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About 10 years ago a friend invited me to a Stampin' Up! party. I only went because she was a friend and I didn't want to disappoint her. I have been hooked ever since!
I've done a bunch of scrapbooking, but I got hooked on card making just recently. We needed to place my mother in a care facility and as I was driving back home after dad and I had just done that, I racked my brain to try and find something in which she would have an interest. In years past, she used to send cards to members of their church for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc. That was it! She can't make the cards, but she does tell me whom to send them to, and gives her opinion on which ones go to which recipient. It has turned into a little bit of a ministry, one which we both enjoy.
My journey began about 15 years ago when a friend invited me to a "stamp party" (CTMH/DOTS). I initially turned her down as I was not a stamp (postage) collector. She just kind of laughed and explained it was rubber stamps that you make home-made cards with. So I went, had a blast and bought 2 stamps. I still have those stamps. A few years later, I signed up to be a demo. I did that for a few years and decided I was my best customer and that was not a good thing at the time. A couple years after that, I signed up with Sweet Celebrations which went out of business for some reason shortly after. About 5 years ago, I really got back into it big time and I also have a room filled with my supplies. It may be costly, but as someone else mentioned, it is cheaper than therapy. Now I am into ATC's, various coloring methods (including copics) and having the time of my life. I remember my first cards I made and just shudder. I like to think I have come a long, long ways since then.
Last edited by Cindy Littler; 06-02-2011 at 07:55 AM..
Reason: left out an important word.
I played a little with scrapbooking while in high school but shortly lost interest with finishing school, getting married and starting a family. After I had my 3rd daughter we decided to move to a very small town in the middle of no where. So I was lookking on ebay one day and decided to see if there was anything scrapbook related on there and wow was I amazed at how far it had came in 6.5 years. I then decided to get back into it. I ordered a few things from ebay like paper and stickers. Then a few weeks later I ordered a sizzix machine (the old one) and got a few dies. Then 4 months later moved to a big city and started hitting the scrapbook stores and well now I have a huge studio full!
i went to a local stamp store just to look for something different.i was over stressed and needed an outlet and wasnot in the mood for crochet,crossstitch,tatting.i fell in love with paper and stamps.that was about 14 years ago.
sigh
and yes it is cheaper than therapy
br3n
I was invited to a Creative Memories party. I loved it, became a demo, and completed all my albums. Because I was bored, I went to an SU party. I was hooked! I became an SU demo and got a good supply base. When I became pregnant with baby #3, I quit being a demo. I now make cards more than I scrapbook and I'm hopelessly behind in my albums! : D
A cricut infomercial got me too! Now I have the cricut expression and the gypsy, and I NEVER use either one. I just never was happy with the results I got. Looking for ideas online for the cricut led me to cards that were stamped, and that led me to Stampin' Up. I love Stampin' Up, and I have spent a fortune on it....but I don't resent a single dime!! lol
Location: Office #32, The Towers, GSOLFOT Sockeeland
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I loved all kinds of arts and crafts when I was a kid. When I was raising my own kids, we tried all kinds of stuff together. When I was taking courses to teach pre-school, I loved the section on arts and crafts most, and had a wonderful book from library all about papercrafting. I wish I owned that book!
My favourite stores have always been stationery and hobby stores.
Over the years I went through cycles of doing and not-doing papercrafts- tried all kinds of other things. I became interested in dollhouse miniature making, and use a lot of papercrafting skills in that.
Then I met SU and Creative Memories and discovered stuff...papers, media, tools, etc. and fell in love with it all.
Right now I'm in a bit of a slump, but I know that will change.
I've been a crafter all my life...but scrapping and stamping? A twisted friend invited me to a stamping party in 1997 and it was downhill from there. (haha)
Later that same year, another perverse friend invited me to a Creative Memories scrapbook "class" and I was doubly-hooked.
In late 2008 during the Christmas holiday season I ran out of gift tags and was browsing the internet looking for free downloads, tutorials, etc. I stumbled onto some stamping and card making videos and found them fascinating. I've never gotten into traditional scrapbooking, my main hobby has been needlework since the late 70's. Also in late 2008 I started having vision issues due to a cataract (had surgery for that with a new lens implant in September 2009) and was going nuts not being able to create anything! So in January of 2009 I got the first of my supplies and found SCS, a local SU demo, etc. As a child I loved paper crafts; coloring, drawing, etc so I guess it was natural for me to go back to all that.
