My favorite souvenirs aren’t mass produced. They’re things like a scarf from a street fair or wildflowers from the Rockies.

I didn’t do much shopping on my SeaSFBlog trip, but I did get a chance to stop by the Fremont Sunday Market. The market is held rain or shine, which is good, because, you know, Seattle does have 58 days a year of sunshine.

One vendor was called Fun Junk: Piles of Old Stuff. True to their word, the tables held mounds of skeleton keys, patches, watch faces, and stacks of what looked like miniature paintings. It turned out they basically were. The owner finds vintage paintings in thrift stores, cuts them into sections, and stamps “POST CARD” across the back. The result is these beautiful, one-of-a-kind, mailable works of art.

It made me think about what else I could pick up along the way (when I’m not in Seattle) to make impromptu postcards. Travel brochures? Booklet covers? Maps? Gift boxes or packaging? It might be a good idea to pack some labels to stick over items without a blank space to write on.

You could mail pages of an on-the-go travel journal back to yourself and bind them together when you get back. Or mail a note to a friend.

As long as you meet the post office mailing guidelines for the country you’re in and make sure your postcard/letter/package is sturdy enough to handle shipping, you can really get creative with what you mail!

Resources

Fun Junk: locations | online shop (awesome typewriter key jewelry but no postcards at the moment)

USPS mailing guidelines: domestic | international

Creative mail inspriation: “Happy mail” by Giver’s Log