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I got addicted about 2 years ago. My sister had a cardmaking party before the holidays and I went just to hang out with the girls and give it a try. My cousins wife was way into stamping and I just was amazed at all the great things she was creating. I got very interested that night.
Then about 2 weeks later the neighbor lady (which I had been getting to know better over the last few months) called me up and said "Hey, do you want to come to Michaels with me to do some scrapbooking stuff?" I said sure and went and had a ton of fun. They were demonstrating the Cricut that night and the Cuttlebug has just gome out too!
I then wandered down into her basement shortly therafter and discovered her huge craftroom that was so organized and beautiful and saw her thousands of stamps and pretty paper and just fell in love with it all. She was a TAC demo and let me borrow a lot of stamps- showed me all sorts of different techniques and such. So in that span of a month I was totally hooked!!
Of course I have spent a small fortune on supplies since and have somewhat converted the spare bedroom into my crafting space.
My sister still cannot believe how obsessed I've become in the last 2 years.
March 2002. My dear friend Judy literally dragged me out of the house (I was really depressed after my father died) and took me to a SU stamp camp. She was already a scrapper and wanted to learn to stamp. Well, $80.00 later I was in love with SU and stamping. Yes, it was the embossing powder that really did it. My friend and I became this demo's best customers LOL!
A wonderful crafty friend sent me a beautiul card about 4 years ago.
Just had to ask her how she made it, and yep! I was hooked from there.
I love the stamped images [white or Gold] onto vellum and then emboss, and colour. pergamanno style. also I have ventured into spamping on candles.with the heat gun. Hugs Babs.
Children. Isn't it always the children? First my oldest daughter ( a forth grade school teacher and very creative) invited me to a CM party and I went and became hooked and signed up to be a consultant at that party. Did that for 2 yrs and became inactive and turned my business over to her. She is still a consultant with CM. Then she invites me to Stampin' Up party at her house and my check book instantly became 350.00 lighter that evening! I couldn't help it. After all for every 50. you spent you got a free set! That was a couple years ago and both my daughters have been after me to become a consultant for SU ever since. I cannot go into a craft store without buying at least one new stamp among other arts and craft items. They are both consultants for CM so naturally they are still after me to become a SU rep. Honestly I am having way to much fun just being a customer and playing with all the pretty colors in my craft room ( their old bedroom) and doing craft shows, when I am not at my 40 hr week office job. Besides between the three of us we own almost everything SU and Michaels and Hobby Lobby and Joanns sells. O did I forget to mention my youngest daughter this past year started working part time at Hobby Lobby! O my I think we are all addicted!! LOL Happy creating!!
I smoked 2 packs a day for 20 years. When I started opening the 3rd pack, I realized something had to change. I quit smoking, but did not know what to do with my hands and all the free time I suddenly had. A friend introduced me to Stampin Up! and I have not had a cigarette in almost 10 years. Havn't saved any money either, if you know what I mean,LOL.
Julie
__________________ "The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous." Frederick Douglass
I enjoyed reading all the posts. I had dabbled a little in stamping back in the early to mid 90's when my daughter was small. I had seen some of the stamping on Carol Duvall's show. Then when my son was born, being busy raising 2 active kids and working all the creativeness was sucked out of me. I found it difficult to even wrap a present. Then in 2004 or 2005, my friend who lives in Tennessee sent me a Christmas card and it looked to be hand made so I called her and I said "your card is so cute did you make it?" and she proceeded to tell me about how she was a SU demonstrator. So on her next visit down to Florida, I hosted a small SU party and that was it, I was hooked. She is also the one to introduce me to SCS. She remarks on how she created a Frankenstein. Unfortuneately, her busy life with her boys has lead her to give up the SU demonstrating and card crafting for now but I'm still going strong and have a new SU demo here who also became a good friend.
I wandered into a stamp store at our mall one day about 6.5 years ago. I had never seen anything like it. There were all kinds of samples made with the stamps and the owner showed us one technique after another. I ended up taking classes from her and I was hooked.