Once upon a time, a young girl got married. One year later, she decided she should "do" something with her wedding pictures so she could preserve the memories. So she re-introduced herself to paper crafting (her queen owned a gift store that added a small amount of stamps/ scrapbooking in the mid-1990's). Stupid girl, you don't start with your wedding pictures .
Now I mostly create cards, I have good intentions of going back to scrapping (especially now that we've added 2 little girls). Oh well, it's supposed to be fun. Oh, and I still shudder at what I did to my wedding album.
I got started when my son left for boot camp. My neighbor gave me a scrapbook to keep me busy. From that I branched out into card making. While recovering from pneumonia I was searching the SU site and found a demonstrator that lived only a few miles away. All this started about 7 years ago.
__________________ You never know how strong you are until strong is the only choice you have.
What a great topic! It's been fun reading how everyone got started. A friend introduced me to paper quilling. From there I got started on stamping and cardmaking. I've made exactly one scrapbook. It's kind of a scrapbook anyways. I made a Recovery book for my son titled "No One Told Me It's OK to Cry" that I will someday give him that's filled with letters I've written to him and things he likes. When I look at it now, it's rather embarassing at how elementary it is LOL No DPS or pretty embellishments. Humble beginnings huh.
__________________ �:*�*:�My next house won't have a kitchen. Just a bunch of vending machines and garbage cans.�:*�*:�
About 26 years ago I saw the cutest little bear stamp, and a fun penguin stamp at a local gift shop. I purchased them and started stamping them on all my envelopes before they went out in the mail (snail mail was much more common in the olden days, lol). So, with what was back then "office stamp pad ink" I stamped and stamped whatever I could. It was truly love at first inking. Just a couple of years later I worked for a retail drug store that started selling All Night Media stamps- and that's when the passion really kicked into high gear- after all, I was able to purchase stamps at practically cost-woohoo! I've been making cards ever since.
I've always done something, mostly sewing, then leather craft, I did lots of belts, checkbooks and wallets for other people, made hundreds of $$...then leather got really expensive and couldn't see charging what I would have to for it. It went well with my other hobby of Horses and then I was showing at breed shows. Went back to sewing, went well with showing as I could make my show clothes. One day I was at the mall at a store in 1997 and saw a demo of embossing and was hooked. My mom, who was a school teacher before she got married in the early 40's, had spent a months salary on a suitcase full of stamps so I figured I'd use those. I didn't use them much (should dig that out again though) and did embossing with my daughter over a toaster to begin with! I to thought I'd save money making cards and would actually remember and send out cards to everyone. LOL I was a SU demo for 4 years and now I have more stamps than our Hobby Lobby from many different companies. My DH just shakes his head when he looks in my room.
BEFORE STAMPING, my house was cleaner and my horses were well trained and rode a lot more. Oh I quit showing when I found stamping....I was a lot skinnier then too.
Sounds like a song ~ but I was stamping, when stamping wasn't cool. I started in 85-86 when my nephew (now 27 years old) lived with me while his mom was stationed in Korea. I found a Suzy's Zoo set of stamps on a business trip and bought them for him. Then each time I went to Sacramento, I bought another stamp or so (we didn't have them readily available in craft stores). The two of us would stamp pictures for his mom, and then I started on cards. By the time my sister came home and he went to live with her, we had quite a collection and I had to send "his" stamps home with him, so I had to buy all new ones. I've still got most of my stamps from back then as well as my original heat gun and my name stamp that I custom ordered from All Night Media. The first time a friend and I went to a "real" stamp store - Hampton Arts, we bought so much...a few months later, we went back and bought barely anything because we were learning - will I use it, how often, how will it work with other stamps, size, orientation, etc. Now, all these years later, I have over 3000 non SU stamps, plus all my SU sets (I became a demonstrator about 6 years ago when my demonstrator told me that based on what I spent each time, I should become a demonstrator and reap the benefits). I've got so much "stuff" that when my nephew comes to visit, he now "shops" in my craft store and goes home with enough accessories (paper, brads, tape, you name it) to keep him in business for a while!
I've always been a colors and paper girl. I inherited that from my Mom. I became a Stampin' Up! girl when I went to a card class and saw all the wonderful colors of paper, markers, ink and everything matched. I was hooked!
Growing up I LOVED back to school shopping. Mainly because I loved the paper, pencils, pens, markers, etc. I could not get enough. (I hated school, but loved the supplies.)
