Projects Using Postcards

I love shopping at Value Village. And best of all, I love buying the "Housewares Bags" because they are always full of fun goodies at a great price! One day, on my regularly scheduled tour of the store, I came across a Housewares Bag full of vintage postcards. From Italy, and Paris, and Madrid, and Heidelberg. There were books of them and loose ones. There were places I recognized, and places that were new to me. They were all beautiful!

So I decided to buy them...duh...and do up a couple of projects for you!

Project #1: Mini Album

You will need:

- a bunch of postcards for the same location

- "matching" pattern paper, the cardstock weighted kind

- packing tape

- simple embellishments, rub-ons, sticker letters

First things first, figure out which postcards you are going to use, and how many pages you want your album to be.

Now measure your postcards. Mine were 4 x 5, or something like that. Once measured, I cut all my patterned paper down to size. If you are using double-sided paper, you only need to cut

one paper for every postcard. If you aren't using double-sided, or hate the other side of your paper (that was my case) you will need to cut two pieces for every postcard. We will glue the backs of the pattern paper together later.

Throughout my album I alternated postcards and pattern paper:

Title (pattern) - postcard - pattern (2) - postcard - pattern (2) - postcard...etc. I used a total of four postcards and 9 pieces of pattern paper. Eight of those pieces are glued back-to-back. The last page I left as is. I wanted to have a lot of space for journaling, as that is the whole point of my album - no photos except for the postcard. So I used the back of each postcard, plus the opposing pattern for journaling. The pattern opposing each postcard is for a sub-title of the location pictured in the postcard. Wow, this sounds really complicated! But I promise it actually isn't, once you get going!!

Once you have cut all your pattern paper, lay out your album in order, choosing which patterns will go where.

Now, glue your pattern papers back-to-back...if you're going that route.

Now to assemble our book. I do this before the embellishing because it's much easier!

Grab your packing tape. This stuff is great for making a mini-album because it's flexible, sturdy and clear so you can see your postcards and pattern paper through the tape. I love gaffer tape, but sometimes the dark line along each page can be distracting.

Starting with the first page, line up your paper to the packing tape, and make sure about half of the tape is over the paper. Press the tape down. Don't cut your tape at this point! I added the black outline so you could see where the tape is...sorry for the screwy photo!

Use the roll of packing tape as a guide and a solid surface to help you place the opposing sheet of paper or postcard. Line up the edge of the next sheet with the first sheet, using the roll as guide for where the bottom goes. Press the tape down.

Now you can cut off the tape. And you have two pieces of your album! The packing tape is practically invisible! And it's so easy - and cheap - to use for this! Note: Blogger has decided to flip some of my photos, and there's apparently nothing I can do about it...sorry!

Keep adding pages into your book, using this method. Below you can see what the back of the postcard looks like. Thanks to the packing tape method, you can add as many pages as you like! Just keep sticking each page together like we did in the note above.

You can see in this picture how I alternated pattern paper and postcards.

The finished book:

This last picture shows what the pages look like with my journaling added. I kept the decoration of the book very simple. I didn't want the finished product to be too thick and I also didn't want to have to purchase a lot of stuff. This mini book will serve as a keepsake for my current memories of my trip to Italy when I was in junior high school. Most of the photos I have from the trip have already been scrapbooked - badly - so I didn't want to start all over again with a big book.

This is a great way to capture the special memories of a special trip without having to pull out all the stops and create a deluxe album! But you can totally still do that!!

You could try:

- use postcards from lots of different places you have visited

- making an accordion folded book instead of a traditional album

- do this "on the go" while you're on your vacation! All you need is some scissors, packing tape and a pen to document your memories as they happen

There are so many possibilities when it comes to using postcards on projects!

Check back Friday for two layouts using postcards. First, a simple way to add a journaling spot. Then an amazing fold-out layout to accommodate lots of journaling and photos! I'd leave you with a sneak peek, but I don't have photos yet!