Stamps Books

It wasn't exactly what I'd been looking for. I really wanted more detail on international stamps and their prices.

A little tip for anyone buying these: if the ink doesn't take (ie. it sort of bubbles up on the surface of the rubber), take an emery board and go over the rubber part. Also, don't apply too much pressure as it will leave nasty edge marks. This is because of how they are mounted. I prefer stamps that are cut close to the image and THEN mounted on the wood. These stamps aren't all bad though. I've used them many times with great effect.

I know good stamps. I have spent a lot of money on good stamps over the years. These are not good stamps. They do not feel good in your hand. They do not leave good impressions. If you are looking for quality stamps with which to make artwork in all sorts of papercrafts, do not buy these stamps. The accomponying book is cool. But the stamps themselves--yeach. Please trust me and don't waste your money.

As a budding Celtophile, I had to have this set when I saw it in a catalog....and paid about 8 bucks more! It's a good set, with a very nice box for storage. In fact, it's almost worth buying the set just for the box. An insert contains information not only on stamping, but on the Celts themselves.

You can get some really beautiful designs out of these stamps but it takes some practice, and some of the smaller ones tend to blur if you press too hard. The trick is to get a very good ink pad (Encore is the best) and learn how to apply just the right pressure. This is easier with these stamps than with other sets, as these are wood backed, which makes for a better, clearer image. I used the one with three knotted horses to make party invitations, using a multi colored stamp pad in hues of blue and purple with a silver accent. With a little work, they came out really nice.

This set is an excellent value, especially at this price, and a nice addition to any stamper collection.

These stamps are great. There is a great variety and they are already assembled in a wooden box. They are high quality stamps, that come out very clear but the stamp pad is useless. These are a great value with a very low price.

I'm just starting to get into creating greeting cards with stamps and this set was deeply disappointing. The quality of the rubber is poor. The images are cut very shallow and ink invariably gets on the rest of the stamp and leaves marks on the printed image. I've tried several brands of ink and markers, all yielding poor results. The wood mounts are thin and do not provide enough gripping surface. Lightly sanding the rubber produced only slightly improved results. It should not be tricky to create a good image with high quality stamps. All in all, very inferior quality compared to the "real" wood block backed rubber stamps used to create greeting cards.

This book focuses on correspondance artists and their personal methods and motivations. While not a how-to book (it never pretends to be), I found it to be well-written and informative. The pieces featured in the book are stunning.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. From its Dada cover, to its scores of wonderful illustrations inside, I loved it. Before reading this book, I hadn't understood the folk art aspect of the rubber stamp genre; now I do. Rubber Soul also includes a collection of correspondence art, with its colorful rubber stamp and collage-like effects. I found the images and the text of this book fascinating, a window into other people's creative and personal lives. A treasure.

Not much of a book here. Seems that it was only published so the individuals featured could buy a copy. As for it being about 'mail art', it's not. Not if you mean in reference to artists known for the process. Basically, it a competent group of hobbists that got a buddy at the university to publish a book of their stuff. Of no interest to anyone not personally connected.

I bought this book as soon as I heard about it. I liked the story of the correspondents who almost competed with each other to produce interesting art to mail to their friends. Full of interesting characters.

A large portion of this fun book is dedicated to photos of the artists' works and these really give you a feel for the unusual art they've invented for themselves. The plates could have benefited from being more integrated into the narrative about the artists, but I can't complain about the sheer volume of photos and examples.

I'm not sure why another reviewer expected a how-to from a book in a folk art series from an academic publisher, because that's obviously not the goal of this book. Instead, it's a careful study of a group of artists who really love their art. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in rubber stamping, crafts, and mail art.

I have started a stamp collection with my grandson. This was a very helpful tool in getting started. We enjoy looking through the book and all the stamps that came with it.
Thanks,
J Nelms
California

This album is strictly for U.S. stamps and covers the early 1900's through 2005. There are some black and white illustrations for each year, as well as blank spaces for other stamps. The book would have been a little nicer with a spiral binding and illustrations in color. Pages that wouldn't lie flat were a definite frustration for our grandson. A few starter stamps were included, as well as hinges, but there were only about a dozen hinges, so the first thing we had to do was find a source for them. Still, it's a good functional album for providing a beginning without a large outlay of money.

