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No, she seriously went after me for not using trendy tools or stamps.
Nobody should make anyone feel bad because they have old (thing), or new (thing), for that matter. Old stamps are good. New stamps are good. Looking down your nose at old stamps because they're not the 'hot new release' and making someone feel bad for such a petty reason is worthy of a pillow smack to the side of the head until common sense prevails. Seen enough of that nonsense growing up, be it sneakers, or branded clothes, or special pencils, the trendiest toys or what-have-you.
I have lots of old stamps that I love and use. Some from SU that say 1996 on them and I still use them. There is no out of date stamp, as far as I'm concerned. A beautiful flower, butterfly, leaf or tree stamp is always in style in my mind. Now, that doesn't mean I don't see a new flower, butterfly, leaf or tree stamp that I fall in love with, but the stamps get along just fine and I love them all!
You sound like me (sort of), DeeAnn. Balance is what I strive for in all areas of my life, and crafting is no different. High-tech and low-tech, plain and fancy, new and old - it's all good, but I try to balance.
I use older stamps, too, and the comments on those are usually something to the effect of how fun it is to see an old favorite resurrected, so I'm sorry that you got such a negative comment. One of my favorite stampers here on Splitcoast is SophieLaFontaine, and she uses older stamps all the time!
Your comments on your friends' questions and the card industry are very revealing, and sort of prove my initial point - perfect and polished are becoming more and more the norm. Again - nothing wrong with that, just an effect of the evolution of our craft...
I have lots of old stamps that I love and use. Some from SU that say 1996 on them and I still use them. There is no out of date stamp, as far as I'm concerned. A beautiful flower, butterfly, leaf or tree stamp is always in style in my mind. Now, that doesn't mean I don't see a new flower, butterfly, leaf or tree stamp that I fall in love with, but the stamps get along just fine and I love them all!
I think Lovely As a Tree proves you perfectly right! It�s still available from SU! so it�s current but some might say it�s old - not sure when it was introduced but the first card in the gallery here is dated 2002. The most recent is two days ago - so it�s both old and new!
I recently went out of my way to get hold of Sun Ripened, a set that retired in 2004. I think some images are just timeless, I guess botanical style illustrations often fit that category for me (so I�m not at all surprised by those who hold on to their PSX etc!).
Older stamps are just as much fun and anybody who looks down on another person for using them is a stamp snob and probably insecure in their own creativity. Whether you combine them with newer die cuts or other products or go totally �old school� with just inks and more basic colouring tools, older stamps can make beautiful projects and there�s absolutely nothing wrong with cherishing your faves, no matter what their age!
You all know how happy it makes me when I find someone's old stamps they've donated to a thrift store.
The majority of my stamps are just that.
So to me, old stamps become new stamps. What I never know is if they even are old!! Even stamp pads that are juicy get put in my cart. Do I know if they are a new color or an old color? No. All I know is that they stamp. Punches are tested, if they work, they're mine.
I love old things. I'm an old thing and so is my hubs.
__________________ We can't all be stars but we can all twinkle.
Funny to see how this convo has shifted to images. A friend (who was once a customer) dropped off three boxes of supplies the other day. I’m sorting them to donate and share the wealth and found a few images I can’t part with. They’re from sets that were sold 10-20 years ago. Old In some ways, I guess, but new for me
Thanks for the encouragement shared here and also for other threads about converting stamps. I really like using a stamp positioner and thanks to the helpful info, I can convert these “old” images in a way that I can enjoy using them. I guess this is old meets new!
This is such an interesting thread! It was very long, so it wasn't 'til now that I found time to read all of it. Like Joanne (Angelnorth), I do miss the Limited Supplies challenge too! My current favourite challenge is the Sunday one, where we case a Featured Stamper's cards. I love looking at cards and seeing images that remind me of stamps I already have.
