Friendly Friday: POSTCARD FROM THE PAST

Sandy,

Lately I’ve been looking at old photos and wondering what to do with them. Old photos hold fond memories but sometimes, because of the technology or skill at the time, the pictures are less than perfect. Very old photos in particular, do not age well. I have digitized versions of 20+ year old photos that are barely legible. Nonetheless, the images are precious for the people or events they capture.

The good news is that there are many tools to creatively re-purpose photos. It’s easy to augment old photos with text & graphics and inject a sense of context and delight.

For this week’s Friendly Friday Photo challenge, take a photo and re-imagine it as a postcard. With additional text, messages or graphics, re-create your photo into a POSTCARD FROM THE PAST.

Your postcard doesn’t have to fancy. It can be a regular post with an old photo and the story behind it or you can use formatting techniques to emulate a postcard. Here are a few ideas.

1. Using WordPress Block Editor – Media & Text Block

A neat feature of the new Block Editor is the pre-formatted block**. The ‘Media & Text’ block has a simple layout of a picture with a side by side description. In the example below, I use it to give a postcard effect by changing the ‘Color settings’ for the background color. By changing it from white to orange, the block looks like a simple postcard.

Summer Yukatas

Young ladies seen on the grounds of the Sumiyoshi temple in Osaka, Japan. Made of light weight cotton, this traditional dress is worn in summer and called a ‘yukata.’

** Update: The pre-formatted block is a neat feature when it works. I’ve just discovered that if you read this post in the WordPress Reader, the pre-formatted image doesn’t look like it should. It should look like the screen-shot below. Ah well, it’s Friday 13th … gotta expect some glitches! – Sandy

2. Adding Text to your photo

Most photo editors allow for the addition of text. In this case, I had a picture of Hong Kong’s harbor which I thought pretty enough to be the face of a postcard.

3. Using a graphic design app

For fancier presentations, graphic design tools like Canva and Spark can incorporate photos and text into predefined templates. In my previous post ‘Playing with SPARK and CANVA’, I described the basic steps of uploading a photo and adding text and graphics. Taking it one step further …

In Canva, I used the template called ‘Red and Blue Cute Direct Mail General Postcard’ to create this two part postcard.

While in Spark, I created this postcard from scratch, with color blocks, icons and text.

I look forward to seeing your POSTCARD FROM THE PAST. Remember to include a link to this post and a comment below.

If you’re new to Friendly Friday, full instructions on how to participate can be found here.

This week’s challenge for a POSTCARD FROM THE PAST  goes up to Thursday, after which Amanda at StPA will post a new Friendly Friday challenge.

Toronto, Canada.  November 2020

57 Comments

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  4. This one and the one on Canva are super cool posts Sandy! I have not being on FFPC for sometime now but considering it is not Thursday yet..I may jump in with something!!! I have started toying around with Canva again and it is sort of awesome! I had done this before for some of my Instagram posts but stopped after a while. As always, another fun and creative and of course, inspiring post! The last postcard is my favorite…the people and expressions and it also probably has a special story attached. Warm wishes:)

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    1. Thank you for saying so Vero. I do try and I like hearing that I sometimes succeed 🙂 I hope you’ll give it go too, altho I think you’re already skilled at ‘fixing up’ your photos!

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    1. I’m so happy that this triggered your post Sarah. It’s the kind of post I was thinking of when I first though up ‘Postcard from the Past’ … Canva was a fun diversion along the way 🙂

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    1. It does take time to learn a new tool … but then someone like you, introduces me to another one and I’m back on again 🙂

      BTW 1990 is not vintage – that’d be saying we are old, which we aren’t! 1990 is … nostalgic.

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  20. There’s a block editor now? Whats next, a president who refuses to admit he lost?

    By the way if you choose Classic and Image block its ridiculously easy, easy like Sunday morning. 🎎

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    1. Good tip Mike! But here’s a warning … once you use the Block Editor there is no turning back. I can’t even find the Classic Editor anymore … actually, I can but I wouldn’t advise it – weird things happen to my post when I mix editors.

      In terms of the president Mike … I try to keep my opinions on US politics offline. But I must say I’m looking forward to having less Reality-TV style politics. .. but we have a few more weeks to go.

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      1. If you look at the code its just a different way of posting the same thing, maybe to accommodate newer HTML. I tried to get the old one back at first but once you figure it out its not a problem. Not like taking 300 pictures of a leaf to make sure you get a good one. #OCD

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    1. Trick question Neil!

      Initially I found it hard, mostly because the cursor, tool bars and control widgets kept moving around. The Classic editor was more static and predictable. However I forced myself and now Im used to it. Now I likethe range of features and it’s a lot more customizable.
      But it is a bother to get used to, I know.

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