We ordered this kit for a beginner at stamp collecting. We expected the album to be free-form, so he could save the stamps that he likes. Instead the album has pages for specific years, starting in 1901, and photos of specific stamps for many of the spaces. I'm not a stamp collector myself, and maybe this is a standard format, but it's not at all what we wanted. The Guide is okay, and the magnifying glass is inexpensive but okay. But we ordered the kit primarily for the album, and it's collecting dust on a shelf.

My son wanted to look into stamp collecting. I don't know much about it. This is a good review/starting place to see what is involved in the hobby. It made a nice Christmas present, didn't cost much and showed him I had listened to his interests. Nice format and helpful included items.

This is a nice kit for an early beginner at stamp collecting. Please note that the album is only for U.S. Stamps. It's a good deal for the price.

Classic US stamps only. This is not a book for the general US collector or someone seeking information on the best method of buying for his/her US collection, since it deals with US Scott Catalog numbers before 834 only. The likelihood of forgery, fault repair, regumming or other misrepresentation in these issues must be extraordinary, given the frequent use of the term, "Beware." Mr. Datz makes a strong case for expertization of nearly every issue in this group. The data on scarcity may be useful for debunking those advertised "really scarce" offers in this high dollar area.

its as easy as this you want it, this book has it. well what eles is there to say?

This is essentially a statistical extract of auction lots with some editorial comment for each "Classic US" stamp presented. It does not deal with any modern issues or give any insight about the general subject of buying US issues at discount prices. After reading this book, I have no confidence that a beginning or even intermediate collector can avoid buying troublesome classic stamps without expertization.

In response to some of the previous reviews:
 
 1. You DON'T have to worry about modern (post 1945) stamps with a few rare exceptions
 
 2. You don't need expertization on MOST Classic stamps if you do your homework and learn the basics about early US Stamps. One easy rule is to always assume that a stamp is of the cheapest variation until you PROVE that it isn't.
 
 3. Expertization is needed when you feel that you can't figure it out for yourself.
 
 4. If you think of this process as work...get out of stamps. If you look at it as fun...Keep on trucking.

It is true the booklet is not incredible, but handy. The statue stamp/holder of Bast is quite nice I like it very much, And so far have not had problems with it holding the stamps.

I do admit I was hopiing the stamps themselves would have been a bit larger. I like decorating my stuff with them and sometimes they seem small. But over all the are quite nice and I am glad that I purchased them.
And for spell work or devotional work they are fine.

As far as information goes, the included book is not all that great (See George Hart's Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses for more accurate information) but the actual rubber stamps are great! You may, however, want to use a different ink pad than the one provided, but otherwise, this is a nifty little item!

Not normally inclined to buying "pagan kits," I was excited by the Egyptian Power Stamps. Partly because it has lovely and accurate depictions of gods and goddesses that can customize just about anything either ritual or magical. Also, because I admit, I longed for the days of my childhood whan I recieved stamp and sticker playsets and had hours of fun with them. Here was an excuse to indulge my inner 5-year-old, and what better way to do so than in a little ritual play?

The good: The Bast stamp base is quite elegant, and makes a lovely addition to any altar by itself. And at just $20 for the whole kit, an inexpensive one too, given what *good* statues go for. As a previous reviewer mentioned, the Names of the gods in the kit are around the base, and personally I like to study them during meditation. The stamps are also quite nice, they don't have the old favorites such as Isis, but they do include some of my lesser known favorites such as Ma'at (an essential for Kemetics), Sekhmet, and Khepri. They fit in the base just fine in my kit, though a few were difficult to slide out initially.
The book was more useful than I thought; again, not being a fan of pagan kits, I'm not so into getting advice on how to "use" Hathor to help me find true love, etc. However, the summaries of the Netjeru included such useful things as explaining how to "spell" out each Netjer's name. I could tell by his treatment that Dr. Bonewits really knows the ancient language and how it was used. The information on the Netjeru was accurate, too, it explained that dieties like Sekhmet do have a darker side, rather than sugar-coating them all, while acknowledging that Her benevolent side could be invoked as well.

