Getting to the end now

... so you may notice, I've listed a bunch more items in the Great Southern Stamp Sale. Including this Teddy on a Rocket. No, me neither. But I have grouped it with a delightful PSX word stamp, so this is sure to find a home.

All the items (well almost all) are priced at a positively embarrassing $1 starting price. That's just to assure you that I do want to clear these last few stamps, and get my garage space back.

There are a few more lots to do - maybe 10 more lots. I'll do them later today. Here's the link to the sale.

And just quietly, this weekend is a good time to browse on eBay. All sellers have been extended a freebie of 200 listings, meaning we are all getting a big break on selling fees. As a result, lots of people like me have brought out the box of "I must sell those one day" items. You might see some treasures.

See ya on Sunday!

Quick update, folks. I'm away this weekend, so any questions you happen to ask won't get answered until Sunday afternoon or evening. I hope that won't be a problem.

In the meantime, let's ponder the usefulness of this alphabet stamp set. That white "L" shaped thingy is a stamp positioner, an item everyone needs. Well, everyone who likes precisely positioning stamps, that is. And the letters themselves, well, they are open and cheerful, perfect for stamping complete non-sequiters on your work. Or nice messages like "Hi There".

The lower case version of this alphabet is for sale too. I have noticed over the years that I very rarely use "Sentence Case" in my super-arty creations, I always go with all "UPPER CASE" or all "lower case". So that's my justification for offering the two sets separately.

By the way, did you know, when you see a made up word like "BingleDumpf Software" or "AppleHalibut Pies", that's an example of "camel case". Or should I say, "CamelCase".

See, you learn stuff here.

Lexicophiles, unite!

Do you know, there's a cool way of getting ANY message stamped on a greeting card? You don't have to be limited to "Happy Birthday" and "Season's Greetings" any more. You can stamp messages like "Hope your headphones still work after you put them in the washing machine!"

It's called ... using alphabet stamps.

Oh, alright, I know, some people love them, and some people think picking out the message one letter at a time is the biggest bother ever. I'm in the first group.

The particular PSX alphabet would NOT have been in the sale, except that I already owned it. I love it! So one of you can have this copy of it.





Here's the latest thing I made with MY copy of the Sketch Box alphabet.

I've listed a bunch of nice alphabets, and some number sets too. I wondered about how to group them, but I realised you guys know what you want, so it's basically one set per listing.

You'll notice the auctions for the alphabet stamps are finishing BEFORE the words, fish and garden stamps. There's a terribly good reason for that, and it has to do with how eBay charges for its services, when my birthday is, and when Doctor Who is on. I won't bother you with the details. Just trust that it makes perfect sense.

More sentimental and flowery

There are yet more word stamps in the sale now. These are the ones from companies other than PSX. Lots of styles and brands represented.

And there's yet more flowers - there are various brands and styles. These ones are from Penny Black, quite, quite gorgeous.

Get your fish stamps here (mermaids too)

I've added more goodies to the Great Southern Stamp Sale. Recent boxes to be opened were :
- non-PSX Garden
- non-PSX Words
- fish (yes, fish, Ellen had a whole box of fish stamps)

These mermaids are lurking amongst the fish. They are pretty gorgeous!

Here's something unusual in the fish department - a Coral Trout, in both small and large sizes. These come from Stamp-It, a Western Australian company that is still trading today (and has a gorgeous shop I visit on holidays most years). There are three of these pairs of big-and-little fish. I decided to keep the same fish together - you can make a pretty card with the big one, and decorate the envelope with the little one! Interestingly, these are made in both rubber and polymer - the smaller ones are rubber, the bigger ones are polymer. What does this mean? I don't know! Maybe Stamp-It were experimenting, and Ellen was their tester? Anyway, a stamp curiosity for the right person.

And here's one of the other lots. A whole bunch of PSX medium sized fish. Sigh. The best fish stamps you will see all day, I expect.

Here's the link to the sale.

How much is left in the sale?

So, how much is left?

That's what everyone is asking me. 

Well, here's a shot of my garage right now. Everything that's sold is either in the mail, or getting ready to be. 

So, the RIGHT stack is all the stamps that have not yet been offered in the sale. They are next. We have :

-  non-PSX text stamps

- non-PSX flower and garden stamps

- alphabets

- Easter

- and fish. Whole box of fish. Has some mermaids.

Just to be smart with seasons, I might leave the Easter stamps to offer after Christmas, when we are all able to thing eastery thoughts. Otherwise, I'm just going to list when I have time (it does cut into the weekends rather a lot). 

The stack on the left are odds and sods. Some have been offered for sale, and didn't get bought. A few are duplicates. Some, I just threw my hands up and declared "this stamp is so odd, nobody will want it!". But there's a stamper for every stamp, so no sense in leaving them in a box in my garage. My plan is to offer them for sale too, probably at very nice prices. That will be at the end. 

November's a busy time around here, I have a birthday to fit in, so the next round may squeeze in to December. And I reckon we'll be doing the finishing touches in January. It's been fun so far, and everyone's been delightful!

Some Aussie stamps from the archives

Here's something I found in a very old stamping magazine.

This is a set of four really gorgeous Aussie flower stamps.

 I can't offer you the set of four, but I'm happy to say I have two of these in the Great Southern Stamp Sale!

I think you're all missing something!

Now, obviously, the buyers in the Great Southern Stamp Sale are thoughtful and discerning shoppers. However, at the time of writing, nobody has bid on this marvellous lot!

