Stamps

I've been writing letters and postcards for a long time, in Japan it was really easy and fun to find nice stamps. You could find a whole variety of stamps and change it up and make the correct values. Since returning to the UK it's been a lot harder. The Royal Mail release new stamps a lot less frequently compared to JP post. Recently I have made greater efforts to improve this by buying stamps on eBay.

The eBey buying was thanks to @weepingwillow84 it was her suggestion. I've been buying mint presentations packs. They are slightly more expensive but a lot more interesting. It makes me a real difference to my mail rather than the normal Queens head. But I must admit that some of the stamps that have been released by Royal Mail this year have been rather nice. There has been Star Wars, Animail, the Queens 90th and Beatrix potter as well as the Shakespeare quotes but the eBay stamps are a good addition.

Annoyingly the new stamps tend to come in the same denomination first class, or higher values but sometimes £1.05 which are good for international postcards. The presentation pack prices are a bit random ranging form anything from 5p to 39p but it's fun to try and make up the right value. It also makes mail look far more interesting and adds to your mail art.

I am also currently taking part in my first chain card and have started my own Olympic themed one. Though I find them long and tedious the end result is worth it for the postcard full of stamps. A chain card is just as it sounds everyone sends a post card adding their own stamps and sending it to the next person in the chain until you receive your original postcard back with stamps from everyone that took part. Chain cards are another good reason to start buying old used stamps.

I have to admit that I have become slightly addicted and have a bit pf a surplus at the moment. But they will get used and do make a difference to my mail.

Stamp Collecting

'The postage stamp is a flimsy thing 

No thicker than a beetle's wing 

And yet it will roam the world for you 

Exactly where you tell it to' - EV Lucas

Postcard swapping has been a recent thing for me but what I love just as much as the postcard some are the lovely stamps I've received. They depict  so much of a country on a small piece of paper. Fortunately for me JP Post issue amazing stamps in different values regularly unlike the UK.

I've learnt and seen so much about each place costumes, currency, architecture, foods, animals as well as national heroes and landmarks. It's a little piece of the country and something to unique to that place as well. Here are some of have stamps I've received recently. I can certainly understand why people collect them.

Hi July

“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.” — Phyllis Theroux

A new month and I managed to get out the first of my postcards and letters for July. Monday's post included, some lovely summer  postcards with the cute Hello Kitty stamps issued by JP Post last month. Also some Hobbit themed mail art for a new Instagram pen friend who is Lord of the Rings obsessed. It's so fortunate that I have an old copy of Empire magazine with a Hobbit Special. 

I also sent a belated birthday letter, mini handmade washi tape card and Japanese fan to friend back home. I really hope the fan survives the journey. Last is my vintage set of postcards that I featured before with a gorgeous set of stamps. I love the Ukiyo-e stamps. I hope that I can find them again, they go with the vintage postcards so well. Here's hoping everything arrives safely and quickly.