When I was a young young teenager, I started collecting postage stamps with the help of my Grandpa who had a pretty big collection himself. It wasn’t anything serious. I thought they were pretty and I liked buying panes all attached together, perfectly perforated, of whatever the latest and greatest release was. I know it’s kind of nerdy but it was a fun hobby for someone like me who revels in categorizing, organizing, preserving, and storing.
Over time, my Grandpa slowly passed a lot of his collection onto me. Each time I went over to visit, he’d hand me another envelope with a mix of random stamps, a lot of them used from letters he himself had received or from places he had visited. In 2007, my Grandpa passed away and each time I pull out his collection neatly stored in an old wooden sugar box, I think of him.
Stamps are cool because they give you a glimpse into what was happening at the time; presidents and leaders, movements, icons, conservation, major events like the moon landing or war, monuments being constructed, entertainers of the time, or just random facts like the state bird or flower. It’s almost like time travel. My oldest stamp is from 1870. I like having a piece of paper that is THAT old.
Recently, as I was sorting through everything for the first time in a long time, I found a few extra stamps – international ones that I don’t plan to catalog. My collection is nearly all U.S. and at this point, I don’t think I’ll dig any deeper into the hobby. Plus, these particular stamps are worth maybe a few pennies. Instead, I thought it might be fun to create something visible, something we could look at every day, and that Sky could have as a memento of his great grandpa that he never did get to meet.
This project was super simple and basic: attach stamps to cardstock, cover picture frame backing with fabric, mount, and frame! A fat quarter I purchased for $3 fit perfectly. I think we’ll hang this in Sky’s room which is currently half way to being done {being re-done}. I know just the wall this can go on…
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