U.S. Postal Service makes it easier to send flowers

U.S. Postal Service has announced the subjects of its 2010 stamp program. On Jan. 14, the Postal Service will issue the 3rd of 12 stamps in its Celebrating Lunar New Year series, which began in 2008 with the Year of the Rat. The Year of the Tiger begins on Feb. 14 and ends on Feb. 2, 2011.
Art director Ethel Kessler working with illustrator Kam Mak, decided to focus on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year Holiday is celebrated. To commemorate the Year of the Tiger, they chose narcissus flowers, considered auspicious at any time of year and thus especially appropriate at this time of renewed hope for the future.
The 2010 Love stamp will feature a white woven basket brimming with deep and light purple pansies. The floral design is a detail from a watercolor created by the late Dorothy Maienschein, an employee of Hallmark Cards. Introduced as a Mother’s Day card in 1939, Hallmark reissued the design as a friendship card in 1941. Since Hallmark began tracking sales in 1942, almost 30 million cards with this pansy design have been purchased—more than any card in history.
The Postal Service began issuing its popular Love stamps in 1973. The stamp will go on sale in April or May.
For the winter holiday season the Postal Service is issuing Evergreens. The stamps feature close-up views of the foliage and cones of 4 different conifers: ponderosa pine, eastern red cedar, blue spruce and balsam fir. The stamps go on sale in October. The artist, the late Ned Seidler, was a gifted painter of nature subjects. When painting flora, he frequently used cuttings from his own yard.
Also, on May 17, the Postal Service will issue a Monarch butterfly stamp, the first butterfly stamp design to be issued for use on large-size greeting cards. Many cards that require additional postage will carry an outline of a generic butterfly to suggest to consumers that they buy the new stamp.
Artist Tom Engeman used images of mounted butterflies to inspire the stamp art he created by computer. The result is a highly stylized, simplified image of a monarch creating more the illusion of the butterfly than an exact replica.