When I was 15 my family moved from extreme northern Minnesota to extreme southern Minnesota, I desperately missed my friends and would stock the mailman each week for the newspaper from back home. I would cut out every picture and article from there and put in a scrapbook. You know the kind with the kraft colored paper pages that were as big as the coffee table. (this was back in 198 Then when I decided to embrace my new school and had made a few new friends, I started scrapbooking them and stuff from high school. I would cut out funny sayings/quotes from magazines and tape them in the books.
Then in 2000 when visiting my brother and SIL, her and I were bored, so she pulled out her stamping stuff and started to show me how to make a card. She explained how it was fun, saved money on buying cards, blah, blah. . . . All I heard was paper!!! I was hooked. As soon as I got home, I found stamping supplies in the local Ben Franklin store and bought so much stuff I think I didn't eat that month. Then I went to a Stampin' Up party with my SIL and placed a nice size order of stamps. When they arrived at my door, I sat on the living room floor for about 4 hours cutting all those little buggers apart and attaching them to the wood blocks. Needless to say, they got all packed up for a few years.
Then in 2005 a friend invited me to go to a scrapbook crop with her. She told me to load up my pictures and come on over. While shopping before the crop, she kept saying that she hoped I would like it. She was worried I would hate playing with paper. LOL!!! Little did she know, what a monster she created. After scrapbooking for a year, I discovered CTMH and found the desire again to make cards.
Today I do both, but I would say I make more cards than scrapbook, since I don't have my own kids, I scrapbook my niece and 2 nephews. So when I run out of pictures, I go back to cards.
My favorite stores to shop in are HL, Michael's, local scrapbook stores, OfficeMax, Staples, etc. . . . .
Over 13 years ago I went to a SU party with several ladies from our church. I HAD NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT! I was so overwhelmed by the catalog and what was being demonstrated that I actually said out loud "where do I start" and my friend told me to buy the "Sunday School" set. I follow orders very well. But it was the Make-n-Take that hooked me. I came home from that party to a tired husband waiting up for me and he went to bed as I decorated every envelope in the house using the little stamp I received as a gift for spending $25 and any colored pencils I could find and my husband's address stamp ink pad. That night I bowed my head and gave my entire stamping life to the Lord and He has blessed me abundantly. I started selling SU products almost 2 years ago. It is my ministry and I am so very blessed. My husband is very supportive of my addiction to the point that he has built many pieces of furniture for my stamping area - all custom made to a specific need. What a guy!
__________________ ShariW
Trust in the Lord with all thine Heart-Prov.3:5a
I always had an interest in stamping and owned a few stamps, but didn't know what to do with them. I took a stamping class at Michaels and I was off and shopping! The instructor invited me to come to her stamp club and I convinced a friend to go with me. We both felt overwhelmed by their talent and knowledge, but we continued to go to learn and improve.
I've been stamping for about 13 years and my meager container of supplies now fills an extra bedroom in our house.
That is almost exactly how I got started!!
My mom got a couple of cute cards from a friend of hers, and I really liked them, so my hubby got me a couple of sets for my bday, then I went to a Class at Michaels, then to the instructors SU party! That was in 2003.
Always shown an interest in papercrafting from a young age, was my favourite part of art at school, then when I saw Dawn Griffiths on you tube I was hooked on Stampin' Up! and have now been a Kiwi Demo for just over two years.
Although I'm a bit of a lurker here I had to post for this. I have my friend to thank for my addiction. I went to a workshop at her place, thinking oh well, at least she'll have wine and snacks there even though they will try to "sell me something. I was up until 3:00 a.m. with the catty and know have an entire room of card happiness. My DH still can't believe it. That was 5 years ago.
I had an older friend who stamped. She needed to be driven to a stamp convention, so I volunteered. I thought the idea of a "stamp convention" was hilarious and joked with my hubby about it. I came home much poorer, but happy! I have been stamping ever since - 20 years.
My sister was a fabulous scrapbooker. When we'd go shopping together she always had to scope out AC Moore and Michaels. I was totally bored in those stores and ribbed her a lot about her search for stickers, paper, and such. One year, as a JOKE, I decided to make her a birthday card and see her reaction. I purchased a stamp, some ink, paper, and ribbon and made my first card. I suddenly realized that was the creative outlet I had been needing. She continues to laugh at me today but concedes cardmaking to me! And I now have an entire craft room to prove it!
I stayed with my best friend from college (who had just started as a SU Demo) the weekend of DH's bachelor party. She let me use all of her stuff and I made the thank you's for the wedding party. I was hooked and started my collection of supplies.
