Take those favorite photos ready to be scrapbooked and share them with your loved ones in the form of personalized postcards. It will impress everyone on your mailing list and give you something fun and different to do with your top shots. But, before you create your own you should be aware of the rules and guidelines pertaining to postcards, which have been set by the United States Postal Service (USPS). Here are some of the set postcard regulations:

1. Your postcards need to be printed on heavy-weight paper, such as cardstock.

2. The length must be between 5-6 inches, and the width must be between 3 1/2-4 1/4 inches.

3. The back of your postcard should be divided approximately in half, with the right side containing only the postage and the recipient's address.

4. Leave the bottom 5/8" empty for postal markings and barcode information, which will be added by the postal service.

Good news! According to these rules, a quality 4" x 6" photo meets the USPS requirements, so you can let the creativity begin.

Create your own one-of-a-kind postcards to send to friends and family this summer. Here are a few online resources that make this quick, easy, and fun:

* Premium Postcard

* Hazel Mail

* Snapfish

Peel-and-stick your way to professional looking postcards at home with self-adhesive postcard backings from the2buds.com.

Let the digital-photography fun continue with ideas for sharing your favorite digi photos, as well as a free CD label download that is sure to make backing up your special pictures all the more entertaining. Find our list of photo-sharing websites, and get your free CD label.

To learn more about how to make the most of your digital photos, check out the July/August 2010 "Tips & Tricks" column found in Creating Keepsakes magazine.

And for scrapbook layout ideas for your summer photos, check out the July/August 2011 issue of Crearting Keepsakes magazine.

Appeared in:

July/August 2011