See, we have a gorgeous and detailed fire hydrant, USA style. And, um, a boot. You can't tell me that's not a useful combo.

It was late and I was getting tired!

Are any of these stamps famous?

So, you know that the Great Southern Stamp Sale is on, and it's full of top quality interesting stamps. But, I hear you cry, are any of them actually famous? Have any of them, oh, let's say, appeared in magazines?

Well, yes, I have found one, and there could easily be more.

In a recent dive through the stamping archives, I found this magazine:

Turns out, this early issue of Stamping and Papercraft had a project by Ellen Eadie.

Here it is :

It's a lovely journal cover, on a fishing theme. This looks like it was early in Ellen's career, she didn't even get a byline.

But, the instructions do show how to ink up a stamp with markers, and there's an illustration.

This, I am quite sure, is a photo of the very stamp I have for sale.

So there you go!

Looking for Fairyland stamps from Stamp World

All this interest in Ida Rentoul Outhwaite stamps has started because yet another collector has contacted me through the Great Southern Stamp Sale, taking me up on the "if you don't ask, you don't get" offer. He (yes, he's a guy) collects Ida Rentoul Outhwaite items, and is finding that this prolific and popular artist is not that well represented. He'd really like all the "fairyland" stamps, which were made by Stamp World. I think they were in the range up to about 1996 to 2000, then were removed from the range (probably for a good reason, like a licensing agreement running out). 

So I did more research, this time going into the stamping archives (that is, my bookshelves). I have issue 2 of the Rubber Gazette, the fabulous stamping magazine (back at issue 2 it was calling itself a newsletter still). This one is from April 1996. And what do we find on the back cover? Stamp World was the regular advertiser on the back cover in those days. And here's a close up of two of the stamps we are looking for.

And here's the one example from the Fairyland stamps that I have for sale. 

So, the search is on. If you have any of these Ida Rentoul Outhwaite stamps sitting unneeded in your collection, let me know, and we can redistribute them to people who really want them!

Oh, and here's the front cover of the second ever Rubber Gazette. The only one I don't have is number One. Anyone?

More Ida Rentoul Outhwaite discoveries

Another little discovery as I search for Ida Rentoul Outhwaite rubber stamps: St Marks church in Fitzroy has four beautiful windows designed by Ida. Look at this link to see where they are, and how to get to seem them.

I looked up the address - well, that's a few minute's walk from my work! I might gather up a few like minded workmates (we work in IT, so everyone's interested in everything) and make a visit.

Fairies and Witches - we're tracking them down!

Do you remember my post a little way back, where a keen stamper was looking for another copy of this pretty stamp from Stamp World?

Well, I haven't found one!

But I have got more information!

The artist is, of course, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, a Melbourne artist born in 1888. She was prolific, and created many illustrations that were published around the world.

Here is the original illustration of the Little Witch (I'm including the link to wikipedia here).

And Amazon will show you this book, Elves and Fairies.




And, Australia Post issued a stamp featuring this very witch (actually commemorating the book as a classic Australian children's book), in 1985.

Fun fact : in 1985, I was working for Australia Post (wait for it) selling stamps to collectors! How could I forget that this stamp was released during that time? Not only that, one mad (postage) stamp collector wrote to us and asked if there were any mushrooms visible on the stamp, because he only collected postage stamps with mushrooms on them. Yes, a mycophilatelist. I took on the task of answering him, and examined a poster sized reproduction of the stamp. I was able to report an absence of mushrooms. So you see, rubber stamp collectors are not the only overly keen collectors.

And here's a link to a close up of the postage stamp. See, the mushrooms that are in the original illustration don't turn up on the stamp. Don't worry, I've always been a good researcher.

And another very interesting link I can show you is this:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010502101521/http://www.stampworld.com.au/sw29.shtml

It's a link to the archive of Stamp World's catalogue, as it was back in 2001. You will see that the illustrations don't match the list of stamp names. BUT, the stamp names show use the full range of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite stamps that Phil at Stamp World was offering at the time.

So, I feel like we're getting there.

That's a huge male hen!

So many jokes, and so inappropriate in this friendly setting.
So I'll just alert you to the fact that this boy chicken stamp is for sale in the Great Southern Stamp Sale (which means, it's on ebay, at this link.)

Of course, now that I look at it, I wonder if it's a man or a lady fowl. Someone will surely tell me.

There was a box of stamps labelled "Birds", and they are all in the sale now. If you are a bird liker like me, there's some good gear.




Another stamp listed is one of the simply GORGEOUS PSX bird stamps. It's the Blue Tit, so fortunately no gags there.

Dud stamps, oh my!

In every collection of rubber stamps, there are sure to be a few duds. Ones where the rubber hasn't been looked after, or that got handled a bit roughly. And this collection is no different. Ellen mostly kept her stamps in good condition (stained from regular use of course) but I found this ONE minuscule star stamp, which has badly damaged rubber.

It's shocking, I know.

But I thought I'd show it to you, so let you know I am being vigilant for things I shouldn't be passing on.

But ... Can I throw it away? I do have a few tiny unmounted stamps... Maybe one of them can hitch a ride on this good mount.

By the way, they say baby oil is very BAD for rubber stamps (some people use it to clean then, and I don't believe that's a good idea). Sunlight definitely is bad for rubber. A good commercial stamp cleaner is a good investment. I use the Stampin' Up one, and it works a treat. And if that's not available, I use an old face washer and water.