Then some friends at work introduced me to their CTMH rep. I went to some of her classes and started buying a lot of their stamps. Sadly, the stamp store at the mall closed about 3 years ago now. I miss that store, but one of the ladies I met at the store was an SU! demo. We became friends and as of early this year, I have been hooked on SU! and on the SCS website. My CTMH rep jokes that I have gone over to the dark side.
5 years ago I had no idea there were entire company�s dedicated to stamping. I thought homemade cards were all computer generated.
At my first SU party I agonized over each step of the card making process � even though most of the work was already done for me. Which color ink should I use? Where should I stamp the main image? I was so worried that my card wouldn�t come out �exactly� like the demos sample card.
I ordered a few things, just to be a good friend but later found myself obsessed with all things stamping!
The funny thing is, I could never part with that first card I ever made!
__________________ I'm a ChemoAngel & SeniorAngel! Click HERE to learn more.
Back in 1992, my kids were at a friend's home playing and I had to pick them up early. When my friend asked why I was so early, I said we had a first birthday party to go to and I had forgotten to get a card for the gift so we had to stop and get one before the party. She said "I will just make you one" I tried to gracefully decline her offer thinking that she was going to make one off the computer and the person having the party was such a snob that I was too embarassed to give her a computer generated one. But my dear friend insisted and went into her laundry room, took out a piece of stock (paper to me at the time!) and darling sheep stamp and an ink pad. She proceeded to make the most darling card in minutes and I was totally fascinated! I couldn't beleive my eyes and told her I could never do anything like that! Famous last words......I was sooooo hooked!
Funny part of this is that the snobby woman was so gaga over the card that she asked me where I got it. When I told her a friend made it, she was just as fascinated and impressed as I was. Guess what? She started stamping from that card too and still does to this day. I always get a homemade Christmas card from her!
I guess one shouldn't look a gift-sheep in the mouth? or however that one goes!
Thanks for starting this thread! I love thinking of that friend (she moved away), card and story.
This cracked me up!
__________________ I'm a ChemoAngel & SeniorAngel! Click HERE to learn more.
Have you ever been dragged to a 'home party' and bought the cheapest thing just to be polite?! Yeah, you get the picture!
That was 15 years ago...I can't believe that that one event has saved me thousands of dollars on store-bought cards!!! And it's a good thing, too, cuz I wouldn't be able to afford my stamps/paper/tools/embellishments/altered materials/paints/ink/storage items/closet racks and all the other stuff I have in my stamp room!!!
Whew...that was a lucky day, I tell ya! :rolleyes:
I had just lost my husband and one friend invited me to join a monthly Bunco group. I was playing Bunco one night in the fall, got ready to leave and another new friend of mine (we'd just tied for the most Buncos and split the pot!) gave me a stamped, hand made card. I told her I wish I could do that.
She invited me to SU 10-Club and here I am now - three years later!
The first year after I got married (12/17/05) all my frients said I was MIA. They said they'd give me a year then I had to be social again. So in January of 2007 a frient invited me to a home party for a company I had never heard of before. I tried to get out of it, it was just after Christmas, I was broke, etc. But she kept insisting, told me not to buy anything just come and chat everyone had been missing me. I was a scrapper and had a few stamps that had never been used. The party was a CTMH and the demo was fantastic. I fell in love with the make it and take it's we did. Couldn't belive how easy and fun it was. Now a year and a half later I have a ton of new friends, a creative outlet that makes me very happy, a husband that makes me homemade cards and admires everything I do, a craft room...and an emptier checkbook!! But I am loving every minute of it.
Mine is pretty cool too. I was new to NC and I was invited to the home of my MOPS coordinator . (MOPS is Mothers of Preschoolers) She said her and some others I knew from MOPS met each Friday to scrap and make cards. I was like "I don't think I would do much.. I don't even know where my pics are" well she said "You can make a card" I was like.. yeah right. So I went out of the pure desperation for making a friend and I thought how bad can it be!
