Postage Stamp in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to take any clipart image and turn it into a postage stamp in Photoshop.  I actually took the screenshots for this tutorial when I wrote the tutorial for Paint Shop Pro, but have spent the last few days working on my garden.  So, I apologize to Photoshop users for the laggard arrival of this tutorial.

1.  Open your image in Photoshop.  I am using a vintage Victorian calling card.

2.  The average postage stamp is about an inch to 1.5 inches in length and 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch wide.  Therefore, resize the clipart to 450 pixels on one side (assuming 300 dpi).

3. Optional.  If the image is flattened, promote the background to a layer (Layer > New > Layer From Background).

4.  Make a new layer.

5.  Move the new layer under your original image layer.

6.  Resize your canvas by 20 pixels on each side.  Therefore, Width = 20 + 450 + 20 = 490 pixels and Height = 20 + 272 + 20 = 312 pixels.

7.  Fill the new layer with the color of your choice.  I used #f2e1c7.

8.  Select the eraser tool.

9.  Choose a round brush.  I chose the preset Pastel Rough Texture which is a preset that comes with Photoshop, removed the Texture, Dual Brush and Other Dynamics checks to turn off those options, then changed the Diameter under Shape Dynamics to 20 px and the Spacing to 130%.

Note:  The brush should be the same size as the border.  If you have a larger border, then increase the brush size appropriately.

10.  Select All (Ctrl + A).  This should select the entire canvas of Layer 1 (or the layer you have filled with your color).

11.  Go to the Paths tab and select Make Work Path From Selection.  It should be the third button from the right.

12.  Now that you have a work path, select Stroke Path with Brush.  This will create the perforations around the edge of the stamp.

13.  The basic stamp is now complete if you do not wish to add a denomination to the stamp.  If you want to add a denomination, the cents sign can be difficult to add.  I open the Character Map tool in Windows and select the cents sign (Unicode 00A2), and click copy to copy it to the clipboard.  In Photoshop, with the Text Tool selected,  paste to get it in the correct font.

Here is the completed stamp.