Personally Yours
By Diane Peterson
24 July 2007
It use to be that when I traveled I tried to find the most unusual postcards I could.They had to be representative of the places I visit of course but hopefully a bit quirkey and unusual. Then I realized I didn't really want to use someone else's art, I mean, what the heck, no one else sees things I see or the way I see them. I decided I would make my own postcards from my own art. Of course I would have to make and send these postcards after I got back home with my snapshots and had access to my photoshop program. This way it gave me time to really sit down and write meaningful notes to my friends and loved ones rather than just.."Having a great time wish you were here!"
I am sure there are many photo editing programs out there that would work well for this project but I had taken a few photoshop classes in the past so I decided to put my meager knowledge to work.
First of all you will want to upload your images on to your computer and save them with names that remind you of where they were taken and in a spot that is easy to find. I make a new folder on my desktop for each place I visit so I know where to find the photos quickly without having to go through my entire "My Documents" folder..If you shoot digitel you prolly know what to do, if you are analog you will need to scan your prints and load them that way.
For materials, gather a glue stick,a paper cutter, your ink jet printer and heavy weight paper or you may purchase premade postcards at most large drug stores or office supply stores. I like to use matte finish but gloss will work just as well..
Open a new document in your program and figure out what size postcard you want to make. I like larger postcards so I make mine 7x5 with 7 being the width. You want your resolution to reflect that of the printer you use. You should be working in RGB mode. Make these adjustments and continue.
Open the picture you want to use and "select" it and then drop into your newly created card. You may need to select the "transform scale" command or resize (depending on your program) then drag the corners to fit your postcard size and hit the enter key to confirm the change. Just use the "move" tool to center your picture or move it around til it works for you. Then save this to your desktop.
You can also use your type tool to add a personal message to this step of the postcard if you like. "Greetings from the South Pole" or something equally as fitting.
Open another "new" document and make this the back of your postcard. You can follow the same steps as above but change the mode to greyscale and drop a picture in and change the opacity so you have a very "watermark" type of print for your back.I like to use an opacity of perhaps 10 or 15..if you make it too high the picture will not be subtle enough to write over the top. Add a lines "layer", and with your pencil tool create the lines. At this point you may either print a message on the left hand side or save that part for after you have printed your project.
Now you are ready to print your two documents. Make sure to set your printer to its highest print resolution and for the appropriate type of paper. Print! Let dry.
At this point you can glue your two pieces of the postcard together. Once you have done that, layer your pieces between some heavy books and let it sit overnight to let the glue dry.
Write in the address and a personal message and head on down to the postal drop.
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