I bought some cool old Christmas postcards from 1920 that have really nice images. I thought I'd scan them and then print them on cardstock for Christmas cards. But now that I've scanned them and printed them they look ... flat.

They have been sent in the mail originally so they are in a kind of nice lightly worn vintage condition. But when I print that on new cardstock it just looks sortof dirty.

Plus some of them have nice shiny gold highlighting and of course none of that picks up in the scan. I have not done a lot of scanning so maybe I need to fix up the image somehow in the editing program? I don't have photoshop or anything cool though.

*sigh* I just love these postcards, and I want to give them life again!

Maybe print them on a different kind of paper and then mount that to the cardstock? Vellum maybe? Tracing paper?

Please help me creative ones! Thanks!

Mmmm... I don't think the paper you are printing on will change the brightness- especialy not vellum as it is pretty matte. You could try a super glossy paper and mount it onto the cardstock, but I think your best bet will be *adding* to the printed image. Re-embelish it with a gold pen, paint, etc in spots, or do a clear micro bead overlay. (There's a great post about using microbeads on magnets on crafster.org).
I bet the end result is gonna be super... just with more effort than you probably anticipated. Please post your solution(s)!

Adobe will let you download photoshop for a free trial. YOu can also get a photo editing program at any office or computer supply store. If your friends know photoshop, ask them for help. Otherwise it's a bit complicated to figure out.

You can brighten up images and clean things up pretty easily with an editing program.

I've also had good results using puffy paints on cards. If you have a clear color, it adds detail without looking tacky.

I scanned a calendar photo and then embossed it with powder pigments and it turned out really cool. I used regular paper, but I think different paper would look awesome!

I use Thumbplus.... Mostly because my husband dicovered it and buys all the upgrades because he sees me using it. Having used photoshop, I know it isn't as sophisticated-not by a long shot. Howvere, it will do what you need and it easy to learn.I am certain it would restore the colors-that is one of the things I use it for.

I believe they have a trial or free edition for downloading if you do a search.

Good luck!
~Laura

i love my gel pens, i had a few cards that needed some life so i used my gold and silver gel pen to give it some life and it really made a difference

The paper you are using can make a world of difference.

Cardstock is very porous and absorbs the ink, "flattening" the image. Glossy will make the colors much richer, and is generally thicker paper anyway. If you don't want a glossy look you can also get matte photo paper which, like glossy, still looks vibrant. You can get this stuff at Business Depot or anywhere like that. Vellum will likely still have that flat, dry look.

I'd suggest using glossy or matte photo paper (maybe mounted on cardstock with rubber cement or spray glue) and a fine artists brush with some thinned glue to "paint" the glue on the areas that get (superfine) glitter.

You guys are the best. I'm going to go attack them again and let you know how I did. Thanks!!

Work with what you've got! Try tea-staining the printed image to make it look more aged, and then highlight with gold gel pens as someone else suggested.