Here's a little project I completed recently for my @jococruise friends in the postcard group. Since 2022 I've sent them 46 monthly #fauxstage issues that totaled 304 different stamps. It was high time for a stamp album.
#fauxpostage #fauxpostagestamps #artistamps #wickedbearpress
The JoCo Passporto treasure hunt on @jococruise this year turned out to be a lot of fun. Many thanks to @foiledagainchocolate for the awesome custom chocolate coin treasure. Scott (the proprietor) was super easy to work with on the artwork to make sure we got good results. The minimum order for custom work is 500 pcs @ 45 cents each and there is a $69 die charge for each customized side. That might seem a little steep but remember, these are proper Callebaut Belgian chocolate, not that horrible waxy crap you might remember from your childhood. Lead time was a couple of weeks and they delivered ahead of schedule. We couldn’t be happier with the results. No relationship with them beyond being a happy (hopefully repeat) customer.
#jocopassporto #wickedbearpress
Should you visit Loreto, BCS? Yes, yes you should. Even if you don’t get to see @realjonathancoulton play live in the town square on a beautiful spring evening the place is great. Low key, no hassle, great food and drink. GO TO LORETO!
Sticking strips of #fauxstage stamps together to make a proper coil of stamps for the on-board postcard on JoCo Cruise 15. I can’t recall where I saw the tip to use a watercolorist’s water brush to wet stamps and seal envelopes but it is the perfect tool for this task. The tabs that join the strips are small and the coil is cumbersome to manipulate. Bringing the water to the tab, then lining them up and sticking them down is the way to go.
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#fauxpostage #artistamps #mailart #wickedbearpress
Sweet, sweet #fauxstage from the January APA bundle by @chezcerise . Love the Mushroom Border, an original design and hot metal type casting from @bowerbox .
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#letterpress #metaltype fauxpostage fauxpostagestamps #fauxstagestamps artistamps
TFW at least a third of the time I forget to hide the fake perfs before I print #fauxstage 🙄. Good thing I have a LOT of gummed paper. Another design for my postcard friends on @jococruise , this time with a portrait that vaguely resembles @realjonathancoulton . Based on a 1923 stamp from Dominica.
#fauxpostage #mailart #artistamps #wickedbearpress
Diagonal perfing worked pretty well, all in all, thanks to the @allhalediana method for aligning perforations (link in bio to a description of the method). But these stamps are just too small. They're only about 2/3 the size of the Nyassa Company stamp I started with. Time for another try, maybe at 80%? 100% just seems way too big.
#fauxstage #fauxpostage #fauxpostagestamps #artistamps #wickedbearpress
Here’s another #fauxstage issue for my friends in the @jococruise postcard group. I’m having too much fun with these mashups of classic stamps to quit. The original of this one is a 1924 postage due stamp from the chartered Nyassa Company in Portuguese Mozambique. Perfing these will be interesting because the triangle on the original is not quite symmetrical. What better way to get going on my first triangular issue 😁
#fauxpostage #artistamps
#wickedbearpress
Here's a quick tour of the 2026 JoCo Passporto for the upcoming @jococruise . This year we've gone full pirate and, in addition to the usual pages for stamps, we've added some special pages. The first page has space for a name & picture in case a Passporto goes astray. The next spread holds the day/port stamps & (dis)embark stamps. Then there's a spread with spots for the deck stamps. Finally, the center spread is a treasure map! Follow the clues to find treasure chests containing more clues & special stamps for the map. Find the last chest and treasure awaits.
Cover stock is 110# Gmund Leather in coal black with matte silver hot foil courtesy of @sweetbippypress . Interior pages are 80# French Paper Aged Parchtone printed by a little Canon ink jet printer. What a workhorse! All 623 copies hand bound by @tristancolson42 . What a trooper! 1869 edges lovingly scorched and charred by me without a single burnt finger. Whew!
Plenty of tasks still need finishing for the project (treasure chests!), but we'll get there.
Oh, yeah and the rousing pirate music is "The Buccaneer's Haul" by Silverman Sound Studios (/silvermansound).
#letterpress #letterpressprinting #handbinding #handbookbinding #jocopassporto #jococruise #wickedbearpress
How do you DIY a coil of #fauxstage stamps? Simple enough. Print sheets of stamps, perforate them in one direction, cut them into strips the other direction, and join the strips together with tabs on the ends made from the sheet margins.
#fauxstage #fauxpostage #fauxpostagestamps #fauxstagestamps #artistamps #mailart #wickedbearpress #jococruise
Time for another #fauxstage issue for JoCo Cruise postcard crew. This one is based on a 1925 Polish issue. These sure are a lot of fun to make. I plan to use these for "mailing" souvenir postcards on the cruise so I'll make them in a coil format instead of sheets.
#fauxstage #fauxpostage #fauxpostagestamps #fauxstagestamps #artistamps #mailart #wickedbearpress
“Hey Tom, haven’t seen you around the past few weeks. What’s going on?”
“Ah, it’s that time again, is it? See you next year!”
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#letterpress #letterpressprinting #hotfoil #hotfoilstamping #jococruise #jocopassporto #wickedbearpress @sweetbippypress@jococruise
