I noticed whilst perusing the stamp aisle at Hobby Lobby yesterday that they had a post card back stamp. You know, a stamp that says "address here," "place stamp here," and "write letter here."
About three years ago I searched all over the place for a similar stamp and NO ONE, but no one had anything like it. In fact, no one had even heard of such a thing - which I thought was just terribly wrong.
About a year later I came across a scrap-booking stamp that mimicked a postcard back. I bought it and cut out almost all of the image, leaving only the barest dividing line, stamp box, etc.
So, now I had a stamp. But I soon realized that the water-based ink, even after it dried, ran if the postcards got wet. After a series of trial and error runs, I decided to use oil based inks instead. I rolled the stamp with my inky brayer and printed the postcard design onto the back of my cut-out cereal boxes. Voila! Cereal Postcards! I was so proud of myself. Most of my friends told me how cool the idea was, but when it came time to hand out the postcards, most people declined. I was completely bummed. I had spent so much time on this idea and its execution & now nobody wanted them.
What I came to understand later was that, keen as the idea was, nobody wrote letters anymore - not even short postcard blurbs. It's far too easy to just send out an email... and besides, with email you don't have to deal with postage.
Well, no more. From now on, the Cereal Post postcards at Defabricate will now include postage! That's right, if you don't feel like buying a $10 stamp, cutting up your own cereal boxes to postcard sizes and stamping your own postcards - you can just buy ours, pre-cut, pre-printed, and pre-stamped (as in postage). Now all you have to do is jot a note and fill in the address.... and, maybe, if you don't feel like doing that, I'll include my never-fail script for writing postcards:
"Dear [name],
I hope this finds you well. It's [fill in the weather conditions here] and it made me think of you and that time we [fill in event here]. I still have the [pictures, mug-shot, scars, night terrors]. Love to [fill in name of spouse, children, parents, dogs, cats, next door neighbor, etc].
All the Best, [your name]"
If you'd still rather make your own postcards, you'll need:
- empty cereal boxes
- metal ruler
- pencil & eraser
- scissors or utility knife
- USPS postcard template
- Postcard inking stamp
- Ink pad
First, make sure your box is empty. Next, pull apart all glued sections of the box, unfold and flatten. You want to find the most interesting part of the box to use as your post card front. Once you identify this, measure and mark your 3.5" x 5" (min.) or 4.25" x 6" (max.) rectangle. Cut along the marked lines using your scissors or the metal ruler and utility knife. Once cut out, you can now stamp the back of your postcard, and aside from actually writing a note, adhering postage, and plopping it in the mail - you're done! Congratulations!
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