The bad: I was disappointed that there were no care and cleaning instructions for the stamps. Being ritual items, I want to keep them clean without ruining them. Also, the ink used appears to be oil-based, and will soak through a page of paper. I'm all for oil-based ink to stamp things like candles, but a warning would have been nice.

Overall, I liked the Egyptian Power stamp kit, it is versatile enough for all kinds of uses by all kinds of people interested in ancicient Egyptian Spiritualtiy.

Included in this box is a stamp holder, some rubber stamps and an inkpad together with a book. The stamps are the Egyptian depictions of the more commonly known Egyptian Deities: Bast, Ra, Horus, Hathor, Amon, Kephri, Ma'at, Anubis, Sekhmet, Ptah, Toth and Selket. The book is written by Dr. Bonewitz and contains, among other things, a brief description and history of the Deities and some interesting facts and stories.

The idea is to insert the rubber stamp into the holder. The holder is in the shape of the Egyptian cat form of Bast, seated upon a block with hieroglyphics around the block which are the names of the Egyptian Gods/Goddesses.

So far, so good. To his credit, Dr. Bonewitz has accurate depictions of the Deities on these stamps. The color of the stamp pad, the blue/green color he calls 'turquoise', he suggests it is a close matched color to the turquoise that the Egyptians used in their craftworks. I thought he was actually going for the more favored color glaze of the Egyptian potters and while it is not an exact match of that famous glaze and is a bit bright for 'turquoise', it is a nice color and can be related to.

However, to continue, there is a major problem. The rubber stamps, which are supposed to be mounted onto a plastic base (they have an adhesive on the back) to hold them rigid, and then slide into the Bast holder, do not fit. They are too thin and fall out of the slide. All of mine did this. I was surprised to have this happen and disappointed as well. Up to this point, this was a nice idea.

I managed to wedge a small piece of folded paper in between the stamp and the base to hold the stamp firmly.

The book that is included has some ideas for use of these stamps, which includes stamping the images on candles. I tested this, as there are many inks that will not adhere to wax. The ink did actually stay on the wax candle and again, a good idea, but the disappointment of the stamps not fitting right still did not sit well with me.

Finally I explored the content of the book. It contains, as I mentioned, some stories of the Deities, the Isis and Osiris story, stories and information about the Deities. He also includes some correspondences for love, career and life guidance. He tries to take the ancient deities and have them relate to the modern world. He does not do this too well in my opinion. While it is 'mostly harmless', it also does not relate too well.

There is a small section on suggestions for use of the stamps, to create amulets, decorative stamping, 'adopting' a figure as your own personal symbol. Dr. Bonewitz, while being very knowledgeable on the up side, is not very pagan.

To his credit, he has a very interesting idea here that could have worked, given a more accurate measuring of the space on the base and the width of the stamp and backing. He also does not use Budge as a reference, which again shows he has taste. He does use his own books as reference, which I have not read. He also uses Faulkner as a reference, which I have read and is quite good in my opinion.

But it is back to the drawing board to see if this error in measurement can be corrected. And maybe Dr. Bonewitz should stick to archeology and leave it at that. His crossing over into the pagan side was done with commercialism in mind, in my opinion. It would have worked just as well if that had been left out. boudica

This is a perfect kit for creating a personal book of shadows.
It takes the guesswork out of trying to draw the symbols by yourself. It comes with a handy book that explains the symbols and how to use them together to design your own formulas for success. Worth its weight in gold and a definite must have as an addition to a personal library.
You can use markers and colored pencils for highlighting each design after it has been stamped. Can be used on thick paper as well as specialty fiber papers. They are easy to clean and are nicely organized in the box it comes with.

