THE YEAR OF THE TIGER STAMP IS OUT!

The Year of The Tiger Stamp is out! If you want to learn more about the man who created the stamp, feel free to view my interview with artist Kam Mak.

Here is information about the stamp, taken directly from the USPS website. (By the way, have you ever ordered stamps online? Saves that trip to the post office!)

This is a Souvenir Sheet for the 44–cent Celebrating Lunar New Year: Year of the Tiger commemorative stamp release.

On January 14, 2010, in Los Angeles, California, at the El Pueblo Historical Monument, the Postal Service™ issued a 44–cent, Celebrating Lunar New Year: Year of the Tiger commemorative stamp in a souvenir sheet of 12 stamps, designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland. The $5.28 Celebrating Lunar New Year: Year of the Tiger souvenir sheet may not be split, and the stamps may not be sold individually.

The U.S. Postal Service® introduced its Celebrating Lunar New Year series in 2008. This is the third stamp in that series, which will continue through 2019 with stamps for the Year of the Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar.

Art Director Ethel Kessler and artist Kam Mak, who grew up in New York City’s Chinatown and now lives in Brooklyn, worked on the new series and decided to focus on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year Holiday is celebrated. To commemorate the Year of the Tiger, which begins February 14, 2010, they chose narcissus flowers, considered auspicious at any time of the year and, thus, especially appropriate at this time of renewed hope for the future. The illustration was originally created using oil paints on a fiberboard panel. Kessler’s design also incorporates elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps, using Clarence Lee’s intricate paper–cut design of a tiger and the Chinese character — drawn in grass–style calligraphy by Lau Bun — for “Tiger.”