Show your DIY album pages

I am at 1.5.3  i had some issues with 1.5.4 freezing up- maybe they fixed that?  I tried LibreOffice Draw at the same time I tried Scribus and opted for Scribus, for me it seemed a a slightly less learning curve.  It would be a pain to chainge platforms now unless whatever I went to could import  the .sla files from Scribus

export options are 

EPS
PDF
JPG
SVG
XPS

I export to PDF for printing

I don't have a problem with software updates as for the last 11 years I've been using Visio 2000 embedded within a Word document!

Once the template was initially setup for my Lighthouse 13 ring binders, it's been a simple case of duplicating an appropriate page then moving/adding the outline box for each stamp and adding text to the text boxes. The alignment/group feature within Visio is simple and effecient so it's very quick to create a page. Click print and it's done!

My main problem however, has always been what to write within the text box.

I've begun a new project: Album pages for Albania up to 1945.

A few pages of the early issues:

The pages will be printed on both sides. On the opposing left page is historical and postal history for the stamps on the right page. I include stamps and varieties not usually listed in generic catalogs.

The "mesh" on the 4th page is meant for a transparent mount-strip. There are many rare varieties of the stamps in question, and this enables me to include some in the album without having a fixed space for it. 

To be printed on A4 158g paper with 4 punched holes (3cm margin on the left side). 





Made with Apple Pages.

Thanks for your kind words.

Yes, I first saw the quadrille element on your pages. I love it. Really builds the bridge between albums and Vario. It was the final nail in the "Vario-Coffin" for me :-)

Excellent pages, Morten (classicalstamps), thanks for posting!
I also agree with your comment, as Jon has inspired me to pay more attention to postmarks, too.... he's good that way! 

With the Albania Principality of 1914 nearly done, here are some examples of a few pages:

Tonight started a new project to get my Canada organized so time to start making key pages for my eventual albums. Got the sterling currency issues done tonight (1851-1859)



Creating pages based on the listings in Unitrade, Gibbons and Michel, as well as information from the excellent blog canadianphilately.blogspot.com/ which has wonderful detail on most of Canada's stamp issues from the start until the 1970s.

This will probably be quite a project for the next few months, but need to get things set up for Canada.

That is an impressive work Morten (classicalstamps)

Finished up my page inserts for the Canada First Cents Issue 1859-1867








My goal was to provide a representative collection that provided for the three types of perforation used and at least the main groupings of shades for the various values. Between Unitrade, Gibbons, and research online, I think I've got a happy medium that provides a nice range of coverage but not attempting to try and get every variation on each issue that Whitworth lists.

I've also tried to leave enough space so that if I do get the ambition (and win the lottery to fund that ambition   ) to get more shade/perf varieties, I can expand without having to reorganize all the pages.

Now on to the Large Queens

ETA - Apologies for the page distortion, anyone know what to set in Photoshop so that when you convert PDF to JPG you do not get that weird stretching if there is a lot of blank space on the PDF page??

I have been busy the last couple days with doing little more than working on these. They still need work (proofing, spacing) and still deciding on details to show and how presented.

By going with the chronological approach, it helped me understand more about the issues. It looks like the postal rates increased often.

I am now thing I will drop specifics like tagging unless there is more than one of the same denomination/color.

The latest effort- still quite a few pages before I get this series (or more correctly series of series), but it will be nice to have these done and let me know more accurately where i need to improve

I started my first night of vacation from work tonight, so got the Large Queens pages worked up. Again using a mix of Unitrade, Gibbons, Michel and online information to create the pages, wanted to have sections for the various potentials between the Duckworth papers and shades, plus perforation varieties in a few areas. I will say this, trying to map Gibbons, Michel and Unitrade numbers was a bit of a labor, especially for the 15c Large Queen. Gibbons lists a couple of shades I could not match up to anything in Unitrade, and I think Gibbons has the Pirie paper issue wrong - Unitrade says the shade is Greenish Grey but Gibbons says it is Lilac Grey - which sounds like two very different shades to me, which can't be right. I'll stick with Unitrade on this.


So about five whole pages for the Large Queens, at least it will give me something to do if I win the lottery    On the last page,  the first Small Queen Ottawa prints will be inserted after the last of the Duckworth paper sections, so as to try and maintain a bit of chronological order in the structure of the album. Hopefully the post-1872 Large Queens issues I've laid out are flexible enough to insert among the Small Queens.

Now to spend the next few days figuring out what I want to do with the Small Queens.  At least being on vacation this week I'll have some extra time available.

Sooo... I recently bought an oversized printer and finally got around to making pages with it. The new page size is 10" x 11.5", and I'm starting my album renovations with Germany.



Example page is attached; I thought it would be a good idea to get critiques before I actually start building and printing too many more of these. Intent is to alternate pages of mint with pages of cancelled, with a 3rd or+ page (when necessary) of color and perf varieties, "precursor" or other interesting cancels, cut stationary corners, or whatever other odd and tiny bits I find floating around.



It's a pdf file I'm attaching here, so who knows if it'll come across...


Any recommendations for adjusting the page?