Don't Let Extra Stamps Go To Waste, Use Them For This Wall Décor DIY

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Snail mail has been almost entirely replaced by digital communication. Email, social media, and messaging apps give you the thrill of a quick response from a friend in New Zealand or a cousin in Germany. Still, part of the charm of finding a letter in the mailbox was admiring the stamp. Lots of us have held onto these sentimental communiques, including the envelope. These postage stamps are mini works of art better displayed on a wall than stuffed into a shoebox. Arranged in a frame, surrounded by a mat or not, artfully exhibited stamp collections add a personal touch to your home décor.

Not everyone has a stash of stamps from far away lands. However, attractive domestic stamps, an heirloom collection, or packs of vintage stamps bought secondhand will all work just as well for this DIY wall décor project. All you need is a hangable base for a background, a pair of scissors, and some craft glue, like Mod Podge, or D-YNX Double-Sided Adhesive Dots.

Why not keep it cheap by upcycling a thrifted frame to make one-of-a-kind wall art? You can add a few coats of paint to nearly any object with a large, flat, smooth surface, like a painted canvas or print stretched on a frame. Pick a hue you spot across many of the stamps you plan to use in your art creation, or choose a contrasting color that makes the stamps really pop. Thick paper cardstock or watercolor paper could also work as a backdrop and reinforce the thin paper of the stamps themselves.

Ready to repurpose old canvas wall art into a stunning new DIY home décor piece using stamps? Depending on what kind of base you've selected, it may need to be disassembled and embellished. Most frames have a removable back, which you can replace with cardstock or watercolor paper, if available. If your stamps are attached to envelopes, trimming away as much of the paper might be all it takes to get them ready to hang. Without this extra layer, aged or vintage stamps may be too fragile to work with. You can also soak the stamp in cold water for up to an hour to loosen it from the envelope paper, which is how philatelists (serious stamp collectors) do it.

Mock up a few stamp arrangements before gluing them to the backdrop. Follow the rule of thirds for collaging, where you divide your page into a three-by-three grid and position your most impactful stamps along the lines. Take photographs of each layout using your smartphone so you can review them afterward and select a favorite. The photo helps you recreate it easily. Glue or otherwise affix the stamps to the background according to your layout. Then pop the piece back into its frame and hang it somewhere that will bring you joy. To create a paper tole or 3D decoupage effect, affix the stamps to the background using thick Tikfoam Double-Sided Adhesive Foam Dots. Note that you'll need a shadow box or a frame with a thick mat or spacers for this technique.