Perforating at Home

Oh, stamp edges, how we love you! Over the years, I've amassed quite a tool box for recreating the uniformly ragged edge of the postage stamp using things I have at home. Although I did eventually break down and buy a pair of Fiskars stamp-edge scissors, depending on what I'm doing, I'll use any of these other methods.

The Threadless Needle

You can do this one manually or with a machine. It works best with a machine. For the manual technique, draw a faint pencil line where you want your perforations to go and carefully punch the needle through the paper at regular intervals. You can do it by eye or measure it out with a ruler. If you have a pair of connected stamps, you can use them as a template. Just hold the holes over the line you want to perforate and insert the needle through each of the holes. Obviously, this takes a long time. It goes much faster and is more uniform with a sewing machine. Just run your paper through without threading the needle and you'll have a row of neat little holes.

Pinking Shears

These are the scissors that people cut fabric with to help avoid frayed edges. The zig-zag cuts from these sawtoothed scissors leave a more impressionistic version of a stamp edge, but they get the job done and is sometimes just the sort of look you want.

The One-Hole Punch

Say you're making a big stamp. A big stamp is going to need bigger perforations. Enter the one-hole puncher. Just measure out where you'd like your holes to go and pop them out. Then slice midway through the hole and viola, a giant stamp edge.

Metal Edge Perf

This is the newest technique I've discovered by reading the Just Something I Made blog. I was skeptical at first, but I tried it out and it does sort of work, especially if you're going for a more rustic feel. You'll need a box of plastic wrap or similar item with a sharp toothed metal cutting edge. Fold your paper over the edge and run your finger nail or a bone folder across it until the points just peek through. Then you can tear at the crease and create your stamp edge.

 
If you give any of these a try, let us know how they work for you! Share your postal projects and mail art over on our Flickr group and let's all write more letters!

Comments

[jen : painted fish studio]

i've had success using a tracing wheel (i had to look up what it was called because i'm not a sewer!). i use a ruler, and run the wheel along the edge and it does a pretty good job of perforating paper. maybe rustic is a good word for it?

[Buwuzhengye.wordpress.com]

How small are the peforations from the Fiskars scissors? I'm curious to see the results.

[kimberly]

I've been considering those Fiskars ones for awhile now...I just might have to break down & get them now because sometimes I like things uniform & not too rustic :)

[Donovan]

Here's an example of the Fiskars cut: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donovan_beeson/5897657629/in/set-72157600845966133/

[Lori]

I found a pair of Stamp scissors on the WalMart app. I went ahead and ordered them, do there are 2 pair left. They are Dovecraft Creative Edge Stamp scissors sold by Modellbahn Ott Hobbies Inc.

Looks like it has a curve connected by a line connecting to a curve. Not quite what USPS stamps’ edges look like. But now I can download some of the member stamps once I buy the sticker paper.