Make Your Own Custom Postage Stamp!

by Three Dogs in a Garden

Did you know that you can take your own photographs and make a custom postage stamp?

make your own custom postage stamp, crafts, diy, how to

As it happens, Canada Post offers just such a service! (American readers will be glad to hear that the USPS has a similar service offering custom stamps.)

These days there are so many new and creative things you can do with your personal photographs.

Modern printers and printing methods have made small print runs feasible. As a result a whole new service industry has emerged that is willing to take your pictures and make something fun and unique with them.

My own postage stamp? What a fun idea, I thought to myself! I want to try it.

The Canada Post website makes the process very straightforward. If you can upload a picture from your computer, you can do this. Honestly, the hardiest part for me was narrowing it down to a couple of images I wanted to use.

For my first design, I selected the foxglove image above.

First you have to choose an orientation (portrait or landscape) for your stamp and then a decorative frame for the image. Because my photograph was busy, I selected a portrait orientation and a fairly plain frame.

Before I knew it, my booklets of 12 stamps arrived in the mail.

I know some of you might think that your photographs aren't nice enough for a stamp, but I doubt that's the case. And at any rate, I don't think it truly matters in the grand scheme of things. As with my son's baby pictures, I think that personal meaning trumps quality hands down.

Not done playing, I had to do a second stamp.

I figured it was only fitting to make a "Three Dogs in a Garden" stamp. Again I went with a portrait layout, but this time, I used a frame that incorporated a few maple leaves.

And here is the final product.

Now of course there is a cost involved.

And unless you are very well-off, it is unlikely you are going to make your own stamps just to mail the payment for your household electric bill (that is, if you even use traditional methods to pay bills these days).

This is a pleasant little indulgence meant for special correspondence. I could see using a custom stamp to send off thank you cards after a wedding, to send birthday party or shower invitations or to give a birth announcement that extra special touch.

Like an image on a coin, there is a certain honour associated with having a picture on a stamp, so this might be a great way to recognize someone who is having a milestone birthday. It might also be a nice way to dress-up a party invitations celebrating a silver or gold wedding anniversary. Ways to use your custom stamp is limited only by your imagination.

And of course you can always do something fun like putting a picture

of your dog on a postage stamp.

Have a great weekend!

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4 of 9 comments

Hannah V on May 04, 2015
Such an amazing idea! Love the one with your sheltie- I had a sheltie named Shelby. The sweetest, smartest pups!

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- Three Dogs in a Garden on May 04, 2015
  @Hannah V Of course I am not unbiased, but I agree that Shelties are the sweetest, smartest dogs.
  
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Capernius on May 05, 2015
Years ago, I had a sheltie, named 'Duke' .... one of the best & most loyal dogs I ever owned....

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- Three Dogs in a Garden on May 05, 2015
  @Capernius Duke is a nice, very regal sounding name for a Sheltie.
  
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