Home made postcards and more..

Hello Folks,

It has been a long time since I last updated my Blog. I have been meaning to do that for a long while. but, a few things kept me occupied in the past months and so, here I am again! During this while, I have received a lot of postcards. I will post pictures of those in my  next blog post. However, in this blog, I would like to show a couple of postcards that I tried making.  For me,the best thing about making these postcards is the fact that is takes only a little time and helps me relax. I mainly use watercolors for the background and I use found objects for stamping. But, again, I am not an artist. It is just a fun thing that I enjoy doing. So, here we go-

basically, I looked up for a few quotes on Google and created these on watercolor cards which measure approximately 5 by 7 inches. I also tried making a few bookmarks.-

so, here is how they turned out. what do you think? thank you for reading through!

Handmade Postcards

Today, I was just looking at my stash of postcard  and  it occurred to me that I need to write a Blog post on handmade postcards. I like the new store bought postcards. Infact, I haven't sent a handmade postcard to anybody. But, honestly, receiving a handmade postcard makes my day!

 I think it takes in a lot of efforts, creativity and it is unique. Isn't it a nice feeling to receive a piece of art somebody far away created with all their efforts? I just love it. My  collection of handmade postcards is a small one at the moment. But, I am really amazed to see so much of creativity and I am sure my collection will grow. so, here are the ones that I have received so far.

Beautiful handmade postcard that I received from Canada

Glittery Butterflies

oh! by the way, I love Purple shades. One of my favorite colors.

And, here is the pretty stamp on  the postcard-

The Next one came to me from Germany. Since I love pretty stamps, this postcard just set me crazy-

Isn't it gorgeous? she also added a used  stamp on the backside though it was sent to me in an envelope. I think it is cool-

And of course, a nice sticker-

And, my dear penpal from Germany sent me a nice piece of art made out of pressed flower. I love it! so many techniques to learn. I always wanted to try pressed flower art.

So, these are all the  beautiful handmade Postcards that I have received so far.

 By the way, I once tried making a postcard using collage technique.Nothing fancy, it had a lot of imperfections. However, I guess this is more of my style of creating postcards and I like it.

That's all for today. Thank you for reading! Do you have any opinion about receiving handmade postcards? please feel free to comment below.

A postcard from Spain and my coin collection

Today, as I was heading for my office, my postman caught hold of me at the gate and handed over this nice postcard that traveled all the way from Spain to Bangalore :)

Postcard from Spain showing Don Quijote monument

This postcard shows an important monument Don Quijote and Sancho, the characters created by a novelist Cervantes in Madrid Spain.

Also, below is the stamp on the postcard-

Pretty stamp!!

In this post,I wanted to talk a little bit about my coin collection. Only when I took pictures of the coins for this post, I realized that I have coins from 32 different countries! I have also set up a collection on Google Plus. You can view my coin collection here  .I also have a small collection of the world banknotes and I am planning on capturing them in  my Google Plus profile soon. I have no clue how I ended up having several coins from Kuwait in my collection. If you are on Postcrossing and wish to swap currency, I am happy to do so. Here is a link to my profile.  I am also open to private swaps and I will do my best to create an album with pictures of postcards that are available for swap. At the moment I have just set up a few of the postcards that I have for swap. Yo can find them here, here and here

 This is all for today.Thank you for reading through :)

Diwali post!!

It has been raining non stop from the past 3 days. The weather in Bangalore is really sad and gloomy. Not that I do not like rains.. I love rains. But, it has just dampened the Diwali spirits. It gets quite cold outside by night which makes it difficult to step out without warm clothes. Any ways, what cheered me up in these few days are the postcards I received. Before I show you what I received in the mail, I would love to show you guys a souvenir that one of my friend got me from her trip to Jagannath temple, Puri. So, here we go-

Some interesting facts about this temple is that, this temple was built in 12th century. And Although most of the  Hindu deities that are worshiped are made out of stone or metal, the deity at Jangannath temple Puri is made out of wood. Once in every twelve or nineteen years, these wooden figures are ceremoniously replaced by using sacred trees. But, these new figures have to be an exact replica.You can find more about this temple here-  This souvenir is also made out of wood. It represents Lord Jagannath, Balarama and Subadhra. I am really happy to have received this beautiful artwork as a souvenir. Thank you Rosita for the nice gift :)

Now, for the postcards. This week I received some postcards from Italy, Finland,Serbia and Czech Republic.

