Ordering Custom Postage Stamps

Wedding invitations, birth announcements and graduation announcements are just a few of the special occasions where a simple postage stamp just won’t do. Turn your wedding photo, baby’s picture or senior picture into custom postage stamps for an extra special memory. These stamps can also be designed with a business logo, college emblem, NASCAR or whatever image reflects you or your business. Custom postage stamps are recognized by the U. S. Postal Service and can be ordered in different postal values, from post cards to large packages.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Digital camera
• Photo editing software

1. Take a picture of whatever you want for the customized postage stamps. Try to fill the entire picture frame with the object. Take several pictures from different angles, so you can select and work with the best one.

2. Download one of the photo editing programs from the Custom Postage page on the United States Postal Service website (see Resources). If you have a photo editing program--like Micorsoft PictureIt or Microsoft Office Picture Manager--you don't need to download this program.

3. 
    
   Picture of Dexter selected to become a customized stamp

   Upload the pictures you took and select the one you want to customize. Edit the picture by rotating, cropping, zooming in or out or any other the other features in the program. Save all the photos that you took until you are completely finished; these photo editing programs allow you to cut and paste bits from photographs together to create a completely new picture. When you are satisfied with the picture, save it as a JPEG.

4. Go to the United States Postal Service website. Click "All Products and Services" and under the A-D category, select "Customized Postage." This will open a webpage displaying the 4 different companies--PictureItPostage, PhotoStamps, Stamp Expressions Personal Postage and Zazzle--you can use to create the postage stamp. Each company has different features; some offer images including NASCAR, Disney, NFL teams or colleges in addition to creating a stamp from a picture. The cost for the stamps will be the same for all 4 companies; the only difference will be the shipping costs and times.

5. Select the company you want and upload the saved picture. It will appear in a stamp template so adjust the picture to fit. You can click and drag the image to center it, zoom in or out and create a border. Some of the programs allow you to insert text. When you are finished with the picture, click "Continue," which will take you to the order page.

6. Order the type and number of stamps you want. They will come in sheets of 20 stamps and the price decreases for larger orders. The United States Postal Service will require a credit card for ordering custom postage stamps.

Tips & Warnings

• The finished stamps are 1.9 x 1.4 inches. The photo area is 1.1 x 1.1 inches.
• You are not committed to purchasing the stamps until you place the order, so experiment with each of these companies before ordering your stamps to see which one makes your pictures look best.

Resources

• United States Postal Service