Will I go here....or there? A Personal Postcard Journal.

Hello again! I thought it was about time I showed my face in here again!  I have been enticed back to blogging by way of taking part in Julie Kirk's 'Going Postal' Series. I love everything about getting letters and postcards in the post, well, anything stationery related generally...

I have made a postcard book almost identical to the one that Julie made as it looked an interesting way of looking through them.  It's not exactly the same as I made it from memory after looking at hers earlier on in the day.

(The title was copied from the Dr Seuss book)

My front and back covers were made from a floor covering sample book that I got free from a shop that does flooring.  They cut very easily with wonderful Tim Holtz scissors. 

The idea for my book is places I (or my family, or just my sons in the future) might want to go to for a holiday.  I had already got a stack of random postcards, bought from a charity shop, that I thought I would put to use someday in my crafting and here it is!

This is the inside cover:

I was going to cover it up with some decorative paper but then I thought that I'd keep it's origins and add some travel & postage themed stamps.  Bad move!  The ink remained permanently damp and dirtied the postcard I put on the first page of the book:

(Arrows indicate mess from inked images)

My book, as you will see, is meant to be grungy, but not unintentionally! 

For my postal project I decided to be nosey analyse what people wrote on their postcard, finding out who they were and who they were writing to, what they thought of the place they went to and any other information they gave about their lives.  I even researched the picture on the stamp, where possible.

So, turning over the postcard, I left the original postcard with it's original writing as it was and extracted the information from it for the next page:

Postal themed stamps and washi tape were added for embellishment.

I was being like a detective and even called it 'Case No 1.'  The person that wrote this card didn't write about Santa Monica at all, not even about the weather, so I wrote on the next page about what she did write:

She wrote about it being pancake day and wondering whether Mrs Hislop (the receipient) would be going to 'Shrove tide'.  I investigated what this was on the web and found out that it was a local pancake day event, 'mob football.'  Cynthia and Jack seemed to be in America for a long stay and were going  to be attending a christening in 21 days. Mrs Hislop at the time was also due to have a baby and I have worked out that the  baby would now be 24! (The postcard was from 1989).  As you can see by the picture I even looked up the (old) address it was sent to on google maps - I'm SO nosey!

This was the stamp I investigated:

..and found out it was Igor Sikorsky, who was credited with inventing the first helicopter.

Next, I thought I'd find out about the place on the postcard to find out if I'd be interested in going there.

First thing to find out was where is it?

Where in California?  And what part of America? (next photo, left)

Next, I researched the place and this is the information I gathered from reviews on the internet:

(background postal stamps found free on PicMonkey)

For the last part of my research I wrote down a few places on the web where I can find out more information about Santa Monica, should I want to go (left):

...and to finish I added some stylised american flag paper, just because....

I have done another 2 postcards with 3 more to go but I think you've got the idea....! 

 Thanks Julie, for getting me back into blogging....

I wouldn't have done it without you! 

More projects coming your way very soon,

Nicky