There seems to be a lot of aversion against free, ad, and homemade cards on Postcrossing. Every second profile you read has a line saying they'd rather not receive such cards, or more plainly; "NO AD, FREE, or HOMEMADE". When talking about this on the forum, people rant against the "thin, ugly pieces of paper with random things glued on to them" which they have received as "homemade" cards. I, on the other hand, have a line that says; "I don't mind hand-made, free, or ad cards". In my experience, I'd rather have a homemade card from Japan that represents the sender's culture and environment than a shop-bought card from a brand I could have bought in the store around the corner. However, there are some drawbacks to having this line on your profile, because for some people, photoshopped collages of their pets also mean "home made".
Yes, the above are two such cards I've received. The first one is from an American woman who defines herself as "a grandmother", the second from a 30-year-old Dutch woman. Now I know there must be people out there who think these are brilliant works of art, but personally, they freak me out. Especially the "cat with diamonds in her eyes", although I get the idea, and I like the concept, the pixelled image, the "curtain", the background... It's just too much. From the way these pictures look, I think we're dealing with avid scrapbookers, who've transferred their artistic inspiration to postcards. Not really my cup of tea.
But that doesn't mean I don't want to receive homemade cards ever again. It also doesn't mean I feel obliged to keep these. I only keep cards if they have either a great picture on the front, or a great (personal) message on the back. I seem to remember that the second card had no message whatsoever (some people just print out 500 stickers with the same message, put them on cards, and send them out), so that may have gone into the bin, but the first card had a nice message about cats and books and other things relating to me on the back, so I kept that, even though I will never put it on my wall or whatever.
But you do get some great cards, too.
The above is not technically "hand made" because it concerns a printed-out image, but as it was the first ever postcard send by that person, a 17-year-old Finnish girl, and because it so completely fits everything I've written in my profile, I still cherish it as one of the better ones.
This one is just brilliant. The sender, a 16-year-old Lithuanian girl, sends out mainly hand-made cards, and she shapes them around the receivers wishes, in my case, she picked up on a comment about baking, and sent me a Lithuanian recipe. I love the handwriting and the drawing, it's very unique.
And here are some more "truly" hand-made cards I've received over the past weeks. The first one is from an Asian woman living in the US, and although I am not a big fan of it, one of my friends really liked it, so it's probably a taste thing. the second one is from a 20-year-old Finnish girl called Lotta (user name Lote) who sends out collages to people. I think in my case she made a very good collection, apart from the chair-and-parasol, although that may stand for travel. The third one is from a Russian woman who has two little daughters who help her make these cards. She prefers receiving homemade cards herself, and this was the first ever card she send out (I get those a lot, don't I?). I think it's one of the more artistic cards I've received, as the eagle is cut out of fabric, and I love the lettering "falling off" at the top.
So I think the main conclusion has to be that young girls from the Baltic area are the most creative among the Postcrossing bunch? Or maybe that I've been lucky with what I've received so far? As I've said before, the most crappy cards I've received were shop-bought ones from the Netherlands, so I think I will have to receive several veeeery bad things before I even consider putting a "NO HOMEMADE" shout on my profile.
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