The highly requested and much beloved iHanna’s magnificent DIY Postcard Swap Fall 2021 is open for new and old participants – you are invited to join!

It’s the same concept as it has been during the past twelve years of hosting this fun, international swap on my blog. But in case you’re new or you need a refresher, here’s the gist of what the swap is all about – with bonus links to many of the free resources in the sidebar to the right!

iHanna's DIY Postcard Swap fall 2021

The main reason many people sign up, I think, is that you get a deadline to finish ten Postcards in time to send them out. It’s like getting a small, but many times much needed, push to be creative because you have to get started – and then also you must be finished with your ten cards on time. I love that aspect of joining a swap myself, because it means I need to get going ASAP!

DIY means Do It Yourself, which essentially translates to handmade postcards crafted by you. In my community that often times mean mixed media in some way, but I have seen almost all possible combinations of techniques on these postcards through the years. There are so many fun things to explore, and ideas and inspiration everywhere when you look around.

You are sure to find something that will inspire you to jump in!

Inspirations

iHanna's DIY Postcard Idea Book coverI have a Pinterest board called DIY Postcards that you can check out and save ideas from, as well as a lot of blog posts about postcard creating – from printing the backside to painting with acrylics, watercolors, doing collage, abstract, fabric, altering bought postcards, and more. There’s a long list on the swap page to go through – or use the search function in the menu above to find something new to you in the archives!

Some of these ideas can be found in the beautifully made, digital book DIY Postcard Ideas that I put together last year.  Most of the participants have gotten a copy of by now, but if you haven’t please check it out and explore all the ideas for mail art within it.

The Swap Rules

I have a quick-to-read list of the rules on Swap Information page, where I’ve also listed suggestions, links, the FAQ and resources for easy access. But in short, the most important thing is to keep deadlines and have fun. I love seeing all the postcards being born on instagram, through the hashtag #ihannaspostcardswap

Each participants are responsible to sign up correctly (a two step process with e-mail confirmation on each step) as well as keeping track of deadline to send, which means knowing when your postcards should be finished as well as after which date to check for the personal e-mail from me (Hanna) with your 10 addresses. I send them all out by hand, so it does take me a while, and unfortunately e-mail is not as easy as it should be.

E-mail problems does exist

It has happened that people sign up and misspell their own e-mail (!), and then our contact ends there because I can not figure out what’s wrong.

But even more common, sometimes my e-mail to the recipients end up in their spam folder, and when that happens it is very difficult for me to communicate with that person. If I can not reach you via e-mail, and you have not given an alternate e-mail or instagram handle, I can not reach you to explain what’s wrong and how you yourself can fix it. The easy fix is to go into your spam folder, mark my e-mail as “not spam”. You can also prevent this by adding my e-mail address (hanna at ihanna dot n u) to your e-mail contacts and “white list” it.

Even worse, sometimes my email does not reach you at all! It might be lost on the inter-webs in some way – simply not received at all. This is often due to the fact that the e-mail service provider you use marks my e-mails as spam (from ihanna.nu) which is of course sad, and extremely difficult to solve for me.

In any case, it is up to each participant to make sure you have your 10 address! I send them out and send them out, but if you are not receiving them you should know there is a technical glitch somewhere and you need to help me solve it as soon as possible. Please contact me from another e-mail, or in another way. I prefer it when e-mail works, but I have sent lists via FB-messages in the past (via my FB-page Studio iHanna) or to friends and family if that helps you out. Since I don’t ask for you to confirm that the address list has reached you, or that you have sent your 10 postcards out, it must be up to you to make sure you check e-mail, contact me if it’s missing and that you buy postal stamps and send out your handmade cards on time! :-) That is the whole point of the swap, right?

In any case, problem solving is a big part off being a swap hostess and I always try my best to reach you in a timely manner.

And luckily enough, most of the time e-mail does work just fine and I can answer questions and solve problems quickly.

All that said, I want to emphasize all the fun we have in the DIY Postcard Swap!

Photos from past DIY Postcard Swap blog posts

The Happy Mails

I have a lot of inspiration readily available for you, and I hope you have fun creating your ten postcards at home. If you are unsure if you can get all ten done, you can get started with making them before you sign up, and then come back to sign up before the swap closes which is October 31st this fall.

I have been better at sharing my own postcard process on the blog in the past, but last swap I shared my process via video on instagram, and this time, not at all because I haven’t even started on my own yet…

When you’ve finished your postcards, addressed and sent them out, you will start receiving DIY Postcards from ten other people. Since some of them might be international, this is spread out for 1-4 weeks or even longer at times, so you get little happy mail cards every now and then to brighten your day. Even in times of a pandemic, most postcards have been received and postal workers are doing their best for you to get happy mail!

Sharing is Caring

iHanna's DIY Postcard Swap fall 2021I always appreciate if you share the swap information in your instagram feed or elsewhere to let others now about it!

  1. Simply download the current graphic to your phone and share it with your own followers.
  2. Click on the image so that it opens up big in a new window, save it to your computer or phone and upload it with some information about the swap
  3. Feel free to tag me @iHannas and hashtag your post #ihannaspostcardswap so others will find it.
  4. If you sign up you are of course free to share your own postcards one by one and hashtag and tag me on all of your posts associated with the swap!
  5. I enjoy seeing what you all make!

The hashtag used to be #diypostcardswap but it’s been so polluted with images from people not participating in my swap that I have mostly abandoned it. There are more buttons to chose from on the swap information page in case you don’t like this one! ;-)

Follow the hashtag

Did you know you can follow hashtags on Instagram? When you click on the hashtag #ihannaspostcardswap you will see the +700 posts that has used this hashtag, and at the top you will spot (if you’re logged in to your instagram account)  a blue button that say “follow”. Click Follow and you will see (most of) the posts shared using this particular hashtag going forward!

Did you know you can follow a hashtag on instagram?

Example from instagram. Click the Follow button and you will get the posts shared using this particular hashtag in your own feed going forward. 

If you have a blog or Facebook-page, twitter, newsletter, group, or other creative community feel free to link to the blog and share the same information to your friends there! The more the merrier!

Join the swap now!

[Tweet “This is my favorite swap! #ihannaspostcardswap”]

Sorry for sharing this blog post a bit late, but I still wanted to get the information out there so that you, in case you’re not subscribed to my Newsletter, also feel that you are invited to join the swap. More soon, take care. xo /Hanna