Mail Sorter Makeover

Hi there,

Almost before

A few months ago I really wanted to find a mail sorter. You know, one of those wooden things that everyone used to have that you use to sort bills from other mail and it had a place for incoming and outgoing mail. So I set out to try to find one that I could perhaps update. I had a vision and I needed to find the perfect specimen for my project. I went to the first thrift store on my list and no luck. I walked into the next one and saw what I wanted right away! It was meant to be I guess. I found it and for only $2! I forgot to take a before picture so I found the most similar internet picture I could, to show it.

I wanted to paint it first off, but I didn't know what colour. It was difficult to make a decision but finally I chose an acrylic shade called African Violet, which is a dark shade of purple. After it was all painted and dry I continued towards creating my vision. I went out and got some Mod Podge and went through my stamps looking for some doubles. I also collected used stamps from mail at work. After removing the stamps from the paper I decoupaged them all to the mail sorter. I wanted something special at the top and I have always been fascinated by mailboxes from all over the world. I love Japan and Japanese mailboxes so I found a great picture of a nice red one and used the air mail stamps from previous penpal's letters around it. Very pleased with my makeover project it found a place beside my desk. Here it is!

After

Recently I was informed of a website I might enjoy. I decided to check it out and was immediately in love with what I found. Postcrossing is amazing! I just cannot believe I was not aware of this site before. Here is Postcrossing's project, " The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world." The short version of the way it works is this.

1. Request an address from the website.
2. Mail the postcard to the address.
3. Wait to receive a postcard.
4. Register the received postcard in the system.

I love this whole concept and I immediately joined and started sending postcards. At first, the maximum you can send is 5 so I got 5 ready to go right away. In addition to the 5 Postcrossing postcards (2 for Russia, 2 for Germany and 1 for China). I also sent a letter to a PenPal in Japan, a postcard to one of my Canadian friends who wanted to start exchanging postcards and the first of what I hope is many letters to one of my friends who moved to a different city.  Here is a look at my outgoing mail for Tuesday after the long weekend.

So please if you love Snail Mail and are going to be a good Postcrosser, check it out, sign up and get mailing!  http://www.postcrossing.com/

Ciao!