She handed me paper to cut and gave me the measurements. I was like.. ok I can do that. Then she handed me more paper in diff. colors.. and more paper and more paper. I was cutting a lot. I started to think "this is neat". I then got to fold the paper and then stamp a cute smiley face on some squares of paper and then I got to glue things together and then I got to stamp some more and suddenly I was realizing that I made a card! I made many cards. AND these cards were going to be used at our MOPS meetings. I was like YES! I did this and I ROCK!
Ok I left there and tried my best to find some supplies to make my own stuff and I tried and tried and found nothing similar to what she had. I was so upset. I thought .. oh well I am just gonna do what I can do. I got a few things but wasn't happy with it.
Not long after that time she was having a 10/$10 and I went. She isn't a demo ... which is ironic. She just loves to have fellowship. This was a way to get us all together.
Well I learned it was SU that supplied the goodies and I found the demo that supplied hers and I was having a workshop within a few weeks.
It's been nearly a year since then and I am a demo now. I took over the client base of the demo that I had the workshop with and I am just thrilled to be a part of it all.
Way back in 1996 my mom was doing some stamping. I thought it was kinda silly and would roll my eyes at her. Then one day, while lots of things were going wrong in my life and I needed a respite, I borrowed her stuff and started to play with it. Not much later a casual friend caught me looking at stamps in a store and invited me to her Stampin' Up party that night. And the rest is history. I became an addict. Now I have a studio and more stuff than I could really ever use. I stamp every day. It makes me happy.
__________________ Debra ---artist * teacher * designer Say yes. Be generous. Speak up. Love more. Trust yourself. Slow down. ---Patti Digh
I got into it loooong time ago, maybe 20 years ago (ok I am not that old I am 30 now). It was when I still lived in Macedonia, and my parents went on a trip to Bulgaria, and they would always bring us something. So they brought me and my best friend a set of rubber stamps. Mine were with flowers and hers with animals. So I have been addicted since then!
__________________ Splitcoast Dirty Dozen Alumni visit my blog
I was working at a state mental hospital as a rehab therapist where I was put in charge of a vocational program to teach mentally retarded/mentally ill patients work skills. We went to visit another mental hospital that ran a greeting card workshop. I saw the Stampin' Up name and went online to find out about their products. A demo visited later and showed us a few techniques and I was hooked. I even signed up to be a demo, which I gave up after awhile. I'm no longer working at the hospital, which was a convenient time to stamp and create, but I still love to stamp, although there never seems to be enough time.
I had been watching the Carol Duvall show and seeing all the stamping and resisting with all my might. Then I got invited to a SU! party, saw gold EP change and I was lost, I tell you, lost. Life has never been the same since. I had to move from my very tiny 1-bedroom apartment to a 2-bedroom because I had to have a craft room for all my stuff. Many, many thousands of dollars later, I still bless my SU! "pusher" for getting me going. How did you start?
Cindy/CA
I had to smile when I read this line, Cindy. Yes... embossing powder can certainly change your life!
Somehow I bought a dolphin stamp about 25 years ago... didn't stick. Then about 10 years ago, we moved to where we live now and 30 miles north is a big stamp store. We wandered in there one day and a lady was demonstrating embossing. That was cool. I purchased enough to make some monogram notecards -- simple, simple, simple. I tried to set up a work area in the basement but needed the space for something and it all got packed away.
A couple of years ago, I met another mom at my daughter's Kindermusik who is an SU demo. I really liked her and knew what she did but I always averted my eyes!! I wasn't going to get sucked in LOL! And I had the misguided notion that it was cheating if I didn't draw the pictures myself. What an idiot I was!
Finally, I attended one of her workshops and it was like an epiphany! I so totally loved, loved, loved the stamping itself. I placed my first huge order then, during SAB, and now I'm a demo. (Just hobby ~ not like her... she is in the Founder's Circle this year!) The rest, as they say, is history... and you know what I mean ;). Hooked.
I got into it loooong time ago, maybe 20 years ago (ok I am not that old I am 30 now). It was when I still lived in Macedonia, and my parents went on a trip to Bulgaria, and they would always bring us something. So they brought me and my best friend a set of rubber stamps. Mine were with flowers and hers with animals. So I have been addicted since then!
