Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
A "sneaky/smart" SU! demo offered a free intro cardmaking class at BOCES (adut ed) that I saw in the BOCES brochure that was mailed to our house. I signed up, took the class and then more of her classes there and then at her home once a month. Bought lot of stuff! She told me about SCS and my first visit to this site was 8 hours long!!! She is a smoker and the paper, etc. smelled so I searched on the SU! site for non-smoking demos and found several nearby and discovered gatherings and swaps and a bunch of great friends. $$,$$$ and over 3 years later my stamping stuff has flowed out of my craft room and into a tiny bedroom and the living room floor and,many times, on to the kitchen table. Now I'm trying to purge and organize. I am thankful to have found a creative outlet like cardmaking! I "justify" my purchases by making and donating cards to From Our Hearts for the troops to send home to their families.
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.
I stamp when I can't ride. That means when it's too hot usually around here. LOL. I have found lots of horsie stamps, and all my horse friends claim to still enjoy my cards.
I used to scrapbook - I'm one of the original customers at our LSS - but haven't done it in years. I had a friend at work who was one of those "wierd" stamp folks and invited me to a party. Why would anyone stamp? That's so much work and so much stuff! But I figured I'd go and get something - think I ordered SNAIL and a set of eyelets or something. I still did mostly scrapbooking, but decided I'd make my daughter's second or third birthday invites. It went downhill from there. She's now nine and stamps with me regularly. I still have that set (Pretty Princess) and will never part with it. It's now proudly joined by A LOT more sets of stamps.
Oh, and my house isn't clean and I'm not skinny, either. That's ok. My hobbies keep me close to sane. As close as I dare get anyhow!
__________________ Diana
*******
Save your drama for your llama.
This is my first post....but I have LOVED reading these posts! I started scrapbooking about 15 years ago....I LOVE IT! I bought my first stamps just a couple of years ago....I went to a scrapbooking weekend this last February and there was a SU demonstrator there.....the rest is history...I bought several sets that weekend and have ordered more since! I love scrapping, stamping and card making! I love how people have said on this post "it's better than therapy! " I so agree! Keep working everyone!
I've always done lots of crafts - knitting, crocheting, embroidery, sewing. But I think papercrafting was lurking inside me for years as I loved getting all my school supplies as a child - those wonderful notebooks, crayons, pencil crayons.
And I've always loved greeting cards and couldn't bear to throw away gorgeous Christmas cards so started cutting them up and remaking them.
Then I was at a craft fair and saw the Old Island Stamp Co.'s booth and they had "Merry Christmas" stamps which I thought would be better than hand-printing the greetings on my remade cards. They also did a demo of heat embossing so I bought a stamp, ink, and embossing powder which meant I needed a heat tool...... and lo and behold I was hooked. I still occasionally make cards by recycling old commercial cards but not so often now as I have so many stamps!
__________________ Susan
My SCS gallery is here should you care to look! Or please visit my blog, Cardmaker's Garret.
I went to a women's retreat at my church, and one of the activities was a card-making workshop. It was love at first stamp! Shortly after that I was invited to a SU! party, bought some basic supplies, and have been stamping up a storm ever since. It's my creative outlet.
__________________ ~ Pam ~ My Flickr Photostream Grammie is the best job I've ever had!
I stamp when I can't ride. That means when it's too hot usually around here. LOL. I have found lots of horsie stamps, and all my horse friends claim to still enjoy my cards.
I used to scrapbook - I'm one of the original customers at our LSS - but haven't done it in years. I had a friend at work who was one of those "wierd" stamp folks and invited me to a party. Why would anyone stamp? That's so much work and so much stuff! But I figured I'd go and get something - think I ordered SNAIL and a set of eyelets or something. I still did mostly scrapbooking, but decided I'd make my daughter's second or third birthday invites. It went downhill from there. She's now nine and stamps with me regularly. I still have that set (Pretty Princess) and will never part with it. It's now proudly joined by A LOT more sets of stamps.
Oh, and my house isn't clean and I'm not skinny, either. That's ok. My hobbies keep me close to sane. As close as I dare get anyhow!
