I'm 'Going Postal' how about you?

Hi, hi.

Allow me to introduce a spot of postage-themed blogging fun for the summer holiday season.

Inspired by summertime travel, 'Wish You Were Here' postcards and the rediscovery of a collection of postage stamps in my crafting supplies ... I bring you 'Going Postal':

At first I thought I'd begin by explaining why I'd chosen this particular theme ... until I remembered just how many people I know, especially the crafters amongst you, who are as drawn-in as I am by postal-themed art, ephemera and creative supplies.

So what does it for you? Where do your epistolary and philately related desires lead you? Is it:

• Old postage stamps?
• Rubber-stamped postage designs?
• Old postcards [with or without the original handwritten greetings]?
• Making use of envelopes in craft projects?
• Air Mail paraphenalia?
• the security patterns inside business envelopes?
• Writing letters?
• Mail boxes?
• Using any and all of the above in your art/crafts?

Whatever it is, I'd love you to share it over the coming weeks. 

I want to give credit here to Holly Becker from decor8blog.com whose 'Stripemania' event earlier this year inspired me to use a Pinterest board as a place to share all of our postal-themed posts. It's an ideal use of the pin board function as it's such a great way to share posts, photos and projects quickly, easily and more importantly - visually. People are much more likely to be drawn to your post by clicking on a photo of it, rather than via a plain text link.

How it will work:

• You blog about anything at all that fits the postal theme;
• It can be a photograph; a papercraft project; an art journal page; home decor; fabric craft; a collection; a story etc etc etc ....
• It can be anything YOU CHOOSE;
• However, if you'd like me to pin it to the 'Going Postal' Pinterest board  it must have at least one image in your post as that's what it needs to pin.
• Edited to add: It's perfectly fine for you to combine this with any other class, challenge or competition etc which you are taking part in this summer. Just as long as it's a new post [dated after 14th July] and includes a quick link to my blog, anything goes!

If you're not on Pinterest - have no fear!

• You DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE A PINTEREST ACCOUNT for this to work;

All you -  and indeed everyone playing along - need to do is:

• Create a new blog post around the postal theme;
• Mention in the post somewhere where the idea came from and add a link to my blog pleasethankyouverymuch!
• Then send me a link to your specific postal-themed post - not just a general link to your blog.
• Either leave me the link in a blog comment; in an email or via Twitter [all links are in my sidebar >>]. 

I will then:

• Visit your link;
• And 'pin' your post to the Pinterest board on my account.

Once it's there, anyone can 'Re-pin' it to their own boards where their followers get to see it .... who, if they like it, might then re-pin it themselves and so on and so on ... which means your work has a potential to hop around a new audience helping boost your blog traffic and draw fresh eyes and new connections to your blog.

Apart from getting pin-happy with your work, over the coming weeks I'm going to be delivering [yes, 'delivering' is meant to be a postal-pun ...]:

• lots of new postal-themed papercrafting projects of my own;
• info on interesting postal projects going on around the internet;
• anything else posty, packaging-y or envelope-esque I can think of.

Oh and ... I'll be squeezing in a giveaway ... or two too.

I'll kick us off tomorrow with some stampy, scrappy, greetings cards while you go prepare to go postal with me and Pinterest.

In the meantime, feel free to share the idea - and the promo-poster above - with your blog-readers ahead of your actual Going Postal post. The more people playing along, the bigger the audience for the 'Going Postal' Pinterest board which will be home to all our projects.

I can't wait to see how this works out!

Julie