The Postcard Cure: week 25 – Animals

Well – after a nice and sunny weekend on the campside (seeing some cute animals!), this will be a hard week for us @Cardcetera! So we might just need our own postcard cure this week – let’s hope there will be some nice postcards in the mailbox this morning (a great new reason for our 101 reasons project!). As we wrote last week, this weeks featured postcards with a 15% discount will all show animals. But we never realised how many animal postcards we actually have in our shop! How do we choose just 6 of them? Well, we decided that in the coming weeks, we will also offer you a dog and cats theme – combined, or maybe even both of them seperately. And if you can’t wait for that: we have special discounted sets for both cats and dogs already! And for butterflies as well – so we are not featuring those either.

What we did choose for this weeks selection? How about these cute frogs? One is from our own collection, made by Erica – she also made the one with the lemur. The other is from the wonderfull collection of Skowronski and Koch (Skoko); with the title the Frog King. And the stretching lion is also from their collection. We complete the theme with 2 cows – one could very well be Dutch and is from the Hartung collection. The other one is the sacred Indian cow on a postcard from the Aquarupella collection. It just a small selection, we know! So if you want more, have a look at the special animals-postcardset as well. All of this weeks cards can be found in our shop on this page – but only in week 25!

CC 013: Frogs in water

CC 015: Red Lemur

S&K Frogking

S&K Lion

Hartung: Cow

Aquarupella: Sacred Cow

Next week? Well, we are in the weekendbreak mood – and where would we want to spend that weekend? In Paris! So, next week: Ca c’est Paris is our theme. A little guess: there might be some Nouvelles Images postcards in that theme…

101 reasons to write a postcard – what is yours?

Reason 24: Because I can!

Most of us are postcrossers and send tons of cards to unknown people all over the world. But why not write a card to someone you do know and love? There are plenty of reason for that too! That is why in April, we started a series of 101 reasons to write a postcard to your loved ones on our Facebook page. And ofcourse, we show an appropriate postcard with each reason. You can also find them on our special blog page – though we don´t update that as often as our Facebook page.

So far we are at reason 23 – a long way to 101 but we are confident that there are even more then 101 reasons to write a card. So at some point, we might have to rename the project! And ofcourse, we are very interested in your reasons to write a postcard. Want to share them with us? Just post them in the comments – and please add a link to a card in our store that you think goes well with it. And who knows – we might just send you that card if we add your reason to the list. Because reason 24 for sending a postcard is ´Just because we can!´

The Postcard Cure: week 24 – Typical Dutch

Back of The Dutch Connection Cards

Maybe you missed it in all that was going on during our birthday celebration week: the introduction of our brand new set The Dutch Connection. So in this weeks The Postcard Cure: typical Dutch postcards! Or to be more specific: Cardcetera´s very own typical Dutch postcards. The serie includes the winning postcard by Sandra and two new cards by the talented Els Oostveen. And do note the back of the card: Delfts Blauw, with tulips, a mill and a bike. Another great design by Kris (yes – from By Kris postcards).

In this weeks effort of helping you cope a little better with the Monday Blues: all cards in The Dutch Connection set are now available with a 20% discount. Yes – not 15% but a whooping 20%! As we know summer holidays are coming up and many of you might spend the holiday in the Netherlands, we think you might just want to stock up on some nice cards that say ´Greetings from the Netherlands.´ Your family & friends will surely understand why you choose these cards: they are as Dutch as can be!  And of course these cards are also perfect for Postcrossing – order now and you could just be writing these cards next weekend. Remember: one week only and only @Cardcetera. Find the whole selection here in our store!

And what will the theme of next week be? For something completely different: animals! O and yes – we do take requests. So if there is a theme you want us to focus on, do let us know. Your reward? Cards in your theme will be available for a discount for one whole week.

DIY made easier: molds to create enveloppes

Last week, we noted that many of you were very enthousiastic about the enveloppe malls that were part of our Facebook give-away. Only one of you could win that set – so we decided on making a list of some store that sell those enveloppe molds, or mals as we call them in the Netherlands, so that those of you that did not win then, can buy them for yourself.

Ofcourse, you can always make a mal yourself – like this lady did. It is not that hard – and you can create a different one for all the different sizes of postcards you like to send. But ofcourse if you use the mold a lot of times you will have to make a new one. It definetely is the cheapest option though! Check out the YouTube movie at the end of this post for more tips on making your own enveloppes without a mold.

