Making cards, cards, cards!

Made this card for my best friend's birthday, 

since he received it, I can put it here now too. 

And of course, more Christmas cards!

Pushkin's poem

Ruslan and Ludmila by Alexander Pushkin

Even more cards, going good

What do you think?

New country!

Postcards from Algeria!

The pictures on the cards look sharper here on the

small scan than they do on the actual copies.

Zicht op Oran

View on Oran

Zicht op Skikda

View on Skikda

"Set of Roses"

Rosa Odorata, set of 4

Postcrossing official from Russia 

Schilderij door Ilja Repin

Painting by Ilya Repin

Christmas cards!

I spent the afternoon making Christmas cards. Perfect thing to do on a grey, windy and rainy day.

These are supposed to be Christmas decorations,

but as original card they'll do just as good.

(Sorry for the weird photo)

I love postcards

From the USA

From Spain

View on Mount Txindoki

Collecting Christmas stamps

Finland

2000

This year's Christmas stamps were designed by Ms Katriina Viljamaa-Rissanen. The 2.50 mk stamp, specially denominated for Christmas cards, features "Tiernapojat", the players in a traditional Finnish Christmas tableau.

2007

The stamps featuring mice in red caps were drawn by graphic designer Marjo Nygard-Niemisto. The mice are known to the Finnish public from works including the poetry book Kuono kohti tahtea, the illustrator of which, Marjo Nygard-Niemisto, won the 2005 Finlandia Junior prize. (set of 2)

2008

The 60 cent stamp mainly for Christmas cards shows a big and a small bear wadering through a snowy forest: they are getting their Christmas tree. (Set of 2, self-adhesive)

2009

(set of 3)

Recipe card

From Belarus

It should be some kind of cheesecake recipe. 

Rozites caperatus

commonly known as the gypsy mushroom, is a highly esteemed edible mushroom of the genus Cortinarius found in northern regions of Europe and North America.

Edible mushrooms 

(set of 4)

Collecting Christmas stamps

Finland

1984

The 1984 Christmas postage stamp is interesting mixture of something new and something old. The stamps design continues to seek out new style with a pinch of old. And after four years of double-stamp issues, the Finnish post returned back to give final experiment with single stamp christmas issue

The topic of the stamp is nothing less than Santa bringing gifts. Unlike the American santa who arrives trough the chimney, Finnish Joulupukki walks from the front the door.

1986

In 1986 the Finnish Post issued their first, and so far also the last, se-tenant Christmas postage stamp issue. At the same time Christmas postage stamps returned back to use of two separate face values: discounted rate for early domestic mail and regular rate stamps for normal and international delivery.

1987

1988

The 1988 Christmas postage stamps introduced few more Christmas decorations. These stamps also mark an end of an era – from here on single-design Christmas stamps were no longer issued by Finnish Post.

1989

The 1989 Christmas stamp makes a very clear note on how the Finnish society and christmas traditions have evolved in the past decades. The meaning of countryside and it’s traditions has decreased a lot as more and more people have moved to larger cities.

The discounted christmas rate stamp displays a city Christmas.

Geeky mail and a postcard

Postcrossing postcard from Germany.

As you can see it took some beating.

I am a member of the 

International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club

and I participated in a "get a pen pal" matching.

I got matched with Lauren and this is what she send me!    

A cute knitted Spock (from Star Trek, in case you didn't know)

And she used paper with quotes from the series too! 

Collecting Christmas stamps

Finland

1974

Year 1974 featured the second Finnish Christmas postage stamp issue, and rightfully the stamps decipted christmas elves. In nordic mythology christmas elves, or as finns call them tonttu’s, have a long tradition.

The origin of word tonttu comes from Swedish word tomte with roots back to ancient times. They were caretakers of a farmer’s home, particulary children or home animals all around the year. If you treated them, they did the same for you. But the wrath of tonttu was something many feared.

The 1890’s illustrations of Jenny Nyström turned this mythical character into white-bearded, red-capped friendly figure associated with Christmas. Initially they had nothing to do with Santa / Joulupukki, but as the American version of Santa and christmas elves became more popular, the mythology surrounding the tonttu’s evolved.

Nowadays they are santa’s little helper’s who keep track of children and take care of the animals of the forest. Usually tonttu’s move in pairs of two.