The stamps included with this set are of good quality and work pretty well. It's a fairly limited set, I think, in that the symbols included seem sort of randomly selected, and a few of them (a straight line, a circle, a square) are really only useful in conjunction with other stamps. The booklet included with the set is silly and seems to be aimed at teens (it goes on at length about "white witchcraft" and how to do things such as "draw down the moon" on paper with your stamps), and the ink pad was of poor quality and crumbled the first time I used it. I paid $5 for my set (from a discount bookstore in an outlet mall), and I think $5 was about the right price. I would have been sorely disappointed if I had paid $20 for this set.

I've had this stamp set for awhile and while it's not perfect, it's certainly useful. I'm not going to go so far as to say I'm performing great feats of magic with them, but for correspondence and fun little embellishments on your Books of Shadows (for those of us who "scrapbook" our Book of Shadows) they serve a nice little purpose.

I have to agree, the stamps they chose for the set are a little random. My set includes:

Pentagram
Ankh
Cauldron
Chalice
Circle
Line
Crescent Moon
God
Goddess
Hexagram
Sprials
Algiz Rune
Raido Rune
Dagaz Rune
Serpent
Sword
Wand
Love Charm

Now most of it is pretty intuitive as to why it's in the kit. The circle I figured out after a little prompting from the book... It can symbolize the elements and the Circle of the Year when "decorated" with the line stamp, and by putting the Pentagram in the circle you get the Pentacle. The line stamp made little to no sense at first, but seeing how you can use it to make crosses, etc, I suppose it makes sense. A couple of the stamps, like the spiral stamps (which signify clockwise and counterclockwise) and love charm, I find little to no use for.

The stamps themselves are well made, fairly basic stamps. Nothing overly fancy or stylized, but they are sturdy and withstand multiple stampings. Since they are flat, tile like stamps mounted on a thin sheet of wood, people with joint problems like arthritis or dexterity problems might find these difficult to use. The book that comes with the set is stomach-achingly fluffy, and unless you're using it to find out what the stamps represent, I'd say skip it all together and opt for a Scott Cunningham book instead, which will explain the symbols and give you some spiritually significant information.

I'd say if you're looking for stamps to decorate your scrapbook style Book of Shadows or want something to jazz up correspondence to your Wiccan friends, this is the kit for you. But if you're looking for a tool to use for spiritually significant spell casting, I'd say that you won't find it here. For $13, you get 18 stamps and a divided stamp pad that stamps silver and purple, which isn't bad... Though I'd save a few $$$$ by going to Spencers in your local mall (I've seen it there numerous times) and buying it there for $7-$10.

Overall, I use it fairly regularly, I'm satisfied with it as it serves the purpose I bought it for (basic stamping and decoration), but it's far from an earth-shattering product that will forever change your spellcasting (as the book tends to imply). If we could give it half stars, I'd give it a 3.5... But I'll opt for 3 instead.

The stamps are nice, but the symbols themselves appear a bit too hand-drawn for my taste. If I wanted an imperfect star, I can do that myself!

Also, the kit doesn't mention that you should trim the excess rubber away from the stamp. This keeps the corners from picking up ink and getting stamped on with the design.

Something that is annoying the heck out of me - there are little hash marks on the top of the stamps that I assume are intended to help you line things up. The problem is that they don't line up to where the stamp actually is on the block, so the lines are completely useless, and even a bit misleading. Trying to match the star and circle up to make a pentagram is very frustrating!

The accompanying booklet is pretty decent, though it covers information that is readily available in just about any pagan or witchcraft book or website.

I would give it five stars if the symbols were better-drawn, and lined up better on their blocks. For the money, I'd say spend the money on a nice set of paint markers and just practice drawing the symbols yourself.

Cute, but short. There are stickers of lots of different characters and little bio's of each one. The stickers are very small, generally 1 to 2 inches tall.