Enjoy your DD before she grows up....all to quick. I hate my horse riding/stamping friend grew up, got married and moved away. :(
Once she was working on a school project and said "I can't imagine doing these without all the stamp stuff you have mom" One of her friends even came to my house when she was in college to use my stuff. She got an A and her prof said it was one of the best projects she'd seen.
I stamp mostly in the winter when it's to cold but in the summer when it's to hot is a good time too. I rode and stamped last night. (notice nothing said about cleaning?)
I was a stamper for many years and we were moving often. Finding new stamps in my new towns was hard. I was living in Europe where stamp stores are even more scarce.
When I moved to Guam and learned about Stampin' up! I was so amazed you cold buy stamps from a home party and from friends who were demos I thought it was heaven! My demo was moving so she signed me up! That was 8 years ago.
__________________ ~Vee
It's not who you know-it's whom you know.
4 years ago, I had surgery on my foot and my husband was out of town. A neighbor friend would take me in my wheel chair to get out. One day she said I am taking you to my advanced stamping club (where we live). She wheeled me in and they were doing a card exchange. I was so bummed because I couldn't have any of the cards. I signed up for the next exchange and did all elements on the computer. By the following month's exchange I had purchased a bunch of stamps, ink pads and papers. I haven't stopped purchasing or stamping since!
A group of ladies that got together each week to stamp invited me to join them. Even though at the time, I thought it was a rather silly thing to do (and the stamps at the time were too cutesie for my tastes), I went because I loved the ladies. The first time I embossed a greeting on the card we stamped, I was hooked. Over 10 years later, it has taken over my life and I couldn't be happier!
Mine is a "who" also. My friend, Lara. Got me into scrapbooking and stamping. Told her "no, I don't want to learn soap making - you make me spend too much money."
I think I got started in about the 4th grade. A local store had stamps for sale (as well as other things). I got a rainbow ink pad (green/blue/purple), a brown ink pad, a set of tiny stamps from Hero Arts, Inkadinkado cats stamp set and Hero Arts sleeping cat stamp. My 4th grade teacher was a calligrapher, so I got interested in that, although I did not really learn how to do it until I was in high school.
I was invited to a SU party by a friend. I was fascinated. I bought what I thought was a set of 3 birdhouse stamps. I was surprised when it arrived. It was one stamp with 3 birdhouses on it. Now I have more stamps than I can count. One of my daughters became an SU demo, the other became a compulsive buyer, and I bought a lot of things through her also. Then she stopped. I strayed away from SU except for paper because I detested cutting the rubber, as I have some arthritis in my hands. I recently was introduced to a demo, and I am thrilled to see SU with a choice of wood mounted or die cut stamps and I cannot wait to see the new catalog! I never stopped stamping but I slowed down. I think I have a new desire burning to do much more than I have been. As poster # 25 (Jeanne) said, I feel like a little girl again on the first day of school, smelling my new Crayolas! I just love it, and I, too, will always be a stamper.
__________________ SuzyQue in Texas Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons
for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
(borrowed from the quirkey card sayings thread).
I used to be a scrapbooker. Or at least, I THOUGHT I was a scrapbooker. A friend invited me to a Stampin' Up party and I thought I'd check it out.. it's the same supplies, right? Well, the demo mentioned SCS and from that night on I was hooked. Two weeks after the party and finding SCS i participated in my first VSN and I've loved every minute of it.
__________________
{Gallery}{Blog}
I design for: Stampendous!, There She Goes, Technique Tuesday,
SRM Stickers and Deconstructed Sketches.
This is my first post....but I have LOVED reading these posts! I started scrapbooking about 15 years ago....I LOVE IT! I bought my first stamps just a couple of years ago....I went to a scrapbooking weekend this last February and there was a SU demonstrator there.....the rest is history...I bought several sets that weekend and have ordered more since! I love scrapping, stamping and card making! I love how people have said on this post "it's better than therapy! " I so agree! Keep working everyone!