I really did get into it over 20 years ago. My aunt who still stamps, gave me some stamps for a graduation gift. I loved making, my own stationary, bookmarks... When my kids were babies, I bought them a stamp for Christmas and for Birthdays with the understanding that Mommy could use them too. I used a permanent marker to mark the occassion and the date. I got into making cards when my daughter came home from school 9 years ago and said, you need to meet Daniel's mom. She likes stamps too. She is a SU demonstrator. What a wonderful friendship. I moved 4 years ago, and haven't found anyone that I like stamping with as much. Here is her gallery.
I too was hooked by a SU stampin up party. Tons of $$$$ later I have no room hardly to stamp let alone scrapbook and store all my wonderful treasures (dh says my stampin crap).
Shelley
__________________ Semper Fi !!! Still Suporting US forces in Iraq & around the world!!
I've always done crafty things to some degree. I started out with cross stitched and a little bit of scrapbooking. I don't like to do elaborate scrapbook pages because they take too long.
In April 2007 I signed up for a card making class at the Paper Source and I was hooked....$75 later. I made Christmas cards to send out last year and left it at that.
Then my BFF mentioned the Cuttlebug in March and my living room has never been the same since then. My DH bought me the Cuttlebug and prismacolors for my b-day in March and I've been a stamping machine since then. I think I've spent $1000 this year on supplies, but I'm having so much fun.
I cannot wait to go home to Toronto in September and visit the Stamping Bella Boutique. I'm waiting anxiously until we move back home to Toronto for good so that I can stamp and card make with my BFF.
I actually said these words 11 or 12 years ago "I make cards on the computer and add embellishments" I don't need to spend money on stamps. LOTS of money later I am still spending and stamping. It was a natural next step for me to go from computer to stamps. I still use my computer with my stamping.
__________________ Did you know nearly 1 in 2 Americans live with chronic illness? chronic illness?
My MIL (and the rest of my inlaws, all very crafty people) invited me to make Christmas cards. I said I'd go, but I'd just "help out." Well, MIL convinced me, and I soon walked out of there with 20 cards! From that point on, I just couldn't stop!
I used to illustrate my hand-written letters to my cousins. I would also draw on the envelopes. One day, out of boredom, I wandered into the college bookstore and saw some stamps!! I knew the images would be the perfect little additions to my letters and envelopes. They were tiny stamps, mounted on foam (I've found them again; they are Stampendous). I bought the set, and kept going back to buy more and more! Then a stamp store opened at the mall and I spent money there. Then another stamping store opened, and I also bought lots of stamps there. Curiously, I never made a card (with stamps) until I went to my first SU! party. Up to this point I had only used stamps to embellish my letters and envelopes.
Then I got invited to SU! parties, and bought some there, and DOTS parties too. Ah, good times, good times. I was single, and had waaaay less financial stuff going on (no mortgage) so I bought TONS of stamps!
I had also used to use the computer to make cards. I remember being so excited when the first graphics became available, where there was a choice of maybe 20 images (with HUGE pixels)!!! When I was even younger I used to just draw on printer paper, fold it, and call it a card! It is soooo much better now with stamps and cardstock!!
Back in 1992, my kids were at a friend's home playing and I had to pick them up early. When my friend asked why I was so early, I said we had a first birthday party to go to and I had forgotten to get a card for the gift so we had to stop and get one before the party. She said "I will just make you one" I tried to gracefully decline her offer thinking that she was going to make one off the computer and the person having the party was such a snob that I was too embarassed to give her a computer generated one. But my dear friend insisted and went into her laundry room, took out a piece of stock (paper to me at the time!) and darling sheep stamp and an ink pad. She proceeded to make the most darling card in minutes and I was totally fascinated! I couldn't beleive my eyes and told her I could never do anything like that! Famous last words......I was sooooo hooked!
Funny part of this is that the snobby woman was so gaga over the card that she asked me where I got it. When I told her a friend made it, she was just as fascinated and impressed as I was. Guess what? She started stamping from that card too and still does to this day. I always get a homemade Christmas card from her!
