Show your DIY album pages

You should be pleased madbaker ; those are some great pages!

The stamps already mounted are wonderful, the simple layout with minimal text is eye appealing and the fact that you omitted the '#' symbol as part of the catalogue numbering is a bonus (I have never seen the symbol used in any reference material). I look forward to seeing more...


Happy collecting!

Thank you stanley64 and blaamand.



The design notes are something I value quite a bit. While I'm not a thematic collector, it's understanding a bit about the design that gets me revved up. I'm just glad they fit under the stamp box and I can still see them!

I probably went overboard with the 'inside the box' descriptions. I only need the colours when there are two or more with the same denomination. And the catalogue number might be overkill if I follow through with using Colnect for my want lists. But for now I'm adding the Scott number so when I go to a local show I know what I need.

A pet peeve of mine is that I LOVE going to shows but never buy anything because I don't know what I have and what I need. So that's a big part of this, beyond having the pages look nice.

What I like about Album Easy is that I can quickly copy each box, so after I copy/copy/copy/copy it's fast to change the text. And as I get better with my text editor I think I'll get even faster.

And like Stanley, I put a lot of thought into the typefaces. I wanted something 'classic' but with a more modern feel - like 1930's modern. So I went with EB Garamond for the titles and Jost* (which is inspired by Futura) for the details. That makes me happier than it should, perhaps, but there you go.

Mark

Very nice page, there, Mark (madbaker )!

Yes, you are right.  This development changes things.  At this point, I don't have any duplicates of the ones you still need, at least on this one page.  Are you also collecting the similar KGV set?  If so, let me know where you are on those, and I may still be able to fill a few spaces for you.

I also have lots of duplicates of the K-U-T QEII pictorial set, so if you are collecting those, let me know, as I may be able to help you there, too.

angore

Hello,my personal preference is to keep the denomination order as much as possible.I have recently finished this page for Dominica which has the two different sizes.

Sometimes there is a song and dance one must go through with Steiner pages and adding custom pages, or redesigning the Steiner version. I prefer centering left to right over vertical or even keeping denomination order.
I don't mind a vertical stamp, flanked by 2 horizontal issues, even if it means disrupting denomination order. The problem comes when you want to add, say, a variety and you wind up with an odd number of one or the other, which totally throws the left-right balance off.
Every page situation will be different.

angore, As far as your page example goes, I probably would have dropped the 6d down to line 2, keeping the 2d's on line 1. Line 2 could be: 6d-5sh-10sh, which would give the left-right balance and retain the denomination order.

The only time I mix up release dates of the stamps is when the series has different sized stamps. I go for a quasi-symmetrical layout. It all depends on the numbers and sizes, and how it looks one way or the other. Sometimes, symmetrical, sometimes not.

IO find that's the beauty of making up my own pages. I get to design them how I like them.

A couple things I would like to mention though:

Steiner pages, which I do use as a base for my albums, do at times leave something to be desired. No album is perfect, and I doubt if any album will please every collector 100%. But that is where the individuality takes over. As far as Steiner pages go, I usually leave them as they are, good or bad, UNLESS I want to add something not represented. I don't generally redesign them purely for aesthetics. I have to have a better reason.

The last paragraph on that scanned book page (37), which mentions not splitting up a specific denomination, if multiple shades are mounted, but rather leaving them on the same row, is something I also do on a regular basis. I am always adding shades where necessary, and I do like to maintain them all on the same row. The downside is that some denominations may have more shades available than others, which could end up in an awkward looking page. That first example, on that same page, of the "poor arrangement" is something I routinely run into, but I am actually OK with it if there is no there way around it.

I also have a hard time splitting sets up over multiple pages, when adding in shades or varieties, but it is better than trying to unnecessarily crowd an entire set onto a single page. And some issues have so much variety going on with them that I actually design an individual page for each denomination. This is where I am at for Sweden.

One other topic I'd like to get opinions on is adding in booklet panes, souvenir sheets and other "odd" sized items. When I get passed all the early definitives and coils from Sweden there will be a tremendous amount of size and shape varieties, for things I intend to add. I'm sure I'll run into balance issues. Some things, in fact, I may have to run through the printer twice in order achieve the desired look I want.

stanley64 Love this idea. Can't wait to see what you make of it.


For Richard (spain1850) angore, brightonpete and others, I know you realize this already, but it bears repeating. Maybe in one post on each page! What makes this beautiful is that each of these pages reflect the collector/author/creator. So they are perfect in their own way.


I share scans from that book because it's quicker than me retyping and because it's so cool to me that people were thinking about this 70+ years ago, just like we are thinking about it today.

I love how we all come to different decisions from the same goal - what looks best to us.

So, for example, I would never want to use the architectural typefaces that Stanley uses, but I love them on his pages. At a glance I see that they are uniquely and beautifully his.

And I love the different decisions we're making about the minutia. How our hard and fast 'rules' have to be compromised when the sets are too big for a page, or we want to work in shades and postmarks, or like blaamand, he gets into paper types and on and on.

So keep those pages coming! The more that gets posted here, the less time I spend in the 'Scott catalogue rant' thread!

clivel - I think I'm with madbaker in that I prefer the "feel" of the last option you posted. It somehow feels more balanced.

I think you have some great pages in the making there and some wonder options, now it is just a matter of personal preference or style..


Happy collecting!

LOL! That's a risky question to ask angore. You're asking folks who read stamp catalogues after all.

you got your capital letters. 1464A

your small letters. 1464a

your variety signifiers 1464i, 1464ii

or maybe even a 'supplement' flag: 1464S1 or 1464S01

And I'm sure there's more.

But I like your method. Keep doing what you're doing if it gets the job done.

When I print from Steiner pages I have a similar problem, because I only print the pages I need. So I pencil in the year the file goes up to then the page number, like 49-1 or 66-3. It doesn't look great but it works.