My Postcard Diary - one Postcard per Month

One postcard per month: your very personal postcard diary

Do you like writing in a diary? Do you like to write down what's going on in your life and in the world? Do you like writing postcards? I'll be honest - I wholeheartedly answer “Yes!” to two of these three questions. But I can only answer the first question about the diary with “rather not”. I'd love to write a diary on a regular basis, but I have failed many times and it's been rather frustrating because I lose sight of a diary too quickly and fall behind.

As you know, I really enjoy writing postcards. I've been writing myself postcards from my vacations regularly for many years. So back in January 2021, I had the idea - why don't I write myself a postcard every month with the highlights of that month? It doesn't take much time, you can write the card at the end of the month in one go or in portions, just as it suits you best. And as we had designed a wonderful monthly postcard set here at papersisters called “The Year”, it was a logical step to started straight away with the January card. Highly motivated. Would it work, would it fit, would I keep it up, would I like the result?

Yes! Very! Absolutely! It's now January 2025 and I'm starting the fifth year of my very personal postcard diary. And in the past 48 months, there was only one month in which I lost sight of writing and then made up for it a little late. Anyone who knows me knows that this is a fabulous record by my standards and a sign that I'm truly happy with this form of documentation!

I always follow a few of the same routines - my 5 golden rules are:

1. At the beginning of the month, I choose a postcard and stamp and write my address on the card - the starting signal.
2. Decorations are not necessary but highly welcome. So all cards get decorated in fact!
3. The postcard is just for me - real me-time.
4. At the end of the month, the postcard goes into the letterbox wherever I happen to be. For me, it's very important that the postcard actually travels and ends up in my mailbox.
5. The postcards are kept in chronological order by year.

As I'm writing this, my four completed sets pf postcards are here right next to me and I glance at them every now and then. I have to be careful not to get lost reading them!  I'll try to summarize for you what excites me so much about this project and what keeps me going.

First of all, personal experiences and moods of the month are captured. Due to the limited space on the postcard, they are only written down in short words, but they give a good insight into what was important to me at that moment. In January 2021 on my first postcard, I now read about blooming Helleborus, lockdown, at least 3 weeks of homeschooling and Joe Biden's inauguration. I certainly wouldn't have been aware of that! And then it goes on month after month. Small and big events from my life and the big world out there. A move, farewells, new beginnings. Trips, concerts, exhibitions, encounters. New furry additions to the family, milestone birthdays and the death of the Queen just to name a few. Milestones with the papersisters and small and big moments of happiness. Simply a slice of life every month.

And - yes, of course, I love the collection of postcards, which is created almost automatically over time while this project continues. After the “The Year” postcards in 2021, the “Travel the Year” monthly cards accompanied me month after month in 2022. And since 2023, I've been choosing a mostly seasonal papersisters card every month that I particularly like and would like to have in my private collection. Current cards such as those for the Olympic Games in Paris or the 35th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Limited Edition annual cards are particularly beautiful. In this way, I also document our company history with the postcards in a playful way.

Stamps have fascinated me for a long time and I find many postage stamps, often somewhat older, simply beautiful. And it's precisely these treasures that I use for my monthly cards, often adapted to the season if it works. In the beginning, the postage was 60 ct and was cancelled with black stamp ink, but now we're at 95 ct and blue ink. Sometimes the postcards do an extra loop and then arrive with a special postmark - that's a nice bonus, but it's the exception rather than the rule.

For me, the matching decoration is also part of card after card. There are beautiful washi tapes as well as stickers and rubberstamps, which help to make each postcard truly unique. Both the front and the back are important to me.

I always send myself at least one postcard from my travels and that hasn't changed with the monthly card project. Travel also appears here as an event in the respective month. If I happen to be abroad at the end of the month, the postcard is posted there and the collection gets a little extra flair.

Last but not least - writing in itself is always a brief moment of reflection and pause - just time for me. A little break. And it makes you realize how much magic can lie even in small events.

My conclusion - you can probably already hear it - is: I love my monthly postcard project and wouldn't want to do without this ritual! And I can truly recommend it and invite you to try it out too. It doesn't take much - a few postcards, stamps and a pen, the rest is optional. You will be rewarded with an individual and unique annual diary in a small space. Of course, you could try out your own ways. Maybe you don't write to yourself, but to a friend every month and vice versa, perhaps with the same postcards? If you feel up to it, maybe even write every week? Or every 14 days? Or you don't write, but draw or make a collage? Or document which books you have read in the respective month? I'm sure there are many more inspiring variations on this idea. A start in January is particularly nice, but of course you can do it at any other time of the year               .

We're curious to see if we can inspire you to enjoy a post yourself. Feel free to leave us a comment on the topic, we look forward to reading from you!