How To Get My 10 Yrs Old Daughter A Stamp Album? (Version 2.0)

{Note: Apologies to all users who participated in my initial thread: I did not realize that one of my enthusiastic replies broke a rule. Admin removed that thread. Sorry about that.}

So my 10 yrs old is starting her journey in the word of Stamps! I am aware of the availability of some stamp albums for beginners like the "Junior Canada Stamp Album", but that is too costly for me.

I dabbled in the creation of an Album I could print, and I found AlbumEasy on this forum. I did a test drive, and it does make for awesome result... (see image) should one have the time & inclination to create all the pages for a 'complete' album... Not something I can attempt presently... (although I wish I could!)



After more searching around, I believe I found a good compromise. The Hamilon Stamp Club have some album pages to download; these cover Canadian stamps up to 2011. That's fine for now, as most of the stamps I can give her are pre-2000. The pages are simple squares, which will require her to actually match the year/value in the square, to the stamps number to identify what stamp goes where... Might be fun to search, as opposed to having a picture of the stamp. We will see...

I plan on printing *only* the sheets that she actually has ONE stamp available for - this way, she won't have an album full of white pages.

There is one thing I am uncertain:
Should I print on regular paper, or use a heavier stock? (I do have a pack of these 110lb sheets) - This would make for a thicker album. Perhaps printing on both sides would help alleviate this!?

In any case, we'll see how it goes - Hopefully, the stamp community will get another adept!

RiTz21

If you print on both sides, you'll probably need to interleave with glassine or put the pages into protectors to avoid the stamps' locking into one another. If you aren't using mounts, you can get away with lighter weight pages.

There are free Canada pages at France Timbres

http://www.album.france-timbres.net

I use 32 lb HP laserjet paper to print album pages. It works for me. Others prefer heavier paper. And some would argue that you should use archival (acid-free) paper.

RiTz21

A Junior Canada Stamp Album costs around C$55 at Arpin's. The way I figure it 1) once you have bought the chosen paper for printing your Album 2) once you keep buying "ink" for this project 3) once you calculate your "time" given to the project and "time" you will need......I think that an Album for your 10 yr old daughter would be "cost effective" +++ and she would be independent. When I started at 12 (or 11 ?) I was so proud to be able to work the stamps without having my father (a big collector) over my head all of the time. Just my opinion and wish you both the best for X-Mas......a X-mas gift !
Rene

I started double-sided printings the pages... but I had not though about that (i.e. stamps locking into stamps of the opposite page)! Did a quick search: $19 for 100 'glassine' sheets... dang :(
Perhaps being in a binder will prevent the stamps locking together if the pages are lifted upwards?



I did not find such on that site.


Did you print on both sides? Did you have issues with stamps locking together?



I spent over an hour tonight helping my daughter with her 'new' album... she had a lot of fun, and I made sure to do tasks she did not want to do (like looking up stamps numbers for her) - I am aware of the $63 price tag at arpin (I included the taxes), but I think I am having too much fun with these simple album pages... AND the great thing is that I will be easily able to create the missing years with AlbumEasy (in a similar font/layout)!

For now, I just printed 1990-1993. Here is what it looks like in her small binder:

The album pages we have don't have stamp number, so we added them by hand.

RiTz21

Looks like a very fun project, good work Mom!

Father/daughter fun. Excellent.

Although your daughter's collection will not require stamp mounts, I'm adding this post for interest only.
Happy to hear of your daughter's interest in the hobby.
She will seek her own collecting method path in the future, but is enjoying time with her dad in the present.

I've been using 80 to 110 pound white paper for about 30 years.
As my stamps are 99% mint, and enclosed in stamp mounts, instead of applying hinges, acid free paper is not needed.
I've never lost a stamp because of the paper.

Thanks! I am actually having a lot of fun with my daughter and her enthusiasm is quite contagious! BTW, I'm a guy... :P



Yep yep! Even better: She was studying her history book for school and there was a small capsule about a legendary hero of the Past... a Mighty lumberjack named Jos Montferrand! As it turned out, she had placed that exact stamp in her album a couple of days prior to that! So it was awesome to see how stamps represent part of our history... and a good example for her!



Glad to see I'm not the only one using this thick paper! lol
I actually *asked* her which paper she wanted... the normal kind, or this cardboard like one... she chose the 110 lb one. I had a pack of those, but I am almost OUT of stock since I began printing the pages...

UPDATE:
I printed the pages from 1979 up to around 1996. I don't have stamps beyond 96, so I will hold off printing 97-2017 for now. Below is a picture of her proudly presenting her album :)
Note that I only provide her with the printed sheets... it's her work to hinge all the stamps in her album! lol

I need to figure out how to get her the 97-2017 years. I think I'll start a new thread about that, to avoid mixing this thread with another topic.

RiTz21

@RiTz21

I print my pages single sided, specifically to avoid stamps "catching" on each other.

RiTz21

What about the pre-1979 stamps ?
Hi to your daughter !


...and as mentioned by dkabq8, I would not print on both sides unless you use some seperation

What a great dad/daughter project (sorry I said mom!), and she is darling! She will remember this and treasure it for the rest of her life. You are an amazing father, thumbs up!

This has not been an issue yet... but perhaps it will. I'll keep monitoring for this. I'll also tell her to 'lift' the pages carefully when turning them! Someone mentioned 'glassine' to place between the pages - I did a quick check but these glassine pages seem costly for this project.



I'll print them later... I find these to be 'dull' compared to the more recent stamps! (I'm trying to look at it from her perspective.. HEHE I probably print 1965-1978, as I have most of these [used] stamps on hand.



Thanks! *blushing*
I'll admit that I've had a ton of fun with her... and it re-ignited my own interest in stamps!

This morning, while she was in school, I drew some guidelines for the series of stamps 1524, which has 12 stamps (some trees) - This way, she'll be able to just hinge each of these in the proper place, so that it looks good on paper... I'll post an image once she's done with it :)


RiTz21

As promised, ***Link Removed*** is the image of the stamps, as she hinged them in her album! (I uploaded it to TINY PIC a direct link, as it is larger than 200k - I hope this does not break any rules!?) She decided to put a little sticker on all the 'completed' pages... hence the little baby tiger at the bottom! LOL

RiTz21


***I removed the TinyPic link. Tinypic has a number of potential issues. First, some users may see a popup stating that their drivers are not up-to-date. DO NOT click on this. Second, TinyPic 'reuses' the image file names and paths. So if you delete an image, any time in the future they may re-assign the same file name and path to a new image (an image that may or may not be suitable to all viewers!). If anyone has issues with posting images, please send me a note and I will get your images posted. - Don (51Studebaker)***

Do not know what Tiny Pic is but on that site there are other photographs I would not let my daughter see.....and they suddenly appear after your stamp page !