You know that phenomenon whereby you’re looking through the greeting card aisle and you break out with a spontaneous explosion of, for lack of better word, “guffaw”? That’s me. I got that gene from my mom. Cutest thing ever when she did it. I just get stares. But, my preferred venue is not Rite-Aid but the antique /vintage shop and instead of pouring over Hallmark cards I prefer pawing through piles of dusty, vintage postcards. They’re cheap, often have some wonderful stuff written on the back, and the artwork is mostly cheesy, thus ripe for what I’m calling a Postcard Hack.
Download the PSD and Hack Away
So I give you Postcard Hack #1. I’ve added my own captions and now you can too! Below is a link to a free downloadable layered .psd version of this postcard with the caption bubbles included. If you have a copy of Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements, you can:
- Open the file and add your own captions. My fonts probably won’t open on your computer so just use whatever font you like. Move the bubbles around wherever you want, flip ’em to have them point to whomever, birds, kids, sailboat…go nuts.
- Just add the file to your ephemera collection. I’ve scanned it for you. You’re welcome.
- So here it is: Download Hacked Postcard #1
By the way, this postcard was sent from Crow Lake in Ontario, Canada to someone in Cleveland, OH in what I’d guess was the 1950’s or 60’s. The slightly creepy text on the back says:
“Hi.
Beautiful Day. What a place to just loaf away your time. Saw a red fox eating the remains of a deer that had been washed up on shore—big, long bushy tail.Love,
(name unreadable)
XXX”
Is it just me or might the image of a bloated, half eaten ruminant clash a bit with the idyllic narrative the Crow Lake Tourist Board would probably like to put out there instead?
“Visit Crow Lake…you never know what’ll wash up on shore.”
“Come to Beautiful Ontario…stay for the waterlogged venison.”
“Just watched a predator devour a big, putrid lump of soggy carrion…wish you were here.”
Ah, aren’t postcards just the Twitter of a bygone era?