Celebrate important life events or the changing of the seasons with an extra special artistic touch in the corner of your mail.
Japanese brand Kitte no kobito (切手のこびと): A small world around stamps, also referred to as Elfs [sic] around stamps, is making a literal impact on the way people send letters and packages in the mail by adding adorable, customized stamp imprints around the area where you affix postage stamps.
The stamps themselves are decorated with whimsical pictures suitable for major life events, holidays, personal hobbies, and the changing of the seasons, so you’ll never be at a loss for which stamp to use on a particular occasion. They were specifically designed to be situated directly next to postage stamps, creating amusing border scenes as can be seen in the sampling below:
Let’s take a closer look at some of the occasion-specific stamps below:
▼ Adding a nice touch to a congratulatory wedding card
▼ Letting others know you’ve recently moved
Some of the stamps don’t celebrate a specific occasion per se, but instead highlight daily life or hobbies.
▼ Who can resist a snoozing kitty on their mail?
▼ Perhaps it’s a hint to sit back and relax while reading the letter you just received.
In addition, each stamp comes adorably packaged, making them perfect gifts to give to the crafty people in your life:
Even better, that same package can then be converted into a box to house your entire Kitte no kobito collection:
Kitte no kobito can be found in a handful of shops around Japan, or they can also be ordered online at Kobito the Shop. Note that if you live outside Japan, you’ll probably need to find a reshipping service, as they do not ship internationally. Each stamp comes to 854 yen (US$8), tax included, with a standard shipping fee of only 190 yen to anywhere in Japan. Perhaps these stamps will be the inspiration some people need to sit down and write a good old-fashioned letter to send in the mail.
Source/Images: Kobito the Shop