This is a very good book for the pre-teen crowd. It is very informative giving info on the origin and the current life of Wonder Woman. But be warned it is only a sticker book. So if your daughter is in the teen years or if she is very young and just discovered Wonder Woman this book may not be for her. But over all for the price it is a good buy.

My daughter worships everything to do with Wonder Woman. This book packs A LOT of information about the superheroine, combined with the fun of matching stickers, plus some extra to use in decorating other items. My only complaint is that Wonder Woman seems to be a lot more boobilicious than I recall from my own cartoon-watching days, alhtough that's an overall problem with her current product line, not just specific to this book. If you look at this as an opportunity to discuss body types and such, not a problem. Definitely a must-have item for any girl who dreams of becoming Wonder Woman.

If you're a fan of the DC Comics heroine Wonder Woman, then this book will be fun for you. In it there are many stickers visually showing Wonder Woman's different aspects: superhero, U.N. Ambassador, everyday Diana, friend... the list goes on. With them are also stickers depicting her friends and enemies such as the Amazon Artemis and the War God Ares. You can stick these full color beauties anywhere but within the book are various pages where you can not only match each sticker with a shaped synopsis, but also place them in various colorful backgrounds such as Themyscira (Paradise Island) and Gateway City where Wonder Woman lived for a time. Granted, this book is geared more for the kiddies to let their imaginations explode, but older fans of the character can also let the kid come out in them as well (which is really easy to do once you see this colorful book firsthand). The purchase price is also VERY attractive as it won't cost you an arm and a leg to enjoy this book.

This is not a review, as I do not own this book and I have not read it. I would just like to point out that if what the previous reveiwer is saying is true (that this book explains the "mainstream" theory that the Great Pyramid was a tomb) then the book is informational and valid. The Great Pyramid WAS a tomb. This isn't a theory, its fact. Do not listen to those who will have you believe that such a masterwork of human achievement is some sort of bizarre alien sign or supernatural powerhouse. All EVIDENCE (not conjecture) suggests that the pyramid was a tomb of the great pharaoh (reportedly, a tyrant) Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt. So, buy this book to read the specifics of a theory about how this feat was constructed (by humans, for humans). I know I will.
Thanks,
G.R.

The book describes in great detail the likely approach to
building the Great Pyramid of Giza or one of the 8 wonders of
the world. The work describes building techniques of Sneferu
and provides numerous pictures of pyramidal structures.
It explains how priests or Thoth presided over formal
ceremonies. In addition, there is a picture showing how Khufu
utilized a pendulum to align the pyramid with the stars.
The work is a marvel which depicts life in Egypt over 4000
years ago. There are descriptions showing how Hemiunce
supervised the building of the pyramids utilizing dozens
of men to haul pieces of stone up to 2 tons in weight.
This book is a "must read" for Egyptologists, world history
enthusiasts, mathematicians/engineers, sociologists and a
host of other professions. This work could be utilized
in a large class project or school presentation.
It is highly recommended.

Presents the traditional mainstream theory that the GP was a tomb, a theory that fails to explain any of the interior features of the pyramid and a theory that has no evidentiary support. If thinking for yourself is difficult for you, you may enjoy this book. On the other hand, if you have the capacity for independent thought, this book will be a disappointment. Read Christopher Dunn's The Giza Power Plant if you're capable of thinking logically.

Today, tomorrow, yesterday? We found this book a bit confusing for a 3 year old. Kipper is a favourite of ours, but this one was just "ok".

Like the other Kipper books this one is easy to read and the illustrations are great. It's a bit "busier" than some of the authors earlier works and lacks the simplicity of the earliest stories. I've also found a companion sticker style activity book which is nice but the stickers are not movable from page to page.

I got this book for my son in preparation for his second birthday and he loves it! I't teaches children (and parents) about the importance of being organized, but it also teaches the importance of friends. I love the illustrations and most of the language. My one criticism of the book is that one part is particularly confusing for kids (when Kipper himself is confused about his birthday, so I guess that's appropriate).