So, if you don´t want to make your own mold, the first place to go to find one of them  is ofcourse Etsy. Just search for enveloppe mold – this is a selection of shops selling them. We also found some great stores that sell several enveloppe malls – most of them are Dutch stores, but they usually do send their products to other countries. If you have additions, please post them in the comments. So, here are they:

• Postpapier enzo – and do look at their great selection with masking tapes.
• Winkel van papier – note that they also sel molds for making labels (etiketten).
• Buiten de lijntjes – and some great molds for banners there too.
• Papierdier – a great square version of the mold.

Made an enveloppe or gift bag with one of those malls and want to make the enveloppe even brigher? Read Bonnies blog on mail-art. And if you made anyting: feel free to share it by posting a comment with a link or posting your picture on our Facebook page!

The Postcard Cure: week 23 – The party is over

Back to normal – so here is your weekly The Postcard Cure: our effort of helping you cope a little better with the Monday Blues. All good things come to an end – even our celebration of turning 2 years old. We hope to see you again at our party next year – but for now: the party is over! And that is also the theme of this weeks The Postcard Cure. We worked hard to send out all orders in a timely manner, add the new cards that came in and organise two give-aways. So now we need a lot of coffee, some fresh air and…. some rest

Many publishers have great cards showing coffee – but the Dutch publisher Museum Edition / Art Unlimited has a great new selection of Barista cards. All of them can be found in our try-out section. Bildreich also has wonderful coffee cards, and one of a bed that looks very appealing to us right now! To complete the selection, we have two wonderfull cards of Nouvelles Images. The model on the card of Dambier seems to have had a rough night herself and the waiters in the next card – well that image doesn’t need any explaining! You can now find this special selection in our webshop – enjoy. Remember: the special prices are only valid this week!

Art Unlimited – Espresso Bar

Bildreich – Mocca

Bildreich – Bed

Nouvelles Images – After the shift

Nouvelles Images – Dambier: Capucine at Café de la Paix

So next week: typical Dutch! This might just have something to do with the introduction of The Dutch Connection on our birthday!

Project Postvriend

Een tijd geleden schreef Marjolijn al een blog over initiatieven waarbij je een kaartje kunt sturen aan zieke mensen. Er is nu een nieuw initiatief. Onlangs werd ik benaderd door Anneke van Project Postvriend. Via dit project kun je mensen aanmelden die het om wat voor reden dan ook moeilijk hebben en die zich eenzaam voelen. Anneke koppelt hen dan aan mensen die aangegeven hebben dat ze wel een kaart willen sturen, om zo de eenzaamheid een beetje te verlicht. Een super initiatief! Anneke vroeg mij of ik het project wilde ondersteunen door een aantal kaarten te sturen – iets dat ik graag heb gedaan! Want wat is er nu mooier dan een ander via een kaart een hart onder de riem steken? Meer informatie over dit prachtige project vind je op deze site.

En: Project Postvriend gaat geluk brengen op 8 en 9 juni tijdens de Geluksroute in Eindhoven! Samen met de geluksplukkers (bezoekers) gaat Anneke op locatie schrijven tegen eenzaamheid! Maak contact met een kaartje en bezorg iemand geluk door de brievenbus. Wil je mee doen? Zaterdag 8 juni vind je Project Postvriend tussen 14.00 en 16.00 uur @De Etalage van Stichting Robin Hood Eindhoven en op zondag van 12.00 tot 18.00 bij De Fabriek op Zondag. Heel veel succes Anneke!

Hooray: Cardcetera turns 2!

As we wrote earlier, there won’t be a new The Postcard Cure untill June 3rd. But for a good reason: we are turning 2 and therefor we are not giving you just 6 cards with a discount for a week – we are giving you 15% discount on all postcards untill June 2nd! Because without our loyal customers, there would not be a 2 year anniversary. So thank you all for buying from us, sharing your ideas and your enthousiasm for postcards.

With the code blog22013 you get a 15% discount on all postcards on all orders of 15 euro or more. There is more for those that decide quickly… the first 35 people to order will get the set The French Connection for free – in an extra special package with a Cavallini gift tag. With orders 36 to 50 we will send a set of  6 Hartung postcards. The minimum value to get a free set is also 15 euro.

Want some ideas on what to buy? How about our great new set, The Dutch Connection? All 8 postcards are now available! Or the set featuring our new king & queen, Willem-Alexander and Maxima? The choice is all yours!

The new king & queen

The Dutch Connection