Green Stamps. Collage. Shelby Pizzarro

Don't Forget The Green Stamps!

Do you remember getting and using S&H Green Stamps?

From the 1930's to the 1980's the stamps were given out as a "reward" when you made a purchase at a participating retailer, most often a supermarket or gas station. You knew which stores were part of the Green Stamp family by signs attached to the outside of the buildings. Although there were competitors to Sperry & Hutchinson's Green Stamps, they were by far the most popular.

The stamps usually found a home in a kitchen junk drawer or shoebox until you had  enough stamps to paste in a small stamp book. The printed pages had squares to fill...or if you made a larger purchase you might have a "10" or even "50" stamp. Many of my friends would have an evening of watching television, getting something snack on, and pasting the stamps in the books. A collection of books translated to a purchase made from the catalogue where you could choose from a plethora of items.

The collage is a collection of S&H Green Stamps and other competitor stamps. Again, my Muse guided me. I found the photo of the two women at a local antique store. When filed in my box of photos, somehow a Green Stamp attached itself to the envelope. Dressed in the latest 1940's fashions of head scarves, bobby sox, saddle shoes, and loafers, they looked like two girls who would get together for a Green Stamp evening.

Our assignment for the Creative Collage Class with Sue Marrazzo was to create a diptych using the Cruciform design. The substrate is canvas board. I covered the background with Distress Inks, rubber stamped images, and stencilled with acrylic paint. The stamps and hand coloured photo completed the design.

Although the concept is the same, I still prefer the stamps, which can eventually become part of a collage, to a swipe of my store Rewards card we use today.

Sisterhood of the Muse