Great Postcard Project

Penny at A Mum in the Wild blog posted about a postcard she received from Kate over at the Our Little Sins blog. It seems that Kate bought a box of 100 Pantone postcards, each featuring a different Pantone color, along with its official Pantone number, and decided to embark on a postcard project.

Based on the photos I see on Penny and Kate's blogs, the postcards look great. It's a delightful project and one that brings a knowing smile to anyone who's worked on printing projects that involves choosing from all of those Pantone colors. I love matching the headline color on one of my publications to a color in the cover photo!

If you're interested in getting some of those Pantone postcards for yourself, I found them on Amazon. It's possible they're available on the Pantone website, but I didn't find them with a quick search (I didn't really try too hard).

If you're looking on Amazon, scroll down to the section of "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought..." and see all of the other postcard selections to choose from.  You might find even more you like.

This is so cool! Virtual Postal Museum Tour

Even if you can't get to Washington D.C. to visit the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, you can still get a small taste of what it's like to tour the exhibits — virtually.

With a high-speed internet connection, you can "walk" through the museum's exhibits, turning around for a 360-degree view, zooming in for a closer look, craning your neck to see the ceiling, etc. According to the announcement by the NPM:

"The museum enjoys almost 3 million visits to its websites each year from more than 170 countries. These new virtual tours provide the museum an exciting new way to engage these audiences around the world who are not able to visit in person. Desktop and mobile versions seamlessly deliver 28 inter-connected, high-resolution panoramas of our museum spaces to whatever devices are accessing the tours, be it 30-inch monitors or smart phones."

Desktop version:  www.npm.si.edu/virtualtour/desktop/

It took me a few minutes to figure out all the controls and find my way around the virtual exhibit, but once I did, it's great! Take a look!

Photo from the National Postal Museum

USPS Poetic Note Cards

Unless you live in a major metropolitan area, finding stationery is often difficult nowadays. With fewer people writing letters, fewer stores are selling note paper, note cards, etc.

There are very nice stationery shops out there, but even in the larger cities, there aren't as many of those as there used to be. And, your average discount or department store has a very limited selection of writing materials.

However, the U.S. Postal Service fills in the gap a little bit. They offer quite a few note card sets, postcards, fold-a-note sets and special-stamped envelopes. If they don't have what you want at your local post office,  you can order online! The note cards pictured above are the Twentieth-Century Poets Note Card set. They feature beautiful paintings and corresponding Poet stamps. But, there are many other options on the site. Check it out!

Summer Letter Writing Topics

I don't know what the weather is like where you're writing letters, but here in Texas, it's hot! We had 101 degrees (Fahrenheit) at our house yesterday, and that looks like that will be the lowest "high temperature" all week (does that make sense?). We're predicted to get to 102 degrees today. It's already 97 degrees, with several more hours to go before we get to the hottest time of the day.

So, that sparked some summer letter writing ideas. Try one of these topics the next time you're facing writer's block:

* Write about one of your favorite summertime memories. Did you get to stay up later in the summer when you were a kid? I remember playing a tag and hide-and-seek hybrid we called "Witch in the Well" long after dark on summer nights. We ran through each others' yards, trying to reach "base" before we were caught, as our parents visited with each other inside.

* Write a letter about your recent or upcoming vacation. No plans this year? Write about the vacation you'd like to take one day. Dream big!

* Tell your pen pal about your favorite cool-down. Do you like to take a dip in the pool? Pick up a fruit slush at Sonic? Eat a bowl of chilled watermelon? Write about it!

* When it's this hot at our house, we hate to heat up the kitchen. Outdoor cooking is one way to feed the family while staying cool. Do you have a favorite grill recipe? Write it down on a recipe card and include it with the next letter you send.

* If it's too hot to even think too hard, write a postcard, instead of a full-length letter. Keep an eye out for fun postcards while you're on vacation or even just shopping in your own hometown. Then, keep them handy for a quick, thinking-of-you note.

Happy letter writing!

(Clip art courtesy of http://www.webweaver.nu/clipart/)

Summer Note Cards Giveaway #2

This week, I have a set of American flag note cards to give away! The package includes 10 Hallmark note cards and envelopes. The cards, which are blank on the inside, feature a delightful image of the American flag.

To enter, all you need to do is leave a message on any post this week. On Monday morning, I will have a drawing from all of the people who have commented on any post on this blog between now and 7 a.m. CDT July 1, 2012. I will randomly choose a winner. You can comment as often as you'd like between now and Monday, but each person only gets one entry into the contest. I will post the winner as soon as I have picked it. If you want me to email you, if you win, please include your email in your entry or send it to me at 365letters@inbox.com.

Please note that I have my comments section set up to be approved by me. So, don't worry if your comment doesn't show up immediately. I'll check on the status of the comments from time to time and update when I can.

Good luck! And, if you're here to enter the giveaway, please be sure to take a few minutes and look around and then, go visit some of the sister letter writing blogs (listed on the left side of the screen).

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the first 365 Letters Summer Note Cards Giveaway is Anke of the Anchor and Sing blog. She will receive the set of cute little note card I posted last Friday.

Anke, if you'll email me your mailing address to 365letters@inbox.com, I'll put those in the mail to you right away.

Stay tuned...I'll be posting the next giveaway soon!

Summer Giveaway!

I recently came across a discounted batch of notecards that I just couldn't pass up. They are so cute! And, I've decided to share some of them with the rest of the world.

To tell you the truth, I don't know how many packages I have....several....but I'll giveaway one a week until they're all gone. At some time, I guess I'll gather them all together and count them. I think there are at least two different designs, maybe more, but there will be some duplicates in the giveaways.

Today's giveaway is for the pack of 10 Hallmark brand notecards and envelopes pictured. They are about 4-by-5 inches in size and feature a little girl putting a letter in the mailbox. The inside of the card is blank for letter writing. Although I haven't opened the package, I think all 10 notecards are the same.

Because I'm posting this so late in the week, this one will have a short entry time. On Monday morning, I will have a drawing from all of the people who have commented on any post on this blog between now and 7 a.m. CDT Monday, June 25, 2012. I will printout a list of all of the comments, number them from 1 to whatever the last number is, enter the numbers into one of the online random number pickers and have a winner. You can comment as often as you'd like between now and Monday, but each person only gets one entry into the contest. I will post the winner as soon as I have picked it. If you want me to email you, if you win, please include your email in your entry or send it to me at 365letters@inbox.com.

Please note that I have my comments section set up to be approved by me. So, don't worry if your comment doesn't show up immediately. I'll check on the status of the comments from time to time this weekend and update when I can.

After this week, I will post a new giveaway prize each Monday and will have the drawing for that prize the following Monday. I'm not going to make a really big deal about it, I'll just write a simple post. (I don't want the giveaways to take over the blog.)

Good luck! And, if you're here to enter the giveaway, please be sure to take a few minutes and look around and then, go visit some of the sister letter writing blogs (listed on the left side of the screen).