Year of the Snake

I have had lots of new things shifting my focus from blogging over the past few weeks (in a good way - hello Jake! hello turkish lessons! hello ridiculous notion of training for fun runs!), but on this sweltering hot night in Melbourne, I thought I would get back into it and participate in this week's Sunday Stamps. The theme this Sunday is related to the Chinese New Year, which on Feb 10 ticked over to being the year of the Snake. I've got a sneaking suspicion the Year of the Snake is going to be awesome.

I haven't picked up my 2013 Chinese zodiac "year of the snake" stamps as yet, but I do have the 2012 version, which marked the year of the Dragon. I think in a way the Christmas Island Chinese zodiac stamps, which are a regular issue for Australia Post, are quite similar to the Chinese series of stamps which I have previously blogged about here (and are shown below):

The scans didn't work so well, but the Christmas Island stamps feature gold embossing; the characters aren't black as they look in the picture.

The 2010 version for the year of the tiger is also pretty cool:

I think it is pretty clever typography to turn the Chinese symbol into the character, with the tail swish in the 2012 Dragon stamp, and the hairy claw in the 2010 tiger stamp. I am definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the Year of the Snake stamps at some stage soon.

Festive Stamp Gift Tags & Merry Christmas

As has become blatantly clear over the course of the past few months of blogging, I have a lot of stamps. A lot of stamps I don't even know what to do with. And I don't like chucking things out. But I do like re-using things. Given that postage stamps are little mini pieces of lovely design, it makes sense to use them.

Lots of people who otherwise might not post things, tend to post things at Christmas. Therefore there is an abundance of Christmas stamps. I keep them all separately, and I have found the perfect use for them - as Christmas gift tags.

I had a little 'crafternoon' the other weekend and sat down in the sun and made some tags to go on all the pressies that I was yet to buy.. although I still had plenty of things to do pre-Christmas, making gift tags is way more relaxing and fun than heading out into the madness of shopping centres, so that is what I chose to do.

These are all the supplies I used

I meant to post this little craft project last week, but now it is so close to Christmas it is probably too late for people. But, as you are sorting through the post-Christmas debris, you may wish to set aside your Christmas stamps for next year. I keep my Christmas stamps sorted in little black album cards.

For the gift tages I used coloured paper and washi tape to give colour to the tags, and then used the stamp to decorate. (And here is a tip: packaging tags from the newsagent are far cheaper than tags from a craft supply store.)



Choosing the right stamp to go on a tag

The finished product

So now it is Christmas eve and it is now time for me to go and use these tags and wrap up my presents that will be sitting under the Christmas tree tomorrow.

I don't think the USA stamp is necessarily a Christmas stamp.. but it works! 

This is a bit of an unusual Sunday Stamps edition... apart from the fact it is now Monday here in Australia, but I thought this was a nice way of sharing some of my old Christmas stamps. And I have previously shared what I think about this year's Christmas stamps here, which you can check out if you haven't already.

And with that I would like to wish everyone: Sunday stampers, friends, readers, passers-by, bloggers, and everybody else who has kindly supported this blog this year, a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy festive season.

For other festive Christmas Stamps, check out other blogs through the Sunday Stamps link above.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Nerds on Film

Hello blogosphere.
Today I am particularly thrilled about the awesomeness of the internet, excited by its connectivity and vastness. This warm and fuzzy love of cyberspace is in part due to the fact I had a film director (a film director!) contact me this week after he had found my corner of the internet. And he is making -- wait for it -- a film about stamp nerds. Yup! Crazy.

This is the preview for his film... you've got to check it out, because it is hilarious. And it goes a long way in proving that I am not the most stamp-nerdy stamp-nerd in the universe. Am not sure about the chick with the cleavage at the beginning of the preview, but I guess you gotta sell a film about collecting postage stamps somehow (I know not everyone loves post as much as I do).



