I was in Urban Outfitters the other day and stumbled across a postcard pack labeled “Unbridled Passion” by Franco Accornero. It’s a collection of 30 different postcards from an artist who has painted more than 5,000 romance novel covers (as well as westerns, thrillers and sci-fi books). The postcards are really ridiculous on their own, but I thought for this Valentine’s day I would make them even funnier but adding my own captions.

That’s where the 2012 Valentine’s Day Caption Challenge for #ds106 comes into play: I challenge you to  make your own captions for these postcards! You can use any photo editor or the Aviary one built right into flickr to add the caption.

Download one blank card from my flick set and add a caption that raises the love spirit to a new level. In addition to writing it up on your blog, when you post yours to flickr include the tag ds106valentine so we can assemble them all into giant virtual card set.

The past is strange. Remake this classic Marilyn Monroe “expressions sheet” with self-portraits or with the aid of a friend. Bonus points for the involvement of a stranger.

Inspired by reddit’s “Where did the Soda Go?” board at http://www.reddit.com/r/wheredidthesodago, create a gif of a hilarious infomercial moment that illustrates how ridiculous some infomercials can be.

Ben Rimes regularly takes a day (February 2012 and December 2012) to capture key moments each as an animated GIF – as you go through a day look around and identify places, moments, things that are well represented in the infinite looping form. Assemble at least 5 of them to capture the essences of your day, start to end and publish as a single blog post, with narrative.

What does it mean to see your day in just this form?

Create a simple “Go, Vote” poster reminding people of their civic duty. Feel free to use the Library of Congress website if you’re a U.S. citizen, the Library & Archives of Canada if you’re from “up north” or any other governmental archive of historical imagery.

Edit a childhood photo of yourself to include a more recent photo of you in a pose that makes it look like you were part of the original scene. Pay attention to matching pose, detail, shadows, and color values to match the original. You can go back to your past, at least in your own edited photo!

Based an example of Before and After Pictures with a Twist spotted in Buzzfeed. See also more exquisite examples in Woman Photoshops Present-Day Self into Childhood Photos.

Inspired by the Return to the Scene of the Crime assignment, comes a related idea which asks you to digitally mix the past and the present. This was done exceptionally well by Shawn Clover in his series 1906 + 2010: The Earthquake Blend, “featuring photographs captured during the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake blended into views of what the city currently looks like.”

Use a photograph from the past and digitally blend it with an image of the present. And for five thousand bazillion extra stars, blend the past and present photos with a digital concoction of the future.

Now, I like graffiti as much as the next guy, except when it’s spray painted on my house. But you know what makes it even better? If it moves! Check out Animated Banksy for inspiration (http://madebyabvh.tumblr.com/tagged/Animated-Banksy). Photograph some graffiti or street art, or find a photo if you’re lazy, and make it into an animated GIF. It’s more fun than vandalism!