"Postage People" - Postcard

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This week's Sunday Postcard Art theme was "Postage Stamp People".

I created this using GIMP 2.10.36

The vintage images are from an Internet search. (See the side of my blog for links.)

"Postage Stamp People - Sinatra" - Postcard

© All Rights Reserved

(Click on image to enlarge)

This week's Sunday Postcard Art challenge was "Postage Stamp People."

I used a stamp of Frank Sinatra and made a whimsical "fly me to the moon" theme around him.

I created this using GIMP 2.8.22.

The vintage images are from an Internet search. (See the side of my blog for links.)

Featured in the weekly sampler.

On an unrelated news note, Connecticut is within the predicted possible crash location for China's Tiangong-1 space station, which "will come crashing back to Earth on April 1 (Easter) at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT), give or take 9 hours." The latest re-entry predictions can be seen here. Tiangong-1's current location can be seen here. Its current location can also be seen on this satellite tracker site by clicking on the Tiangong 1 button.

"Postage People" - "James Dean"

This week’s Thank God It’s Friday challenge number 89 was “Postage People.” I made a 4x6 inch size postcard using the United States Post Office’s James Dean stamp. I first learned about “Postage People” on a Sunday Postcard Art challenge, and had a lot of fun creating them, so I was glad I had an opportunity to make another one.

"Numbers" – Number People – Prima Donnas

This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Numbers.” I wanted to create “Number People” similar to the “living playing cards” in Alice in Wonderland and the “postage people” from last week’s challenge. The medieval numbers are from Clipart ETC. I might experiment more with “Number People.”

"Postage People" - Bette Davis

This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Postage People.” I never heard of these before, so I don’t know whether or not I made mine correctly, but I had fun doing it. My primary postcard is Bette Davis. I also decided to make Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe (see below), to get more practice using GIMP. I got their heads (postage stamps) from the US post office. The bodies are made from other sources, and are not their own. For a detailed description, see blog post "Postage People" - Detailed Description below.

"Postage People" - Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe

"Postage People" - Detailed Description

This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was “Postage People.” Fortunately Marion, who came up with the challenge, made a YouTube tutorial video on how to make one. I wanted to use a vintage stamp but I couldn’t find any with a head that I liked, so I went to the post office, to see what they had. I was ecstatic as soon as I saw Bette Davis, and knew she was the stamp for me!

Using a Google search, I found a woman wearing a similar, but lighter colored coat, and used her for the top of the body. I got the coat color to match very closely by duplicating and multiplying the layer. I also had to alter the coat, because it was too long for what I wanted.

I found the bottom of the body and the pictures of Bette Davis on the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. I used GIMP to make her two film photographs look like slide negatives. I used part of an art deco picture to construct the border, and did one last Google search to add the film reel. The background is a cloud layer overlaid with a green layer.

I wasn’t sure whether or not part of the “postage people” technique was to make the stamp blend into everything else so you can’t tell it’s not part of the original picture. I didn’t do that. I left most of the stamp border intact, and only erased at the shoulders, to show that the two blend together.

I also made this a tribute to Bette Davis. She is one of my favorite actresses. They don’t make actresses like her anymore.

I had fun making this postcard, so I decided to make a few more, using stamps from the post office and images from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

Frank Sinatra: I modified the stamp so that his hat was complete. The background sky is a cloud layer overlaid with a blue layer.

Marilyn Monroe: I colorized the picture I put her on, then made some minor modifications to it, to make it blend with her. I used PhotoPlus to create a pseudo-art-deco border, then used a pattern fill in GIMP, to change its color appearance.

All of that might sound like it was easy to do, but it was time consuming, and required some meticulous steps, too. But I enjoyed myself, and I like the way some of these challenges have the additional benefit of having me learn new things.