I have to agree with the googly-eyed dude in the beginning who says "stamps define what a culture stands for, and once you start looking at that, it is really cool". Couldn't have said it better myself. Although I do think his googly-eyes add something to the profundity of his statement.

Anyhow, a film about hijinks in the stamp world. Sounds like a good time to me!! The film is due out in Spring 2013 (northern hemisphere, I assume), so I will keep you posted if I hear of more developments. I am a little excited - thanks for getting in touch Mark. Your film looks ace.

In other post news, I received my first Christmas card today from my friend Rach.  And speaking of nerds, the card came with a personalised Christmas stamp featuring Rach's cat, who is lovingly called 'whingey'.

If you think Whingey looks pretty cute, you may wish to look her up on twitter. I believe she has her own account. I am so not a cat person, and from my perspective, Rach saw my nerdy and raised it to a whole new level when she decided to personalise her Christmas stamps with her cat (and lets not even get started on the twitter thing). But I love nerds (even if I don't love cats) so full respect, Rach.

Her Christmas greetings came with a postscript: 'no pressure, but I think the Whingy stamp should feature on your blog.'  Pressure aside Rach, I have never received a personalised postage stamp before, so I think it is definitely worthy of note. And the very lovely fact you sent me Christmas greetings the postal way also makes me very happy. It seems you love post as much as I do... but maybe we should all be a little worried about a future "I heart whingey" blog??

Gorgeous postcard from Fish

Thank-you internet world and real world for being awesome this week. Thank-you to the very intriguingly nicknamed Fish from Taiwan who recently sent me some gorgeous postcards from Laos (I promise I will write back this week) and to João from Brazil who offered to do a stamp swap. It is so nice to hear from everyone from all far-flung corners of the globe who have found my blog.

Peace out, post lovers.
xx H.

A Christmas letter

Dear Australia Post,

Re: Boring-slash-ugly Christmas 2012 Stamps

So, the thing is, I like stamps. 'Like' is a little bit of an understatement. I get pretty excited about beautiful stamps. I am sure I don't have to tell you why I find stamps so wonderful, but basically stamps encompass three delightful elements in miniature:

• Design: check; 
• History: Check; 
• Functionality: Check.

You will notice that the first reason I like stamps is to do with the design. Stamps are aesthetically pleasing little items. And therein is the reason for this letter, and the crux of my beef with you:
                 What is with the ugly Christmas stamps?
                 Seriously.

To be fair, two of the five stamps are gorgeous. The other three are dreadful. These are the stamps I like:

Hot

They are beautiful. Images from a wool and silk tapestry at the Art Gallery of South Australia depicting the adoration of the Magi. Traditional, yes, but also elegant, rich and beautiful.

I understand that we live in a secular society and that there probably needs to be some "non-religious" offerings on the philatelic front.  I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is the fact that they are ugly stamps.

Not*

The naive style is supposed to reflect a child's excitement and wonder at Christmas time. So how come the stamps look like some cheap banner decorating a tacky shopping centre? Puke.

Naive style at Christmas can be done well. Unsuprisingly, those clever Scandinavian's have accomplished a sophisticated design, aesthetically appealing and containing a similar subject matter to our current stamps:

Aren't the Swedish parcels cute and interesting compared to the awful pressies depicted on our stamp? And check out the depiction of a parcel on this stamp from the Netherlands - simple but sweet:

Now I think these are Christmas stamps worth getting excited about. To be fair, my favourite of all are the tapestry stamps from our issue. But in terms of naive style, the Europeans have it. Perhaps something to aim for next year, Australia Post?

With sincere hopes that you enjoy constructive criticism,

Helen.

PS. I am totally available should you wish to hire me. I am a historian, so could research your stamp issues. And as a bonus I could give you design advice: Helen's 'hot or not?' for stamps. You know, if you want.

*Images stolen from the Australia Post shop.  Should you wish to purchase the ugly stamps (although I would highly recommend the beautiful ones), check out this link.