My newest tools are Copics and Spellbinder's nesting dies, and I use the A2 die on nearly every single card I make, just out of laziness. When I go on vacation, I don't even use the die though; it's too much to pack the Big Shot. I just fold the paper by hand and cut with scissors. I don't mind fussy-cutting stuff too, because for me it takes just as long to line a die or stamp up. I love colouring, and the only change I've made in all these years was switching from watercolours to Copics, because I didn't like how watercolours warped the cardstock. I kept buying stamps galore, mostly older stamps from yard sales. Since these old stamps were new to me, I loved using them. These were stamps which came out at a time when I could not afford them. Years later when I would see them again at yard sales, I COULD afford them! Hooray!! Then suddenly, I realized that I had run out of storage space. At the same time, I realized that now I had enough stamps to create any look I wanted, for any card I wanted. Also, I had SO many stamps, that whatever stamp I pulled out, it would seem "new" to me, since it would have been a LONG time since I last used it. So my stamping purchases for the last few years have been cardstock, envelopes, tape, etc. ; just the basic supplies. I love that all of my card-making supplies are also helping me in my own "evolution" - along the way, I re-discovered my love of miniatures (dollhouse stuff). I use my dies to make little furniture and walls (cutting rectangular doors and windows in miniature walls), and my stamps to stamp images on little t-shirts, and scrapbook papers for wallpapers. Brads for little doorknobs, and eyelets for little shower-curtain holes. Etc. I also use them to make miniature greeting cards. Hahah!
I do love that so many new products and stamps keep coming out. We can pick and choose those that help us the most, or save us the most time. For me it was A2 dies (no more time-consuming fretting over straight cuts) and Copics (no more ironing the cardstock!). I still love looking at new stamps that come out. Lots of times, the new images remind me of some similar image that I already have, but haven't used in a long time. So off I go in search of my old stamp! I also love the proliferation of inspiration. When I have absolutely NO ideas, I can summon gorgeous ideas with Google Images.
I don't think my cards look any more polished though, than years ago. If they do, I'm sure it is because I now know how to use Photoshop Elements and I have a better camera and scanner. Hahahah! (I also do love the new products in that area... that allow us to capture our cards in photos).
Sue, I am really seeing the evolution of stamping and what you are talking about.
I bought the book the Art of Rubber Stamping by Suze Weinberg. I got it in today. The book was published in 2000. Wow, the differences to what we are doing today is really outstanding.
I really love the book. I keep looking through it. The stamps are the focal point. We keep talking about mixed media. I do see a lot of mixed media in this book. It just wasn't mixed media back then. I wonder how we went from stamping techniques to the term mixed media. Now that's an evolution question.
The way the composition was done is so different now from the layering to the framing. I don't mean this in a critical way but I think stamping looked more artistic then. I love it is the focal point. The backgrounds are mixed media like fusible web, bleach, cheesecloth, mosaics, using embossing powders to make backgrounds. That is so unique to me, at least.
I look at cards now and see how beautiful they are. There does seem to be a lot of die cutting. Layering is not framed like a photograph or art piece. We layer as more three dimensional now. I think we use die cuts more as a framing technique and definitely a layering technique. Then the stamp is part of the card and not the focal point. We use pattern paper as our backgrounds. We dry emboss backgrounds now.
I think both old and new are beautiful. I do admit I love the older ones better. I wish I knew about the stamping world in 2000. I would have been all over that.
Note- I know somebody will be curious. Why I bought such an old book for was because I bought the UTEE melting pot. I am tired of yanking out my polymer clay oven to bake one little charm. ;) I found out the melting pot can bake polymer clay and it bakes it well for the things I do. I thought it would be fun to learn how to use UTEE. I love all the embellishments everyone is making with it.
Oh, DeeAnn, you really brought back some memories! I started stamping in 1982 and at the classes I went to it was definitely what we call mixed media today. And it used all kinds of found items to create all the different looks. Now people have created stamps and stencils that do what I used to do with an onion bag!
Even when I started with SU! in 2000, "the look" was much different from today.
What I rejoice in is that there are many different "styles" today, and that encourages everyone to find what they love creating.
I have that book and it does have some great basic how to's. I have been able to purchase several older stamping 'how to'books. Believe it or not I even have a PSX book. The only problem with older books is it reminds me of companies long gone and then I get sad.
