Make and Give // Vintage Postcard Pop Art

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On our trip to Paris this summer, one of our very favorite things was an exhibit at the Centre Pompidou of Roy Lichtenstein’s art. I had never been a huge fan of pop art, but seeing his work up close and personal was so insanely inspiring that I came home and wanted to research everything I could about it. I also found it so interesting to experience this really bold, crazy art style against the backdrop of Paris, which has such a completely different feel. It totally inspired this little project!

I found some vintage postcards at a Parisian flea market and started dreaming up ways to infuse a little pop art into them. Once we got back from our trip, I used Bing’s new Smart Search to research the style a bit more. The Smart Search is designed to help bring awesome content to life with lots of photos and a really great interactive experience. It searches the web, your apps, the cloud, and your computer, and gives you all the results in one spot. So smart! I researched everything from vintage postcards, to Lichtenstein’s exhibit at the Pompidou, to pop art style, and even color palettes.

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Before I started searching, I had a vague idea of what I wanted the postcards to look like, but the photos and integrated information from the Smart Search really helped me get a clear idea of how I wanted to actually put the DIY together.

Materials

  • vintage postcards
  • craft paint
  • tiny paintbrush
  • wooden skewers

Make Time: 30 Minutes Per Card

Start by pulling up some images of pop art. Using Smart Search to gather images of Lichtenstein’s pointillism pieces really helped me here. Decide on the styles you’d like to emulate. I really love the fading dots, so I decided to make that a theme.

On your postcards, find the parts of the images that you’d like to highlight. Good spots for the fading dot theme are things like bodies of water, the sky, or roads.

Start making your dots by adding paint to the pointy end of a wooden skewer and gently touching the skewer to the postcard. Keep the dots in a nice straight line, and start with the dots a little on the larger side.

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After you have your first row, add more rows of dots beneath. I staggered my dots with the previous line. Also, each successive row should have slightly smaller and smaller dots, so that they look like they’re disappearing (this helps give depth and suggest darkness or lightness in the image).

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Happy with your dots? Good! Now if you want to go the extra mile, find a little something cool in the postcard to highlight with another color. This takes some creativity. I painted one little guy gold. I outlined some clouds. I highlighted a tall building. Anything that you think would be cool, add a subtle little bit of paint to it.

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If you find yourself stuck at this point, it’s another great time to go back to Bing’s Smart Search and pull up some images. A search for “Roy Lichtenstein pointillism” helped me define a few spots that I wanted to highlight. Just use a few creative search terms and keep referencing your postcard.

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And that’s it! Let them dry thoroughly and give as a cool set of art pieces to a pal for the holidays. I actually love these things so much I’ll be hanging them up in my place for a while. A big, merry thanks to Bing for helping to bring my idea to life! Make it and give it. xoxo

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I’m required to disclose a sponsored partnership between our site and Bing. I have been compensated in exchange for this post in the form of payment, product or experiences.

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28 Comments

  1. Old postcards are wonderful. I found a couple of Old NYC in winter at a thrift store and I sent them as Christmas cards. This is a great idea to make them a little more festive. I love the harbor one you did.

  2. This is genius! I absolutely love it! I’m sure I have some old postcards lying around here anyway, so I am definitely going to make some of these.

  3. These are so fun! I think I would frame these on my wall and give some to my mom to add to her vintage postcard art wall.

  4. Whenever I wander around my favorite antique shops in San Diego, I look through the white boxes of vintage post cards with the intention of buying a few to turn into art pieces for the house. But, I always chicken out from getting any, thinking they’ll just sit on my desk collecting dust before I actually do anything with them.

    That all changes after reading this post. I can’t not try this out. Thanks for the inspiration!

  5. Wow! I’m in love with this project. I send a lot of snail mail, so this would really make the vintage postcards stand out! I’m glad I found your blog. 🙂

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  8. Hey, I like your blog! I have been doing something similar with my Black & White photos, less pop art more illustration art. Have a look at the blog if you are interested! Really like your paper flower backdrop too! All the best! Kerstin

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