Breakthrough!
Another member (inphx) had a great suggestion on how to reproduce the registration stickers to alter the plates I already had to the correct month/year. I had the right color configuration embossed base plates to work with, but not necessarily the right year/month stickers. For example, the 1980 base White on Red AZ plates were readily available with renewal stickers into about 2003, but I couldn't find one with the correct JAN/2001 combination. Same with the Green on Tan 1978 plates- base plate was 1973.
His clear packing tape idea had just the right amount of sheen to match the existing stickers.
Here's what I ended up doing, took a lot of experimenting and test prints to get them right:
1. Created the images in .ppt. Found examples of the original stickers for the appropriate design and colors on eBay, which differ from year to year. Had to convert text boxes to pictures so i could stretch the numbers and letters to match the license plate fonts.
2. Printed on plain plain paper.; did several iterations to get the size right.
3. "Aged" the printed images with a little dust rub to dull the white background.
4. Covered the front with a piece of heavy clear packing tape.
5. Covered the back with a piece of clear double sided tape.
6. Cut the stickers to size.
7. Peel and stick.
Photos to follow.
