Your Artwork on Personalized Postage

Artists, take note! If you like to draw or paint, or if your children do, it could be great fun to put one of your creations on a personalized PhotoStamp®. It’s quite easy to do, and doesn’t take long. It’s legal postage, available in seven denominations, for postcards to packages.

First you need to have a digitized form of your art, that is, a .jpg or other computer file. If you have a scanner, that’s one way to get it, but we find that taking a digital photo is often easier. If you take several photos as long as your camera is out anyway, then you can choose the best one, paying attention particularly to being in focus.

If you don’t have a scanner or digital camera, chances are someone in your family, a friend, or a neighbor does. Maybe you could offer to give them some of the personalized postage you will end up with in exchange for their help.

Once you have the image, if you use Photoshop Elements or any other graphics program, you can open the file in that program and adjust the color, crop it to be square, and generally play with it in any way you want. This step is optional, though.

Next, you upload the file to the company that makes the actual postage. There are several companies, but I prefer the market leader, the company that pioneered this process, Stamps.com. (You can use the link at the left side of any page of this website.) They walk you through the steps of uploading, adding a border to the image, and ordering. Your personalized postage will soon be gracing envelopes, and your family and friends will be enjoying it.