The Many Uses Of Rubber Stamps

Rubber stamps have become widely popular over the last few years. Previously, rubber stamps were used for business purposes only, but people today now use rubber stamps extensively for craft projects. Nowadays, rubber-stamping has become a fantastic hobby where an individual can create all sorts of designs by using rubber stamps. For this hobby, obviously rubber stamps carved with different designs on the rubber is essential, as well as ink pad that is used to transfer the designs from these rubber stamps onto a medium like pieces of cloth, paper, or card.

Decorative rubber stamps, also called art stamps, are used extensively in homemade craft projects. Decorative art stamps leave a lasting image on the page and create wonderful paint designs on a wide range of surfaces. Art stamps can be used to decorate scrapbooks or to add color and variety to photo albums. Art stamps are also used on letters, greetings cards, birthday and Christmas cards, banners and flyers to give a personalized touch. Art stamps can also be used to decorate notebooks, stationery and holiday wrapping paper. Either one stamp design, or two or more complementary designs can be used at a time to embellish a single paper.

Art rubber stamps can be painted with fabric paint to create a decorative border design on a piece of fabric or an existing garment. The paint used should blend nicely with the fabric to give a personal touch to items such as tablecloths and napkins. Since rubber stamps can also be used on hard surfaces like wood or metal, hard items such as trunks, jewelry boxes and picture frames can also be decorated with rubber stamps. The paints used to decorate these hard surface items should be appropriate for the item's surface to get a good result. You can create elegant decorative borders, decorate a child's room, or design walls and ceilings with rubber stamps.

Care should be taken to choose the correct size of the rubber stamp. Small stamps should be used for stationery and wrapping paper, and extra-large stamps to decorate walls and ceilings. Paints should be applied to rubber stamps with a paint pen, small brush or the traditional stamp pad and rinsed immediately after use.

Much earlier rubber stamps had to be ordered or bought from office supply stores when needed. But today rubber stamps are available everywhere from local supermarkets to online sites that sell stamps of varied uses and designs. With the popularity of rubber-stamping, numerous books and magazines devoted to rubber-stamping are available both in the stores and on internet sites and display a varied range of rubber stamp craft projects.

For more on Rubber Stamps visit Susan's sites Custom Rubber Stamp and Wholesale Rubber Stamp. Susan also enjoys writing on a wide range of topics at Shopping and Society.

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The 3 Highest Priced Postages In The Stamp Collecting World

In the fascinating world of stamp collecting, the collectible status of a particular postage stamp is determined by its value, and value is determined by rarity.

The rarer the postage stamp is, the higher the price it will command.

Hence, stamp collectors from all over the world are on a constant crusade to find and acquire the rarest stamps of today. Not only will such postage stamps become the crowning glory of their collection, not only will the possession of the same provide a very rewarding experience, but the fact that such rare stamps will only fetch higher values as the years go by could only mean promising things for enterprising hobbyists.

So, which of the hundreds of thousands of stamps that have been published in the past 4 centuries can be considered as the rarest of the rare in the stamp collecting industry?

Here's a list of the 3 rarest and most valuable postage stamps of today straight from prominent stamp collecting databases.

1. Sweden Three Skilling Banco, Yellow, 1855. Published 15 years after the very first postal stamp was introduced to the world, the Sweden Three Skilling Banco, though commanding a fair price in today's market, isn't really what we can consider as a "big game." Rather, it's its yellow counterpart - a printing error - that stamp collecting hobbyists are going ga-ga about. Fetching the highest price for a stamp at $2.3 million, one thing is certain about this particular stamp: only one person can ever own it. All indications point to the conclusion that this stamp is unique, and there is exists nothing like it in every nook and cranny of stamp collecting.

2. Post Office Mauritius, 1847. Published by the British colony of Mauritius as the very first stamp it has ever issued, this piece of collectible fetches an average of $600,000 not because of its historic significance, but because of another printing error. There are 2 types of this stamp, one is a 1 penny stamp, and the other is a 2 pennies stamp. It is said that 200 copies of both stamps bear the words "Post Office" instead of the mark "Post Paid." Though 200 copies were erroneously distributed, only a handful ever saw light in the stamp collecting world. In 1993, these 2 stamps bearing the same error were sold for a whopping $3.8 million.

3. U.S. Franklin Z-Grill, 1867. In 1867, a new technology was introduced to stamp publishing: the Z-grill. It was discovered that during such period, many people actually cheated the requirement of paying for postage stamps by using old ones and erasing the ink mark. The Z-grill was supposed to make the stamp absorb the ink in a more effective way that will render its cancellation impossible. The cost of production for canvasses with Z-grills, however, was deemed impractical as it will cause a significant increase in postal fees. However, several copies of the U.S. Franklin stamp, which used the Z-grill canvasses, were released. Only 2, however, are known to the stamp collecting community, both of which fetched an average of @ 930,000.

The stamp collecting values of these rarities are sure to rise even further in the coming years. This is testament to the established nature of the postage stamp collecting industry and the timeless appeal and significant postal history of these collectibles.

Stamp collecting is a fascinating hobby, isn't it? Find out more about stamp collecting as a hobby and it's interesting history by visiting my website today ==>http://www.stampcollectinghobby.net

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Date Stamp Kits

Date stamp kits are customizable stamping packs comprised of stamp mount, black inkpad, type/character and tweezers. The kit usually contains rubber stamps month tiles January to December, abbreviated month titles from JAN to DEC, years, numbers 1 through 31, and st, nd, rd, and th. Text can be changed using the ribbed rubber characters that come with the stamp kit. Additional stamp sayings, alphabets, and ornaments or magnet base are also sold separately.

Affixing date on documents is a crucial procedure in inward and outward departments of government agencies, and other offices, because, at times, there are legal implications associated with such date. Writing dates manually on a large bunch of documents is labor intensive. Such a task is also monotonous, and therefore prone to human errors. Date stamp kits can be used to address these issues by creating required message and date stamp.

Magnetic stamp kits are one of the popular varieties of date stamp kits. Each kit contains individual magnetic-backed stamps that attach to magnetic stamp base. These kits feature plenty of ways to customize words together. Packaged in a tin for easy storage, they can be used to create date for embellishing photos. Each piece of text has a magnetic backing that attaches to the base. A line on the base helps in achieving a straight line; although stamps can be scattered on the base for a fun and unusual look.

Electronic date stamp kits can be used to create customized text and date combinations more conveniently. These kits also facilitate consistent impressions along with adjustable stamping force for multi-copy forms.

Date Stamps provides detailed information on Date Stamps, Date Stamp Kits, Custom Date Stamps, Electronic Date Stamps and more. Date Stamps is affiliated with Email Stationery.

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