I guess one shouldn't look a gift-sheep in the mouth? or however that one goes!
Thanks for starting this thread! I love thinking of that friend (she moved away), card and story.
OMG, I love it! That is so cool that the 'snob' became a stamper!I got started when a co-worker invited me to a SU party she was hostessing. I almost didn't go because I was like, "stamps seem kind of dumb, can't you just print out designs from the computer?" Now I feel dumb for thinking that because little did I know how addicted I would be!
DH and I moved to NC in 2003 to teach and by the winter of 2003-2004 we had made some friends but still spent most of our time together at home. So one day DH came home with a invite for me for a SU! party that Saturday evening. Of course I had no idea what one would do with rubber stamps, other than stamp on graded papers :rolleyes: , but I told her I would come b/c "I didn't have anything better to do on a Saturday night". The demo was very good and explained SU and what to do with their products, and we made a very cool, simple, card with glitter and ribbon as the only embellishments. I was intrigued, but not hooked yet. I didn't order anything that night b/c I still didn't know what I needed, but I held my own workshop in my classroom after school one day. It was SAB so I got lots of stuff with my order. My cards were very simple and basic that first year, but I hooked up with my now BFF and and she showed me scrapbooking and I showed her stampin. The following SAB I had another workshop with a different demo and earned so much stuff!! Made my own wedding invites that summer (05) and then began attending a monthy club that fall that I belonged to until I signed up as a demo this month. I started with a plastic shoe-size box of supplies, and it just keeps growing!
I never thought I was artistic b/c I can't draw, but scrampin has shown me that I am an artist and there many ways to express one's creativity. I wish I had know in HS what I know now, b/c I avoided art classes, and now I wish I had taken them.
__________________ Barb IIII*IIII*IIII*IIII*IIII*IIII* "No one's really gonna be free until nerd persecution ends."
Have you ever been dragged to a 'home party' and bought the cheapest thing just to be polite?! Yeah, you get the picture!
That was 15 years ago...I can't believe that that one event has saved me thousands of dollars on store-bought cards!!! And it's a good thing, too, cuz I wouldn't be able to afford my stamps/paper/tools/embellishments/altered materials/paints/ink/storage items/closet racks and all the other stuff I have in my stamp room!!!
Whew...that was a lucky day, I tell ya! :rolleyes:
I've always loved paper and stuff, and was an "of course" when my sister-in-law was the hostess of a SU! workshop to help *her* sister-in-law. I bought Wonderful Wings, a couple of other things, set a date for my own workshop, and then just ordered regularly and figured I'd get my stuff faster and pay easier if I was a demo myself. So. . . that was that. I'm more of a collector now than a stamper, but do love to do it when I make time for it!
My story is pretty similar to others posted here. I started scrapbooking in 2002. A year later I was talking with a woman at MOPS who like me, had just recently started scrapbooking. She found out about SU from another friend and hosted her own workshop where the demo focused on using stamps for scrapbooking. I ordered $100 that night and haven't looked back. I do both scrapbooking and cards, and to me it all falls under the category of "stamping" because the majority of my scrapbook pages are stamped. And I love it all!
__________________ Julie my gallery
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Phillippians 4:13
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I love reading all of your stories!
I was invited by a neighbour to attend a home party to 'make cards'. I've always enjoyed crafting, so I was glad that I could go. I really enjoyed being with the gals, and made a small order. I quickly found that this was a lot of fun. The demo (another neighbour) soon became a good friend. She invited me to go to her house about once a week to 'play'. She showed me all kinds of neat techniques and projects. I ordered from her several times, and then I approached her about becoming a demo. She just smiled and said, I've been waiting for you to ask! And she pointed me to the advantage of joining during SAB.
I already wrote about how I was dragged to a 'home party' and that's "how it all began", but I feel the need to share more. Mainly, what stamping has meant to me.
You see, about the same time I was dragged to the SU! party (and was OVERWHELMED by the catalog, I might add!), my mother had bought a few stamps unbeknown to me. Shortly after, my sister (in another state) was invited to a neighbors house for a SU! party. She, like me, bought a cheap set with the foam mount (remember those?).