Welcome! There's a lot of great topics, ideas, fun things, good people and so much more. Hope you'll stick around
Enjoy your DD before she grows up....all to quick. I hate my horse riding/stamping friend grew up, got married and moved away. :(
Once she was working on a school project and said "I can't imagine doing these without all the stamp stuff you have mom" One of her friends even came to my house when she was in college to use my stuff. She got an A and her prof said it was one of the best projects she'd seen.
I stamp mostly in the winter when it's to cold but in the summer when it's to hot is a good time too. I rode and stamped last night. (notice nothing said about cleaning?)
I do, and am so blessed she loves to stamp with me. And ride with me. We use the craft/stamp stuff all the time, too. We rode a lot last week (it was horse camp week for her and I was riding a friend's horse while she's on her honeymoon) but next week is supposed to be super hot, so not as much riding for me. I'm a wimp like that. Unfortunately, our next show is just two weeks away, so I'll have to deal with it.
FWIW, I had good intentions of cleaning today, but our AC isn't cooling the house very well, so my motivation went away.
__________________ Diana
*******
Save your drama for your llama.
I don't exactly remember how it happened but I know I liked to stamp on my envelopes for letters and cards and somehow I discovered embossing (and held it over an electric stove or light bulb...) and I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I think my sister gave me the embossing powder (it's all her fault! Ha..she reaps the benefits today). That was a long time ago...at least 20 years and hundreds (thousands?) of stamps later..here I am!
I can hardly remember what got me into paper crafting. I believe it was when my grandkids were born and I started taking tons and tons of pictures. The scrapbook store had stamps as you came in the door and for a few years I was able to bypass that section with a NO NO NO! One class and it was all over, now I can't decide if I have more stamping or scrapbooking supplies but it is nice that they are interchangable to some extent.
I have always loved paper, I used to love to look at all the pretty stationery at the local store when I was younger, I started embroidery when I was young, started sewing to save money and have nicer clothes. Then I began making gifts, and tried all kinds of crafts: cross-stitch, crochet, knitting, crewel embroidery, and whatever else I could create. When scrapbooking first started, I refused to look at all the beautiful papers because I knew I'd be hooked. Then QVC had a K&Co Album that would record voices, and I bought my first kit. The scrapbooking took off, but I was not successful with stamping at first. I loved the stamps, but my images were not turning out the way I wanted. So I shelved the stamping part. About 3 years ago I decided to attend CKC in Valley Forge, and had to buy some inks for the classes I signed up for (would you believe I didn't own any?). I bought some Distress inks, took a Technique Tuesday class and made a good start. THEN I watched a Tim Holtz video. He totally hooked me on the techniques. I joined a Stampin Up group last November.
mine was from friends in a small town. then grew to su catalogs, to who had the newest gadget.. sad really but i got hooked cause i love to create things from virtually nothing.. bonus if it something i would have thrown out. ah well! addiction is addiction but i haven't found a helpful 12 step for quitting papercrafting so i guess i'm stuck with it nor do i truely want to quit cause it gives me something to do
My mom was a stamper first and I used to tease her about it. Putting ink on a stamp, then to paper. Whoopee. How exciting. Then I was bored one day and asked if I could use her stuff. I quickly learned there was a lot more to stamping than I thought. From there I got invited to an SU party and started attending classes at the local stamp store. The rest, as they say, is history. I've been stamping and teaching for about 15 years now.
__________________ Debra ---artist * teacher * designer Say yes. Be generous. Speak up. Love more. Trust yourself. Slow down. ---Patti Digh
My friend kept inviting me and I finally said yes thinking that would be the end of it. She is now the demonstrator and our group meets once a month to learn more. It's been eight years now.
My grandmother started me crafting when I was very small, in fact I could crochet before I could write my name (she taught me how to do that too.) Her crafts were varied, crochet, sew, cross stitch, and some small papercrafts. I branched out further with some simple scrapbooking and stamping in high school. A whirlwind 15 years later, I have at least 1 scrapbook for each kid (3), tons of Tildas, over 100 Copics, a Cricut, BigShot, Cuttlebug, enough embelishments to drown and in a few months my very own craft room.
One thing led to another and I have amassed a large collection of everything necessary for stampin".
