Easy Make Your Own Custom Photo Postcards
This article will cover the following subject:
How to create your own custom photo postcards from your own photos, including how to format the postage side of your postcard with photo and video examples.
Included are links, videos, and a bit about the not so forgotten form of letter writing.
The art of sending and receiving postcards is not forgotten. Fortunate for us, we can be as creative as we want with the custom photo postcards we send.
One reason we like custom photo postcards so much is they are to the point; from the frozen in time or place picture on the front, to the short scribbled message on the back, saying just enough to satiate and or inspire dreaming. We all love to receive them. Writing them is just as fun, and there is no need to be on vacation to write one.
Postcards, a form of letter writing
Letter writing is perhaps one of the most creative forms of writing, allowing for slang, bad sentence structure, colorful pens and drawings; not to mention any kind of paper can be used: from bond paper to toilet paper. In letters you can write what you want to write, how you want to write it.
The art of letter writing is far from lost. Thanks to e-mail, it has reached new heights. Letter writing has become more popular and convenient than wonderful world of phone conversation, as of late, and is often far less expensive (considering the cost of text messaging, though prices have gotten so much lower).
Are people always looking for new ways to write letters? You bet. And the post office is pretty lenient, as long as there is sufficient postage and an address to send it to.
Though postcard writing is technically letter writing, we tend to clump postcards in a category of their own. We think of postcards as offering a peek into a special world. They make us feel like we're on vacation ourselves, when we receive them.
Did you know the postcard was patented in 1861?
Postcard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This link gives a brief history of postcards, early controversy, postcard stamp info, a glossary of postcard terms, and other related links. Very interesting, if short, read.
How cool is this?
Couple delivered postcard 40 years after it was sent - Yorkshire Evening Post
Couple delivered postcard 40 years after it was sent - An elderly married couple were pleasantly surprised when a postcard popped through their letterbox - only to find it had been sent 40 years ago.
Coldplay, showing off some of their postcards from all over the world:
One Day, in the mail...
One day, in the mail, we received a custom photo postcard. A pleasant, if not odd, surprise. It was of our vacation in Colorado, a photo I had not known was even taken. It was not in an envelope, nor was it protected in any way, shape, or form. Yet it had gotten to us, intact, stamp on the back, addressed, and post office marked. Just as if it were a real postcard, complete with a beautiful, hand written message inscribed on the back.
There were more to come. On any given day. For any given reason, or for no reason at all.
What fun. What delight.
These picture perfect custom photo postcards we received from our relatives, who have taken postcard writing to new heights. Their creativity is simple and inspiring.
How to make your own picture perfect custom photo postcards:
Here's what you'll need:
Camera
Film (if you're not using a digital camera)
Developed or printed photos (4x5 or 4x6)
Pen
Postcard stamps
You can use old photos, or take new photos to send to your friends and family, or someone you don't even know.
Stuck on which photos to use? Choose one that says something you want to say or that says a little something about you or something you like or like to do. Or just use one you find inspiring or that tickles your fancy at the moment.
If you like to bicycle, whether you actively participate in the sport is of no consequence, take a photo of your or another's bike or helmet. If you are building a new addition to your home, take photos of the process and use those. If you just got a new plant, take a a photo of it. Steps you have to climb one too many times? PHOTO OP! The sky is the limit.
So what do you do once your picture is in front of you? Grab a pen.
The first thing you'll want to do is make sure the address you are sending it to is written clearly on the appropriate space. Then place your postage so that your writing doesn't get covered up by the stamp. Then start writing as if it were a postcard. Mail. It's that easy.
Tip: Be sure you use a pen that won't smudge or one that you don't have to write so hard it cuts through the photo. Do not use erasable ink.
This is what the front of your picture perfect custom photo postcard would be like:
The back of your personalized picture perfect custom photo postcard may look like this:
back of postcard
Like any postcard, formatting should be horizontal. Addresses have been hazed over. Mail from should be in upper left corner. Mail to should be on right side of Picture Perfect Postcard back.
Source: Millie Kohler, CC BY-NC-ND, via special permission by Millie Kohler
The following is a great example video on how to make your own custom photo postcards from your very own photos.
