Canceling A Cover

I am making a hand painted cover for my father. I purchased some old FDR stamps off of ebay. Can the Post Office cancel them first day of issue? I would just ask my dad but it is going to be a surprise. Thanks in advance

Additionally, I am open for suggestions. I am doing a watercolor painting of FDR on 8 x 11 paper. I am then going to scan it and print it on the cover. I painted one on a watercolor envelope and it looked kid of cheesy.I bought these stamps... Should I just put a removable address label on it and send it to him? I could use the block or a combo of 2 20 cent from the block and a 5 cent and 1 cent. Sorry if this is a stupid post but I have no idea. I just like making these for my father, he loves them. Usually I will do one prior to the day of the stamp issue and take it in to the Post Office and they carefully cancel them.

Hello thebeav, welcome to Stamp Community!

Usually a person is Not allowed to back-date a cancel or postmark. It is probably all the time you are not allowed actually.

If the stamps were mailed today, or taken to a post office friendly to stamp collectors, you would get a nice cancel (round with bars to the right side?) on the stamps.

Even this, with the nice stamps affixed, and your artwork, would be very nice.

Which stamps to use and the arrangement is beyond me. Perhaps the 4 different in the center and one of each of the 20c on either side flanking the four? Just an idea.

Thanks for the reply. Good idea. I will have to play around with it once the painting is done and scanned onto the cover.