Everything that you need to know about adhering vintage postage stamps!

So you’re interested in using vintage stamps on your wedding invitations, but have no idea how to assemble or adhere them onto your envelopes. Not to worry! I am sharing my favorite tips on vintage postage assembly with you today!

Step One: Organize Your Postage Stamps

When assembling your wedding invitations, I recommend that you start by organizing your stamps into individual piles (one pile for each stamp type that you plan on using on your envelopes). At this point, you should also separate and tear apart your vintage stamps if you have not already done that. As a FYI, most vintage stamps come in perforated sheets that need to be torn into individual stamps.

If you purchased your vintage postage stamps from us, you can skip this step! All of stamps are torn and separated in our studio for you, because we don’t want you to accidentally tear a stamp apart. We’re stamp cutting experts and want to make this process as easy and efficient as possible! Our orders are also individually packaged into neat little packages, separated by stamp type, to make this step super easy.

Step Two: Choose the Perfect Layout

After you have all of your postage stamps individually torn and in separate piles based on stamp type, think about the layout. If you are working with us on a custom postage collection, there is no need to worry about this part. During the design and curation process, we provide recommend layouts for our clients to help them visualize how the stamps will look on their envelopes.

Step Three: Pick A Way to Adhere Your Stamps

The overwhelming majority of vintage postage stamps are not self-adhesive, because they are super old and were issued before stickers were a thing. Instead, most vintage postage stamps have a gum on the backside that becomes sticks when moist. However, adhering your stamps can still be a super simple process. Depending on your preferences and the tools that you have handy, there are basically four ways to adhere vintage postage stamps to your envelopes:

(i) a good old fashioned lick - this method does not require any tools at all. However, this is may be tough to do if you are working with a large number of envelopes. You may also want to avoid the taste of old gum.

(ii) use an Elmer's glue stick

(iii) use a slightly moist sponge - you can tap the back side of each stamp on the moist sponge to activate the glue on each stamp. This is one of my favorite ways to adhere postage stamps when working with a large quantity.

(iv) use envelope moistener - this is my favorite method probably and I use this one. This envelope moistener has a little glue mixed into the formula, which is a great way to strengthen to the bond between the stamps and your envelopes!

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I hope this post was helpful and answered all of your question! If you have any other vintage stamp questions for me, just let me know and I'll answer them in another blog post!