Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Happy Birthday to Village Impressions


August was my eighth year selling stamps on the internet.

I now sell in a week as much as I did that first year.

I have sold stamps all over the World including Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and the United Kingdom.

I also have sold stamps into every State except Delaware, and every Province except for the Northwest Territories , Nunavut, and the Yukon Territory.

I keep waiting and looking for my first stampers to finish my customer map .

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Stamps from Photos

I have spent a lot of time learning Photoshop tricks to make stamps from photos.
I start by scanning a photo into the computer unless someone sends me a high quality image by email.


Then  I increase the contrast, remove the background and touch up any problem areas.

In this case I zoomed in on the face and removed big brother (sorry).


The image must next be converted to pure black and white with a halftone filter (used to make newspaper images). Sometimes blemishes need to be removed and features enhanced. Not the case with my beautiful daughter!




Finally I can make a stamp from this converted image. The stamp is cut out and mounted on the clear block and then it is time to stamp away.


Most popular photo stamps are kids and pets, but any photo with good contrast works well.
A black dog on a dark leather couch or a white cat on snow would be really hard to make, but if I can't make it work, I'm the first to admit it. :)






This is truly a custom, one of a kind stamp!

The final product is such a pleasure to have and use.