The Secret to Finding Vintage Stamps
Let’s get this out of the way: Sorry it’s been such a crazy long time since I posted. My mom passed away earlier this year so it’s been tough and blogging hasn’t exactly been high on my list of priorities. I’m also planning a wedding. But I’m back! And I have a fun tip to share that came out of the save-the-date design process. Using multiple vintage stamps on your envelopes is all the rage in the wedding/stationery community right now. I fell in love with the look, of course, and decided we simply must have some vintage stamps too! (Had to make it hard on myself somehow. Because of my card shop I had literally every other material I needed already in my living room—the right color envelopes, fab paper stock, the works.)
But even though I consider myself an interwebs search jedi, I wasn’t finding enough face value (or cheap enough), unused stamps, even on eBay. This how-to from 100 Layer Cake was helpful, but didn’t quite get me there. And then I stumbled on the vintage stamp secret! Search by sheet. There are zillions of stamps on eBay, but it’s significantly easier and faster to search by sheet. Stamps used to come in sheets of 50, 40, or sometimes 20. So if you’re buying nearly face-value, intact sheets, they’ll be unused and you’ll have lots to pick from. Jackpot.
Then you’ll see that many or most have “Scott Numbers” listed. For those of you who aren’t stamp geeks, that’s the catalog number. When you find a design you like (even if it’s not at a price you like), go to the main stamp sheet page here and then plug in its Scott number and search. Bingo. You’ll usually get lots of results with varying prices and are almost sure to find a deal. (For instance, here are a bunch of listings that vary widely in price for one of my fave stamps, botanical congress.) Just one warning: Once you figure out how to find them, it’s hard to stop. If you’re on a vintage stamp quest, I hope this helps!
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Dog Breeds As Typefaces
Cute dogs AND typefaces? Be still my heart. Via fineline design.
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Christmas Leftovers: Handmade Gifts
Finally blogging about a few of my Christmas projects—had to keep them quiet pre-holidays, of course. I was apparently in a sewing mood this year, so the embroidered ornaments/mini-frames are for all the ladies in my family and Colin’s, and the candied walnuts are for the guys. (Since I didn’t think they’d be too interested in the embroidery.)
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New Year’s Cookies: Patterned Blue Squirrels
Squirrels because my sister bought me these Ikea cookie cutters for Christmas in honor of Colin’s squirrel cobbler that I was too chicken to eat. Patterned because when you’ve got a box of 12 fabulous icing colors, who wants to make muddy brown cookies? Used the Kitchn’s best sugar cookie recipe and Alton Brown’s royal icing.
I have to say though, my first foray into schmancy decorated sugar cookies will likely be my last—at least for awhile. I liked them a lot, but if you’re going to do fancy piping there are muchos steps, and for a newbie like me they take muchos time: Making the dough. Chilling the dough overnight. Cutting out the cookies and baking them (no small task, I found, when you’re not exactly equipped with baking gear. No rolling pin, no pastry cloth, nor drying racks for me. Wine bottle, counter top, plate. That’s how I roll.) Making the frosting. Piping the frosting around the edges to outline. “Flooding” some watered-down frosting to coat the whole cookie while carefully spreading with a mini cheese fork (no toothpicks either, as it turns out). Waiting for that to dry. Then finally (the fun part!) piping on the designs. Yeesh.
They tasted pretty good, but let’s face it: these show ponies are really all about the decorations. Which is why I’m posting the cookie porn here. Enjoy!
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Festive Friday: Decoration Day!
It doesn’t take a lot of decorations in our tiny apartment to make it look like we’re crazy Christmas people. (This isn’t even all of them.) But we seem to accumulate some extra little something every year that we just have to put out, so I’ve decided to just embrace it. We’re festive! Sadly no big tree this year, which will set you back $70+ in Manhattan. This little guy is our $14.99 recession special. I also particularly like the goose bookend wearing his mitten/hat. And last but not least, I made Colin a moustache ornament in honor of his famous Movember ’stash.
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Type Geekery: Arial vs. Helvetica
As someone who prefers Helvetica to Arial but could never quite articulate why (well, it does look the same at first glance), I love this chart. Upon closer inspection, it would seem that I’m drawn to the symmetrical nature of Helvetica. Cool. (At least for type geeks.)
Found via swissmiss.
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Farmer’s Market Bounty
YUM. We went a little crazy at Union Square.
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Cooler Than a Passport
Map of the world made from a stamp from each country. Awesome!
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OMG Dance Party Wedding Entrance
So I’ve been trying not to blog about wedding stuff because I don’t want it to take over my life, but I HAD to share this completely hilarious and sweet wedding entrance. I want to be friends with these people!
via @joannagoddard (of course! she finds the best stuff).
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Piggy Bank Crush
More products to love! Today I seriously fancy this glass piggy bank from Roost at Velocity, originally spotted at Oh Joy. Isn’t he charming? The best part is that—unlike some of their much pricier goods—if I bought this guy, at $24 I’d actually have some pennies left over to put in the pig.