Make-Your-Own Postcards

My boss is a postcard nut.  He belongs to a postcard club where he receives and sends several cards a week to/from people all across the United States--people who, like him, love postcards, I guess.  He also has a collection of postcards at the front desk of the library.  They fill an entire wall from floor to ceiling.  Every student, staff, or faculty member that travels anywhere is told "Don't forget to send us a postcard!" 

So, when I started sending postcards (as part of a tremendously successful New Year's Resolution) I had someone to share my new found enthusiasm with.  I think postcards are swell.  You can find them just about everywhere for a reasonable price--even the ones at Yellowstone National Park were only $.50, I think.  They are short so you only have time to give the highlights of life or one good deep thought.  There is no "pressure" or time commitment to write a big, long letter, but people still know you care about them, are thinking of them, and maybe just a little snapshot of what you've been up to.  And postcard stamps are cheaper, too.

Bill recently gave me a few Make-Your-Own Postcards from the Kimac Company out of Connecticut.  They have preprinted the writing side of the cards, but they leave the photo side of the card blank for you to design to your liking.  It is one giant sticker which allows you to customize your own postcards.  You can stick photos from trips creating personal postcards of your vacations.  Bill cut out the image from a favored, but tattered t-shirt and used it to send as a card to an old friend.  I used a doodle to adorn my postcard.  Really, the options are endless. 

The doodle, with the postcard portion already cut out.

It was a really easy and simple craft, too.  I took a doodle that I'd made during a slow period at a craft show and traced the postcard around the part of the doodle I wanted to keep.  I then cut it out to the size of the card following the lines.  Then, peel the sticker backing off, align the doodle, and press it on to the sticker side of the postcard. 

That is my very special postcard on the bottom and the remaining scrap of doodle on the top!

I thought it turned out really cool.  Now the question is who to send it to!?!

The backside of the card, all ready for writing and adressing!

I am sure a craft person could make these without the preprinted cards.  The USPS has standard sizes for postcard and sticky paper does exist so it would be easy enough to create at home, I think.  But Bill has given me a number of these Kimac cards so I haven't yet had to experiment with that idea yet.