In 1998 a friend called and asked if I'd been to the stamp store in a nearby town. I asked her why I should drive 17 miles to a Post Office when I had one less than a mile from my house. After much laughter, she invited me to go to lunch and then shopping at her new favorite store. After 3-4 hours of looking at store samples and getting many on-the-spot demos from the store owner, I had filled my basket and spent most of my "mad money" for the month. That small collection has grown and now fills my spare (and largest) bedroom and a chest of drawers and bookcase in my bedroom - and my dining room table. (Good thing I'm an older single.) Four years ago I moved 600 miles to be near my aging parents and hired a moving company to pack me up and deliver my things to a storage unit near their house until I got settled in. The movers drastically underestimated the weight of 8 Iris units full of wood mounted rubber stamps and 4 Iris units full of decorative punches and all the other wonderful things that go with this hobby. Who would have thought that boxes of decorative paper and stamping magazines and books could possible weigh so much. Anyway, they arrived and called me and said they needed another $1200 before they could unload the truck - in addition to the $1300 I'd already paid them. Mind you, I only had a bed, two lamps and a rocking chair and a few household necessities - the rest was all my hobby! I absolutely love stamping and am fortunate enough to be able to teach cardmaking classes at my LSS and be surrounded by wonderful people who enjoy my hobby. Someone earlier mentioned Becca Feeken and I, too, am a huge fan of her work. She is very gifted and so generous to share her talent with all of us.
I went to a stamping party back in 95 or so, a company I don't recall the name of. I still have the stamps (they aren't marked) but coloring was difficult with the stamps I purchased. I used LePlume markers and they just didn't do what I wanted them too. I made my Christmas cards that year and didn't do any more until 2005 when a neighbor asked me to go to a SU stamp club she belongs to. They were using watercolor crayons and that was it for me... I purchased my first set that evening and bought more constantly. I ended up being a hobby demo I loved it so much. I use lots of digital stamps now but still have my wood mounted. I love the coloring process the most and that cards are quick to make.
I went to my first S/U party in 1991. I was fascinated by the fact that I actually made three cards that I wouldn't be embarrassed to send! Me! Totally uncrafty, totally skill-less as it relates to art. I bought some basic supplies and two stamp sets (remember when S/U offered the budget, foam mounted sets? Yup....I still have two of those sets!), but with a full-time job, a new baby and two pre-teens, I never got a chance to use them.
Fast-forward to 1997 and a Creative Memories party got me hooked on scrapbooking. I still use that little blue guillotine papercutter and the blue scissors! My teenage daughter had just invited three friends to our house to work on scrapbooks of their high school events. They were having so much fun on the floor with all those stickers, and it was a blast to watch. My DD encouraged the Creative Memories purchases (she's a sly one!) and we used to spend many happy hours together working on scrapbooks.
When she got married and moved away in 2004, I took over her bedroom and stamping actually saved me. I missed her something fierce, and when I realized that I could use those scrapbooking supplies to make handcrafted greeting cards, I dug in. This wonderful 'hobby' filled that void and certainly kept me busy! My DD continues to be very supportive, as does my DH. He says it keeps me off the streets at night.....ha!
One of my best friends is a S/U demo and I think I'm one of her best customers. I can't imagine life without my craft room and SCS...
__________________ "Be Still and Know That I Am God" Ps. 46:10
Well I am gonna jump on here and tell my story. My addiction started when my nephew was in like 3rd grade. He came home and told me " Meme I have to do a project for school." I said "ok baby what kind of project?" he hands me a paper with all the details on it. It turned out he had to do a Heritage Project about his family. The teacher said it could be a posterboard, a scrapbook or notebook, anything that had pictures and stories about his family. he and I went out and bought one of those inexpensive scrapbook kits that come with everything you need. I made copies of pictures of the family and we sat down and created a scrapbook of our family. He did pretty well on it. Been hooked ever since... but I do more papercrafting and cardmaking than I do scrapbooking. thats my story.. thank you for allowing me to share it.
Location: I live since 2004 in Bali, living in Paradise
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Hi,
After watching "Krafty Kids" at the craftshow in Cairns, I signed up and got became an instructor. It all started from there. Lateron I signed up with trichem,(glass painting) as an instructor, my DH build me a nice studio in the middle of the rainforest and I started my teaching studio, together with a girlfriend who was a "fine artist?" Lucky for me she was very interested in what I was teaching and I learned a lot from her.
That,s how it all started all those years ago. Now I live in Bali, where there are no craft shops and no stampers. I belong go several group on the net.
Have a nice daym
Jogrybali
*love this thread*
