle and a nod of understanding.

Every year, Adam does a Kickstarter campaign to self-publish his popular Unsolicited Advice planners, which helps people get through the year with little drawings and (you guessed it!), a healthy dose of unsolicited advice. This year though, he also launched a series of paper products, including a book of postcards for all occasions. It’s called “What I am trying to say” and as the title implies, inside you’ll find postcards that will help you express your feelings in a more articulate way. They’re as random as it gets, and that’s what we love about them the most!

Some time ago, we got in touch with Adam (who we discovered is also a postcrosser, aka adamjk!) who very generously offered 10 copies of his new postcard book for us to give away. YAY! To snag one of them, leave a comment below telling us one nice random victory that you think should be celebrated on a postcard (but isn’t yet).

Some examples: surviving a babysitting gig, submitting your taxes on time, not forgetting to feed the cat, replying to a difficult email you’ve been postponing, making it to the dentist… Rarely can we find postcards for things like these, and there should be some, don’t you think? 😊  So let us know your random little (or big) victory that deserves cheering!

Good luck everyone! Check back on this post around this time next week, to find out who were the 10 lucky members whose names were picked by Paulo's random number generator. And a huge thank you to Adam and also to Kim at Abrams books, for sponsoring this giveaway!

Today is the day to thank our mail carriers, and a few days ago we invited you to make something special for these everyday heroes. A lot of you showed us the postcards you had made, and we were in awe of your talent and creativity… so many mail carriers are going to have a super special day because of you!

You can see all the submissions we’ve received on this gallery. We had a prize to give to the best one though, so here it goes — the winner is…

… EmilJohn (aka Emil) from the Philippines, who drew, wrote and decorated the card above. It reads “February 4 is ”Thank-a-mailman Day". Thank you and all those who work in order for us to receive our letters. Thank you for delivering my postcards always :) Respectfully, Emil, postcrosser."

Isn’t it just stunning? Congratulations Emil on your new stickers.

Now it’s time to go and thank our mail carriers, let them know we appreciate their hard work! 📬

PS – A big thank you to Pipsticks for sponsoring this giveaway and making all our postcards a little bit more fun! For those of you who would like to give the service a try, use the code HAPPYMAIL for 20% off the 1st month of any subscription.