Oh, the trials & tribulations of faux postage perforation! Well, today I bring you a potential solution, as discovered by Laura Werger of Demon Kitty Designs.
She says, “A while ago I was searching for the best, most realistic possible way to make faux postage stamps. I tried a lot of different methods, trying to get the best perforations – die cuts, spiky wheels, fancy scissors, but finally found the answer staring me in the face: margin selvage! The blank edge bits from sheets of old postage stamps. It looks exactly like real stamps’ perforations because it is real stamp perforations! I got a vintage stamp dealer to save it for me and now I have tons.”
As you can see, the results are pretty impressive, combining upcycled backgrounds with Laura’s unique illustrations and just-like-real perforated edges. I was a little bit confused, though, as I have been using vintage stamps on my outgoing mail lately, and have acquired quite a lot of margin selvedge myself (recently donated to Britta aka JaguarSnail – looking forward to seeing what she does with it!) – but it is all very narrow, mostly no more than 1cm wide. That would surely only make the teensiest tiny stamps! But apparently there is an art to it:
” I often have to piece together bits and pieces from a few sheets to make one stamp, if I want the perforation on all four sides, though you can often find pieces that already have it on three sides. And it takes a minute to line up the perforations, but it looks much better if you take the time to do so.”
Thanks to Laura for sharing this great tip & solution! You can see more examples of her work in the Demon Kitty Etsy Store, and also on her Facebook page.
Thinking on from this idea, it occurs to me that if you don’t have easy access to stamp paper selvedge, it would actually be possible to use real postage stamps (either used or foreign) as a base for your faux postage: simply print your designs separately, trim to size, and glue over the top of the original image! I have heard that you can even remove the original image by rubbing with a cotton bud soaked in nail polish remover – this would presumably also remove any stray bits of postmark visible around the edges of your design(?). I haven’t tested this out myself (have you?) – but using a real stamp as a base is surely a fool-proof way of avoiding the ongoing DIY perforation issue… Still, the trials continue… 😉
Click here for my original Faux Postage Q & A from 2010...
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I too, being a stamp addict, have wondered how to get that perfect stamp perforation. Lots of sheets don’t have edging like that – I have some long gutter strips. I buy old unused stamps to make interesting envelopes for christas and birthday cards.
If you don’t mind square holes rather than round (some real-world stamps did have square perfs) then the toothed thinning scissors used by hairdressers can be used.
Never heard of those – will have to investigate!
I use an old typewriter, with no ribbon in it, and type row after row of periods between the stamps! It works well and looks good. For paper, I use ordinary printer paper, and then spread a thin layer of Elmer’s or some similar glue on the back. They stick!
I found online this amazing tutorial on how to make the punches to a paper with a sewing machine https://crystalfacet.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/postage-stamps/ or… you can also check the Portland Stamp Company’s Lick and Stick range of products.