Wall postage stamp art

Do you have a lot of old postage stamps sitting in a drawer somewhere? Then here's a little project for you.

Wall art with postage stamps

Here's how you do it:

Step 1: Print out something you can make a silhouette out of. I chose my initial M, with the font increased to 450, and then printed in a lighter gray instead of full black. You don't want to use up all your toner color on printing things out. This is your test page, keep it for step 4.

Step 2: Once you have your image at the size you want, do another print but instead of printing on regular white printer paper, print on to black card stock (Yes, the gray print will show on black card stock).

Step 3: Using an Exacto knife or something similar, carefully cut out your image so that you have the silhouette in tact.

Step 4: Go back to your test page and use that as your template, carefully filling in the gray spaces with your stamps. You can line them up or overlap; however you want to do it. Periodically lay your black silhouette on top of your stamp collage to see how it looks.

Step 5: Affix your stamps to the page using matte medium or other kind of glue. I used a glue stick.

Step 6: When you've finished affixing all of your stamps, let the page dry completely and then press it overnight under something heavy so that it is completely flat the next day.

Step 7: Lightly paint your stamps with a sealing varnish to make the stamps look uniform and to protect them.

Step 8: Attach the silhouette to the white page using glue or some other adhesive. I used double-sided tape.

Step 9: Glue or affix your stamp silhouette on to a background card stock.

Step 10: Embellish or leave it alone, and then decide how you want to hang it. I punched eyelets and used copper wire for hanging.

There you have it! I like how I can see some of the cancellation marks on the stamps. The lavender stamp was posted from Vienna in 1915. Neat!