Snail Mail Fun

Just about a year ago, I wrote about my postal phobia, and my intention to fix it.  Well, I have dived into the deep end of the pool and come out loving the post office!  It is fast becoming one of my favorite hangouts with all the pen pals, Etsy sales, post card exchanges, and mail art fun I've signed up for.  And I really love that sort of sideways smirk I get from my favorite postal worker when he sees what I'm trying to mail now!

I've been receiving some very lovely snail mail as well, and really wanted some way to store the letters and cards to make them easily accessible.  When I'm writing to someone, I always like to refer back to the last letter I received, so I can answer questions or follow up on ideas.  I also want a way to display these beautiful letters.

 This is what I've come up with.  I was very tempted to go to Michael's and buy a bunch of paper and stuff, but I was good and thrifty and only used things I could scrounge up around the house.  I started with two old canvas boards; I covered them with paper and drilled holes on the binding sides.  Then I tied leather string through.  I think I would like some large binder rings instead, but there are none of those in my house right now.  I do want this to be something that I can keep adding pages to, and it needs to be roomy for lots of letters.

I had these old record sleeves that I thought would be just perfect.  The insides of the covers are still blank.  I want to glue in maps of the world so I can mark the places I am getting mail from.

I went through my stash of papers and found some card stock.  This page is for displaying some ATCs that I receive.

I also learned some new uses for a heat gun today.  If you glue something down with YES glue, and come back about 30 minutes later to realize you glued it in the wrong spot, you can heat it up and the glue will soften again so you can move the object without tearing the paper.  Also, the leather cord I used to bind it was cold, stiff, full of knots and unmoving.  I heated it up and presto magico the leather was very pliable!  I kind of used it to heat my fingers as well, but you really have to be careful with that;)

I made pockets for letters and attached some clips.  I sewed the papers together on the machine.

and some more pockets.....

So now I am going to ask for a bit of advice.  I have collected stamps since I was a kid.  My dad helped, so I have slews of old stamps.  And apparently when stamps were between 29 and 32 cents I started collecting pages of stamps.  I don't believe I have any first day issue in there.  I love stamps; they are like little tiny works of art.  Anyway, my question is: would you use these or save them?  I kind of hate to tear into that pristine sheet of Elvis stamps, but really, what good are they doing sitting in a box in the basement?