1978

Taking care of wildlife, especially birds during the cold winter season is a task many Finns do with pride. Bird feeders are very common in most households, but especially on Christmas time many prefer old fashioned sheaf as displayed on the 1978 Christmas postage stamp.

1979

The 1979 Christmas postage stamp continues on a similar theme of taking care of animals. The finnish tallitonttu, literally stable elve, was the caretaker of domestic animals. Especially stable elves shared a common habit of moving about only after nightfall.

1980

One of the Finnish national epics is Seven Brothers (Finnish title: Seitsemän veljestä) by Aleksis Kivi first issued in year 1870. The book features also one of the most memorable descriptions of past christmas traditions on the peasent families. The topic of 1980 Christmas postage stamps takes it’s source from these traditions by displaying old time christmas games . This was also the first Christmas postage stamp issue to feature two separate stamps.

1981

The 1981 Christmas postage stamps celebrate the Christmas tree. Like the 1980 stamp issue, the set contains two separate values and designs.

Once again, the stamp displays an idyllic image of past Christmas times when it was common for people to cut their own Christmas tree. These days most Finns live in cities and Christmas trees are purchased mainly on local market squares. But despite the changes, most Finnish homes still have a real christmas tree for the festival season.

1982

The 1982 Christmas stamps celebrate a peacefull Christmas. The town of Turku has declared “Christmas peace” since the 1320’s – and usually this peace is considered to include men, domestic and wild animals, as well as mythical creatures like elves.

The lower value Christmas stamp displays good will with animals of the forest. Many finnish Christmas tales focus on the forest animals. A common feature for these stories is that during Christmas season all animals live peacefully with each other.

Surprise! Another stamp post

Some of these stamps came from a swap, others I got from a pen-friend. 

How can you not start a collection when you look at them?!

Grenada

Hungary

The most worthless stamp ever was issued in Hungary. In February 1946 the country issued a stamp with a value of 3000 pengö. This stamp was supposed to be the highest value in a series of postage stamps, but got issued a few months after the other stamps in this set. In the meantime the pengö lost so much of its value, thousands of these stamps were needed to frank a letter. 

Also the first stamps without the name of the country; Magyar kir Posta; Magyarorszag; Magyar Posta

Collecting Christmas stamps

Thanks to the kind Laura, my Finland Christmas stamp collection got an amazing boost. 

1990

One of the most beloved Finnish illustrators was Marja-Liisa Pitkäranta, who designed the 1990 Christmas postage stamps. The theme of the stamps was the Santa Claus’ Main Post Office in Rovaniemi.

The discount rate stamp shows a view from the Post Office where “mail elves” are working hard to answer all the letters from the children around the world.

1991

The clash of two very different Santa and Christmas cultures is very tangible on 1991 Christmas postage stamps.

Discounted domestic rate stamp displays a very traditional finnish Christmas elf with forest animals. (left)

 The international rate stamp displays the “americana” version of Santa flying with reindeers; the building on bottom of stamp is Santa’s Main Post Office at Rovaniemi. In Finnish tradition, the Santa (Joulupukki) doesn’t have flying reindeers but he moves on the ground. (right)

1992

The 1992 Christmas stamps are the very first Finnish stamps that focus entirely on religious side of Christmas.

The domestic discount rate stamp displays a picture of early Christmas morning church. The Church of St. Lawrence (finnish: Pyhän Laurin kirkko) was established c. 1460, and it is one of most prestigious churches in Finland.

1993

The 1993 Christmas postage stamps display drawings by children. The discounted domestic rate stamps features santa and a bunch of Christmas elves around the Christmas tree.

1994 

The domestic discount rate stamp features “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”. The Finnish version of the song is called “Petteri Punakuono”. 

1997

1998

1999

Sources: Stamp Collecting Blog

Postcrossing postcards

From the Czech Republic

I usually don't post the back of postcards, but this time 

the back was too pretty not to show. 

Plus it also gives information about the front. 

From Ireland

Views on Dingle

The stone building at the top right is the Gallarus Oratory

A set of two new 55c stamps marking two Significant Science Milestones: Dublin City of Science 2012 and the 350th anniversary of the formulation of Boyle’s Law.

The City of Science stamp shows a photograph of Dublin’s Convention Centre – the venue hosting the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 (ESOF2012) from 12th-15th July – alongside a graphic of DNA’s molecular structure, representing people and their individuality. A second stamp shows an image of Boyle, his infamous formula, with an explanatory diagram alongside.