Alison Leigh

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Snail Mail: Print-At-Home Postcards

The very average, everyday sounds of the mail + delivery trucks have brought so much joy during this stay-at-home season, and it’s prompted us to send some sunshine back into the world via the U.S. Post Office. In the early days, we dug into our arts + crafts to create homemade cards, and along the way, fell in love with postcards. And so, this small batch of custom print-at-home postcards was born, and I wanted to share them with you, if you are so inspired to do the same!

Read on for materials needed, printing instructions and the free download to a file of front-and-back postcards with sentiments of love, gratitude and encouragement that you can print, sign and send from home.

MATERIALS

To print and send from home, you will need:

Printing instructions

Fact: home printers can print double-sided. Also, fact: when you need two sides to line up perfectly front-to-back - say, for postcards - home printers don’t do such a great job. Thanks to the internet, I found the instructions below that worked with my run-down inkjet printer. Disclaimer: all printers are different, so please do some test prints on copy paper before you print on cardstock.

Here’s the key: you will not actually be using the double-sided option to print, so make sure that it is de-selected in your printer options. Some printers default to to the double-sided option, so check that first!

  • STEP 1: Select only SIDE 1 page(s) and print on white cardstock

  • STEP 2: Collect the printed SIDE 1 page(s), and load it/them into your printer with the printed side facing you, right-side-up, feeding the paper according to the arrows on the PDF

  • STEP 3: Select the SIDE 2 page(s) to print

  • STEP 4: Cut along dotted lines, personalize, address, stamp + send!

If you give this a go, please let me know if it works for you - this is my first PDF file share, and I would appreciate your feedback. If you loved this project, please pass it along and share it, and tag @alisonleighdesign if you do!