Over the years, stamping became a wonderful sharing bond for my mom, my sister and myself. We all grew our stamp "collections" to the point of each having our own stamping rooms and shared our 'addiction'.
In 1999, my parents (at our urging) bought the house next door to us and moved 'from the city' to next door. Our addiction grew!
On the 4th of July, 2006, my mom passed away peacefully in her sleep. She was 84. The evening before was the last time I saw my mom before she passed and we had spent time ORDERING STAMPS! She was always so tickled to get more stamps! It was a happy time. (My dad passed in 2005 in his sleep also)
My sister came from out of state and while she was here, we spent time going through my mom's stamp room. We pulled out all the SU! sets, spread them all out and, alternating, chose sets. We cried, we laughed and divided more stamping stuff. When sorting became too heavy to handle one day, my sister and I decided to "go out"...we ended up in a little handmade gift shop in town and on the wall were 2 framed fabric pieces that were embroidered with the words "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my mother. Abe Lincoln"
One now hangs in my stamp room and the other in my sister's stamp room. We are very grateful for the shared hobby (addiction!) we had with our mom.
Several years ago I was invited to a SU party at my niece's house and because I always feel obligated to buy something at home parties I bought "A tree for all seasons" because it was one of the cheaper stamps sets in the huge catalog. I still have that set but I don't have the case for it because unbeknownst to me I didn't know thats what I was suppose to store the stamps in and I threw it away. I didn't buy anything else and never used the stamps and they sat in a drawer for a couple of years.
I went to a couple of CTMH home parties and got interested in scrapbooking and made a couple scrapbooks and then the gal that started to scraping group at our local library invited a SU gal to do a demo for our scraping group and the rest is history, I was hooked and have been stamping now for about 6 years.
I quickly became the SU gals best customer and a friend also.
I started out with a basket of goodies, graduated to a table in the corner, grew to 2 tables a shelf and roller drawers from walmart, outgrew that corner and moved into the computer room but outgrew that space quickly, our youngest & last child flew the coop this past January and I took over his bedroom. I have asked hubby a couple a times about adding on to the house but he isn't agreeing with the idea of that :-( .
My DH refers to my SU demo as my "dealer" because I am addicted.
My only regret now is that I didn't save all my reciepts from every stamping/scraping/craft/sewing related purchase because I have really considered getting insurance on my "stamping/scraping/craft/sewing room" because I could never afford to replace everything....
And thats how I became an addict.
__________________ With God all things are possible
I think some ladies get separate insurance riders on their policies, and video documentation as well as written inventory is acceptable. Something to check into, anyway. I have been thinking that I need to do the same thing and have mentioned it to dh.
Stamping really began for me quite a few years ago.
When I was a little girl, I had a book that I think was called "S.W.A.K." (Sealed With A Kiss). and it was all about jazzing up letters to mail to people. Full of doodling, fun stuff to mail, cool folding techniques, etc. I LOVED that book, lol. Looking back, it really was a precursor to my stamping addiction.
Then I grew up and got married and started a family. Being a young broke married couple, we didn't have an extra penny to our names but I still remember being in a Michael's store somewhere and looking at the display of stamps and drooling. Dh said "Honey, get one if you want!" and I remember shaking my head, smiling wryly at him because even though I wasn't a stamper then I had enough sense to know that you could never get just one stamp, lol.
Five years or so later I did begin stamping after being invited to a stamping party. I watched the demo show us how to emboss and was completely mesmerized. (It really is stamping crack!).
I dabbled with stamping a bit then but was usually so exhausted raising four children ages 10 and under, with a husband who was almost always on the road, that I hardly had the heart to drag out my stuff. And when I did, it was all I could do to keep the kids out of it and then to find the energy to put it all away. So I gave it up for a good five to eight years.
I then lost all my stamping stuff when our house burned down two years ago. But wait! I was able to salvage some of my stamps...the wood mounts were ruined but some of the rubber was still okay, so I unmounted what I could save, and that became the beginning of my new collection.
And my kids are all much older now; my daughters love to stamp with me!
