Show your DIY album pages

Here is a work in progress- I have not started loading yet as I'm not certain nif I will stay with this... or if I should add Scott# (Maury and Yvert appear to use same number), but as Maury is my main reference ( I have Scott classic specialized... but I find it lacking in details )

the boxes are the exact size of the mount, so assuming I get the mount on correctly, there would be no border/frame

Printed only on one side, but placed into sheet protectors with a "back page " which is also only printed on one side.  I like the 2 page open book appearance

I use Scribus 1.5.4

Just as a comparison ro René's (renden ) 1947-1949 page, here is mine...



I was hemming and hawing about whether or not to include the higher value stamps (definitives) ,with the commemoratives. At this point, Canada altered the way the definitives were issued. They used to all have a similar appearance, but no more. So, on re-mounting what I had, I decided to mix up the higher, mis-matched values with the commemoratives. For the designs of the stamps, I like this format better. And of course, I like the coloured paper.

Very nice Pete and you use background colored paper (carton or else) - A little too much info for me as I have Unitrade 2019 catalog and you probably have it too and the "time" factor is important to me.....I do not want to spend the rest of my "stamping" life making pages like a real Editor does (my dad was an Editor of a newspaper)........neat.....brief.......for me - but this thread is a discussion and I certainly respect your work !!
René

Hi Clivel


I assume you are in the US.  Try a small local print shop, at least for the paper.  The small print shops are very accommodating.  You may find that they can supply binders also.

JerryB

First of all, many thanks to tobben63 for starting this thread, and to everyone else for the great contributions and the excellent work you have done. I am impressed, and we haven’t even had the comments yet from Jon (blaamand) and his amazing DIY album pages.

As I mentioned in the thread about how to organize WW collections, I am trying out the idea of using stock pages instead of album pages mostly because I find mounting stamps to be tedious and not enjoyable.

The challenge for me with using stock pages will be figuring out what information I want alongside the stamps and where to put it or how to do it. It seems to me that this is a similar challenge for the DIY page designer.

I think that I will want to have info for the stamps that conveys aspects that are not obvious just by looking at them. In that respect, a catalogue number seems quite good, as by going to the reference, you can find out the details. But that means that you are constantly using the catalogue, too. That’s not necessarily bad, but just another thing that you have to do.

That’s one of the reasons why I like Jon’s custom pages so much: he puts a lot of the key info to identifying the stamps right on the album page.

From my point of view, I will try to find a way to include info about the stamps that distinguishes one variety from another, such as watermark, perforations, color shades, etc. But I probably won’t bother with obvious information like denominations, unless they appear as symbols that I could not otherwise read, such as on some of my Hejaz stamps.

Anyway, great thread and discussion.... really enjoying it!

Another excellent thread, thanks tobben63 for starting it as well as to all useful posts.

Thanks a lot for your nice words on my pages Beryllium Guy. You pretty much nailed my approach. I include only info when needed to identify one variety/shade/perf etc from another. As already mentioned by clivel and tobben63, I keep such info below the frame to keep it visible also when the stamp is mounted, so it's easy later to see which variety is which. If there's no variety at all and the stamp cannot be mistaken, I simply have only the denomination inside the box, and nothing below at all. As mentioned by renden this is to save time not writing unnecessary info. It also helps to keep the pages as clean as possible, so only key information is visible.

I also like to use two different kind of frames. Normal fully drawn frames for major numbers, and 'partial' frames for varieties. This makes it more apparent that the often empty variety-boxes are just that, for varieties and hence less likely to be filled. Having those boxes 'partial' reduce the impression of 'missing' stamps/empty boxes...

Sometimes I keep the full-drawn boxes for major numbers separate and the partial boxes for varieties in a 'specialized' section below. This gives a bit more tidy appearance than mixing in the varieties with the major numbers. But, as with everything else, I am not always consistent.... so sometimes the varieties are mixed in with the major numbers.

For the headlines above each series, I prefer a small and neutral looking text, preferably using only one single line. I think the 'Grand' appearance of for example Steiner, using 3 lines above some series, with large and bold text, is over-kill and steals from the stamps themselves. And it also requires unecessary much space, as I prefer the pages compact when possible.

Here's 1 of 5 Medallion pages to illustrate the two different kind of boxes/frames mentioned above, as well as the last Leopold I issue.
These are not relevant pages to show frames/boxes without any key info below the boxes, as all of these have varieties (hence they all have key data below their boxes).



The page for last Leopold I issue below shows one of the advantages of having boxes for varieties only 'partially drawn'. For the first printings perf 14.5x14 I have hardly any of the shades, so there's a lot of empty boxes. However these empty boxes for varieties doesn't 'scream out' as badly as being empty as the empty full-drawn boxes for the missing major numbers above them.

Hey, from an outsider, looking in, it looks like the number & Description go to the stamp below them. I think it would make more sense to put the number & description directly below the stamp and put the value below that, or put the value above the row the stamps. Just a thought. I like how your pages look though, the numbering just looks confusing to me. Great job.

tobben63 - I agree, suggest not having colour included at all if not required to identify different shades. In such cases I will suggest to include the denomination only inside the box (to know which box is for which denomination), beside that I would add no information at all if not required. Keeping it simple when possible will save a lot of time in the long run, quite an important aspect for a crazy world wide collector like yourself   

That's why I put all the info I add, so I am not having to go to the catalogue all the time.

It is cleaner looking to add minimal info, but then the catalogue has to be available. When I transit to the next phase of life, heirs will be able to see just what is there, as none of them collect stamps.

I have got a lot of ideas from this tread. Here is my last design.