Saturday, February 13, 2010

Stamps Collectors Book

I know the last thing I need right now is another hobby, but when I was in Italy we stopped at one of their post offices, and I thought 'How cool it would be to buy an Italian Stamp as a souvenir'. Then when I was at my own local post office in Wisconsin, I saw this new line of postage stamps called 'Legends of Hollywood'. Each sheet of stamps comes with a story of the famous actor or actress. I thought they were so cool, I bought a sheet. When I brought it home, I didn't have the heart to use the stamp on an envelope and 'send it away' so I decided to 'collect them'. But now, I needed a book to display them in. I looked at the Post Office, no such luck, then I looked at Walmart, nothing. So, what do I now? I decided stamp collecting must be a out-dated hobby and I probably needed to make my own book. So out comes my old, trusty 'Bind-it-All' and I made this: Its 8 1/2 by 11 inches. I used card board for the front and back covers. I covered the card board with designer paper and ribbon and then I randomly put some stamp images all over the front. The title is stamped using a retired Stampin Up! Alphabet set 'Well-Worn Alphabet'. For the inside pages, I just used card stock. I slipped each piece of card stock inside a page protector. Then when I made punched holes through both the card stock and the page protector.

Now, the next picture simply shows the sheet of stamps I bought at my local Post Office. The actor is Gary Cooper. Wasn't he a hunk? Mmmn. Anyhow, for now, I just slid the stamp in the page protector. But, as I start to collect stamps, I will probably make a 'scrap book page' of them...something much more decorative and artsy than this. But, since these are the only stamps I have for now, it will have to look like this:
As my collection increases, I'll be sure to show you more pages. In the meantime, Have a Great Day! Amy

3 comments:

  1. Your book looks great Amy!
    Maybe stamp collecting will become more popular again. I think that they are like little pieces of art.
    At my last job in any spare time that we had we used to peel off all the stamps from the post that we used to receive in the office, and sent them to various charities who collected them. Even my non crafty colleagues who were not interested in any kind of art, were fascinated by some of the fab designs!
    I look forward to seeing more pages!
    Hugs
    Nicola

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  2. What a great idea Amy and I'm sure when finished this will be a wonderful keepsake for one of your children!!!
    Love the vintage flaire your binder has ... great job! Can't wait to see more pages!

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  3. So you've decided to become a philatelist. I did this when I was a kid. I have no idea where any of my stamps are now. I doubt that they had any real value so my mom probably tossed them when I went to college.

    There are places to buy the special books to collect stamps. A hobby store (as opposed to a craft store) or online is a good place to check. The difference being that they have pages with the stamp name, date, etc already on them with a place to put your stamp.

    I think it's nice that you made your own album since that combines two of your interests. But one thing you may want to consider if you get any stamps that are not the self-adhesive kind (remember them?) is that putting them against any kind of paper will almost guaranted that it will get humid and they will stick and get ruined. Make sure to use a wax paper like liner (you can get those envelopes at the post office and cut them apart) and put them between your stamps and background page.

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