It took a looonnnggg time to get to this point but eventually it did come, and now my stamping addiction is very solid, lol. I can't believe I have found a hobby that is so therapeutic and beneficial to others at the same time. Well worth the money, imho. Just wish dh truly understood as well! Poor guy just doesn't get it, lol!
But life is GOOD!
Last edited by chickadeelodge; 08-19-2008 at 05:10 AM..
My mother had passed away and I was pretty much down in the dumps. My daughter, who lives 2 hours away asked me to come to her house for a Stampin Up party and I just can't say no to her, plus my little grandson was going to be there. Me, being a good Mom had to place an order, still not too excited about it. I told her to pick out a couple of sets that I didn't have to color in or anything too complicated, I just wanted to be able to stamp it and be done. Now, 3 1/2 years later I love all of the complicated things and love to color the images with just about any medium, plus have hundreds of stamps and many toys to play with.
__________________ Sue GKD Center Stage Spotlight DT Alumni http://qvande.blogspot.com Just Us Girls Challenge DT
I already wrote about how I was dragged to a 'home party' and that's "how it all began", but I feel the need to share more. Mainly, what stamping has meant to me.
You see, about the same time I was dragged to the SU! party (and was OVERWHELMED by the catalog, I might add!), my mother had bought a few stamps unbeknown to me. Shortly after, my sister (in another state) was invited to a neighbors house for a SU! party. She, like me, bought a cheap set with the foam mount (remember those?).
Over the years, stamping became a wonderful sharing bond for my mom, my sister and myself. We all grew our stamp "collections" to the point of each having our own stamping rooms and shared our 'addiction'.
In 1999, my parents (at our urging) bought the house next door to us and moved 'from the city' to next door. Our addiction grew!
On the 4th of July, 2006, my mom passed away peacefully in her sleep. She was 84. The evening before was the last time I saw my mom before she passed and we had spent time ORDERING STAMPS! She was always so tickled to get more stamps! It was a happy time. (My dad passed in 2005 in his sleep also)
My sister came from out of state and while she was here, we spent time going through my mom's stamp room. We pulled out all the SU! sets, spread them all out and, alternating, chose sets. We cried, we laughed and divided more stamping stuff. When sorting became too heavy to handle one day, my sister and I decided to "go out"...we ended up in a little handmade gift shop in town and on the wall were 2 framed fabric pieces that were embroidered with the words "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my mother. Abe Lincoln"
One now hangs in my stamp room and the other in my sister's stamp room. We are very grateful for the shared hobby (addiction!) we had with our mom.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful story it really moved me. Teresa
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ardenskay, that has to be the most beautiful and touching story I've ever seen here about stamping... thanks so much for sharing it. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
I was at bible study with some friends, and a lady gave one of those friends a card. I was gooing over it and asked her how she did it - she said she stamped it. I had only scrapbooked so literally said "you what?" LOL Next thing I knew, I was at a house and playing with stamps. I had a friend that lived in MO who was a demo that had talked about SU! but I didn't put 2 + 2 together because I hadn't seen it IRL - once I did, I was totally hooked. Now my small "hobby" has grown into an entire craft room! But I'm blessed
I had been watching the Carol Duvall show and seeing all the stamping and resisting with all my might. Then I got invited to a SU! party, saw gold EP change and I was lost, I tell you, lost. Life has never been the same since. I had to move from my very tiny 1-bedroom apartment to a 2-bedroom because I had to have a craft room for all my stuff. Many, many thousands of dollars later, I still bless my SU! "pusher" for getting me going. How did you start?
Cindy/CA
Hey that's just like me, almost! I went to a stamp/scrapbook store looking for scrapbook supplies about 10 years ago. Luckily the store (which is unfortunately no longer in business) was mostly stamp supplies. They had a free stamping beginner class, and when she demonstrated the heat embossing I was hooked. Like you, my life changed when I saw that gold embossing melt on the paper. I can remember that moment so clearly too!
Aimee
__________________ Aimee mom to two girls & one cool dog! My blog
So. . . that was that. 