This postcard arrived from one of my dear penpals who was visiting Italy-

Postcard showing Italian Alps or Dolomiti

And, here are the beautiful stamps-

Italian stamps

This one here came to me from Finland-

Beautiful postcard from Finland

The stamp is soooo pretty!!

There is a pretty picture on the backside of the postcard as well-

One of my friend from Serbia sent me an envelope that contained two postcards. One showing Belgrade and the other one is from a trip she took to Persia. This is also one of the first postcards  I have received from Persia -

Postcard showing Belgrade

Postcard from Persia

 And, here are the beautiful stamps on the envelope-

Beautiful stamps from Serbia

And, this pretty postcard with an Autumn theme arrived from Czech Republic and to add to that, my dear penpal added some washi tapes to give it a Halloween theme-

Autumn themed Postcard

Close up of the Haloween themed washi tape-

And, did I forget to mention that this postcard had some Gorgeous stamps on it?-

Gorgeous stamps!!

Thank you everybody for sending such nice postcards my way. My postcards and replies are out and I hope they reach their destinations soon! That's all for today's post. Thank you for reading.

Miniature sheets

Hello folks, I was away visiting my hometown to attend one of the famous festivals of India- vijayadashami . The festival went on well and while I was at my hometown, I thought it would be nice to capture the pictures of my small collection of mint stamps (miniature sheets mostly). So, here they are-

Miniature sheet on Snakes of India

Miniature sheet on Medicinal plants of India

Miniature sheet on Waterfalls of India

Miniature sheet on Golden Voices of yesteryears

And, I also like this stamp in particular-

Tilak Historic  Proclamation stamp

Apparently, this is a setenant stamp which is in commemoration of Bal Gangadhar Tilak's famous political refrain- Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it. Well, I do not know about the political refrains, but, I for sure love the way the stamp has been designed! 

Postcards from TomorrowWorld and more...

It is another beautiful day and  it's quite sunny outside. People in Bangalore would know how hot it is getting these days! I decided to sip some sherbat made of Rose petals as I write this post. And, I am enjoying it :)

Today, I will show some postcards that one of my colleague picked up for me from TomorrowWorld electronic music festival held in USA in the month of September this year.

 

This postcard apparently shows the tents that the visitors have set up all geared up for the festival!

And, here is the backside of each of these postcards.

I am not sure if there are TomorrowWorld fans out there on Postcrossing. If I stumble upon such profiles, I guess I will send out these cards.Anyways, here is a nice keyring that I received from my manager who had been to Seattle where our company's headquarters is located. He returned with these nice keyrings  as souvenir for our team. I thought I need to put it up on my Blog-

 Now, it is time I showed you some of the stamps that I had purchased a while ago with an intention to send them out in the mail. But, I liked them so much, I am planning to save them all for myself! hehe

 

A miniature sheet on 2nd Africa-India  Forum summit

This is a miniature sheet marking Civil aviation centenary

This stamp here I belive was released to mark the visit of Emperor and Empress of Japan. I have used these stamps on a couple of envelopes.

 

I believe I sent one of these stamps on a matching Taj Mahal postcard. This is the last one. I purchased this in one of the philately exhibition.

This beauty here was released to mark India-Mexico joint issue. Isn't it pretty?

On this blog post, I would like to thank one of the staff at my local post office. He noticed that I had been visiting the Post office quite often. I told him about my hobby and guess what? he was kind enough to give me some special covers that he had been saving over a period of time. A few of these covers have stains. I believe these are quite old. I do not care about the stains. I appreciate his kindness and thoughtfulness. Thank you :)

The two stamps were the added bonus!

Before I end this blog post, here are a few fridge magnets (rubber ones) that will be very soon in the mail to my swap partners. I thought I will take some time to document these on my blog-

I just love the 'Turbans of India'

Thank you folk for reading through my blog :)