An artist doesn’t need a lot of technical training to make their own art postcards. In fact, it is quite simple to do and it is much more affordable printing homemade postcards than buying them through a post card printing service.
Postcard Making Supplies
To make art postcards the artist will need:
- Cardstock
- A color printer
- Digital images of the artist’s artwork (Here is information on photographing your artwork.)
- Image editing software (You find free image editing software here.)
The artist will also need some way to cut out the postcards. The best thing to use is a paper cutter, but scissors work, too, even though they may not create a straight line.
Setting Up a Postcard Template
First, the artist needs to create a template for the postcards. Here’s how:
- Open the image editing software and go to the “File Menu”.
- Click the “New” option and choose to create a template. Creating a template will allow the artist to make many different postcards from one project. If there is no template option, simply make a new project.
- Set the dimensions for the new project or template as 6”X 8”. With these dimensions two postcards can be printed out on one sheet of cardstock, which saves resources.
- Save the postcard template or project.
Making Postcards
Once the postcard template is made, then the artist can actually start making the postcards.
- Create a boarder for each postcard by selecting the rectangle tool. Make two rectangles that are around 6”X4” each. The borders can be any color, but black is always a safe choice for the first few art postcards.
- Open the digital image of the artwork that will be used and resize it to 6”X4”. Make sure to save this image as a new file so the old one isn’t replaced with the new sizing.
- Copy the image and paste it onto one of the rectangles.
- Repeat this with the second rectangle.
- Move the borders to the front layer. The can be done by finding the “Arrange” option on some image editing software.
- Save the postcards.
- Print the postcards and cut them apart by using the borders as a guide.
Marketing Tip
To increase marketing, the artist should make sure to print contact information on the back of the card. This can be done by opening a new project of the same dimensions, using the text tool to add information and then running the postcards back through the printer backwards.
Once this process of printing postcards has been mastered, the artist can add artful text messages, give the cards a deckled edge with pinking shears and more to give the postcard more creative flare.
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