Throwback Thursday-My very first card from 14yrs ago!

[Kimzkardz]

Hi everyone. Well, tonight my little 6 year old graduates from Kindergarten. I have no idea where the years have gone and I'm spending a lot of time today thinking back to when he was so little. That got me thinking back to when when I was a "baby" stamper. I found this card today and posted it on my blog. It is the very first card I ever made.

Back then, I had no idea about embellishments, layers or even what size a card should be. This one measures almost 5' x 7"! It sure is fun to look back!

[UnderstandBlue]

I LOVE that idea!! I always tell people to leave their "baby stamper" cards up - it's so fun to see how far we've all come. TFS!!

[jeanstamping2]

That's a great looking card!!!

My very first card I made using a Stampin up! stamp set.
This wasn't the very first card I made..... But would you believe me, that I made it using one hand?

Back when I joined SCS. I had just broken my right wrist. and had surgery on it. So I was down to one hand. And I created this card. with one hand.

Yellow Garden by jeanstamping2 - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[Kimzkardz]

Jean- Your card is MUCH nicer than mine. At least you added some ribbon....mine was barren. lol! and not too shabby for a one-hander! I'm impressed.

Come on everyone-- let's see your first cards!

[QueenOfInkland]

I love this idea, too. I don't have a picture of the card in this 'saga' (thanks goodness LOL), but I'll never forget it. Technically, it was my 2nd card I made...

This was 2002 and I was in a Stampin Up group that met monthly. We decided to have a card swap. We each made enough cards for everyone in our group to get one of our cards. As we came into the building, there was a table and we each laid our cards on the table. None of us identified who made the cards.

Everybody went to the table and took whichever cards they wanted.

My cards were SO AWFUL, that I was the ONLY person in the swap where NOBODY, NOPE, not even ONE PERSON, took one of my cards.

And you cannot believe (or maybe you can) how much work I put into my cards, but I had no idea about design or colors.......it was a good eye opener for me hahahaha - they were (obviously) horrific ::shock::

But you have to start somewhere, right????? Plus I had the added advantage that my cards could not get worse, they could only get better ;)

[Kimzkardz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by QueenOfInkland

My cards were SO AWFUL, that I was the ONLY person in the swap where NOBODY, NOPE, not even ONE PERSON, took one of my cards.

Awwww... that's terrible. It broke my heart. I immediately went back in my mind to elementary school and being the last one picked for kickball. Ugh.. that heart-sick feeling. I probably would have cried. OBVIOUSLY, those ladies just didn't have good taste in cards.

[beaddict]

This is the first card I ever posted here. Not sure I actually have the first card I ever made....

I've come a long way


SC128 Simply Sunny by beaddict - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

Here is one of my more recent ones:

Enameled Honey by beaddict - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers


and this one is one of my favorites that I've made:

CRAFT SMASHUP: Ombre' Ombre'!

[jeanstamping2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kimzkardz

Jean- Your card is MUCH nicer than mine. At least you added some ribbon....mine was barren. lol! and not too shabby for a one-hander! I'm impressed.

Come on everyone-- let's see your first cards!

Well thank you. :oops: However I do love your card. There's a lot of details on it. Mine is flat without the bow.

[Kimzkardz]

Shellie-- I really like both cards, but that "enameled honey" card is simply stunning. Wow

[sprtchick]

Here is my first one ever posted...Its ugly..lol

Monogram Stamp Negative Side by sprtchick - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

Good thread.
Blessings

[JoBear2]

What a fun thread! I think it's great to look back and see our progress - but also to see how much cardmaking has changed over the years with the availability of diecutting/embossing machines, amazing designer papers and embellishments and the variety of mediums, not to mention stamps for every occasion/taste! Equally, I think it is also fantastic to see how popular clean and simple cards are too. When I first started cardmaking, I stamped almost everything in black pigment ink, poured on embossing powder and heat-set it which I thought was just amazing the first time I saw it demonstrated. I still think it's a pretty cool technique

I have attached a 2 photos of my first-ever cards (scanned back in 2005 before I had a camera). It was actually really interesting to drag out my oldest backup disk and look at my early cards - and a little horrifying too ;) The fan card was made from parts of a serviette! Oh well!

[stampin stacy]

I don't have "a first card" to show but have been at it long enough to remember trying to heat emboss without a heat gun. Toasters, light bulbs and coffee burners are not meant for such things, despite what the stamp store told me.

[cbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stampin stacy

I don't have "a first card" to show but have been at it long enough to remember trying to heat emboss without a heat gun. Toasters, light bulbs and coffee burners are not meant for such things, despite what the stamp store told me.

I had fairly good luck working over a burner on my electric stove, but the toaster and light bulb were fairly useless

[lesliespringer]

Here is the first card I made and mailed out to family and friends

Fall Whimsy Thanksgiving 2005 by lesliespringer - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

I still have this stamp set, one of my Favs

Here is the second card I made and mailed out and yes I still have this stamp set too. Even made candles with it!
merry season 20005 xmas by lesliespringer - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

Here is the candle. Yes I was very adventurous as a newbie!

snowman candle by lesliespringer - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[mastamper]

This is not my first card, but it was my first upload. I was rockin' those Primas!:p
Petal Prints Celebrate by mastamper - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[QueenOfInkland]

Shout out to the OP - this thread is too much fun

[kyann22]

I love looking back! This was my first card and first upload, bad photography and all!

Birthday Card #1 by kyann22 - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[Clownmom]

Like mastampter, this isn't the first card I made; but it is the first card I posted here on SCS - In Full Bloom Postage by Clownmom - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers.

And I've gotten better at photographing my cards, too! LOL!!!

[JoBear2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stampin stacy

I don't have "a first card" to show but have been at it long enough to remember trying to heat emboss without a heat gun. Toasters, light bulbs and coffee burners are not meant for such things, despite what the stamp store told me.

I used to use our toaster too because that is what my local stamp store told me to do - which was probably a good thing because my husband got tired of the 'burnt toast smell' emanating from the kitchen while I was doing gold embossing on a whole lot of Christmas cards - and he went out and bought me a heat gun LOL

[gregzgurl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbet

I had fairly good luck working over a burner on my electric stove, but the toaster and light bulb were fairly useless

I beg to differ - my toaster did a fabulous job I couldn't do that now, though, as the new-fangledy toasters have a sensor or something and won't stay down (and hot) unless there's bread or a bagel in there... We've certainly come a long way, haven't we? I think my first stamps were bought back in 1988 or 1989 - crazy!

[gregzgurl]

Fun thread! My best friend gifted me a paper doll stamp set and I made a thank you card for her with it. She still has it up on a shelf in her studio (bless her!) and that makes me smile... That was my first card, but I don't have a picture of it. My first upload here on SCS was a CASE of one of Karen Barber's Black Magic cards (and not a very good one, either): Black Magic CASE
I was active on a CTMH site for a while before I discovered SCS, and posted cards there, too, so this isn't really one of my "baby" cards. I'll have to see if I can find an earlier one...

[lutheran]

Fabulous thread, looking back. My first cards were odd sizes, odd miss-mash of stamps and very little layering, always heat embossed (well, that part hasn't changed). Here is an old
favorite from at least 10 years ago, card stock was heavily spritz with water, then stamped.
Mary Beth

[dini]

Fun! Here's my first upload, just over 9 years ago.

Summer Sunset by dini - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[Annecards]

Mine is pitiful! The baby is cute enough, through no talent on my part, but the card certainly lacks interest. After viewing one of their infomercials, I purchased a Cricut. It's not my first card, but the earliest I could find this morning. OMG, I remember asking one of the "Night Owls" on their forum why anyone would need more than cardstock, glue, a few sentiment stamps, a few ink pads, colored pencils, and a good printer. You can imagine the replies, :lol: A craftroom, who in their right mind would waste space on such a thing, :shock: it certainly didn't take long to discover why they had so much fun cluing me in, :lol: I digress, here's one of my first cards!

[JoBear2]

Does anyone still use their early stamps? I still use my Penny Black critter stamps eg: dogs, cats etc. because they don't seem to date - but I have a whole lot of others that make me wonder what I was thinking when I bought them! :confused::!:

[QueenOfInkland]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoBear2

Does anyone still use their early stamps? I still use my Penny Black critter stamps eg: dogs, cats etc. because they don't seem to date - but I have a whole lot of others that make me wonder what I was thinking when I bought them! :confused::!:

I got a good laugh from this post. I must say that I don't have any 'bad' Stampin Up purchases, even the very first sets that I bought but that's just because Stampin Up is so awesome IMO.

But I have a bunch of miscellaneous stamps (especially unmounteds) that I bought and - oh yeah - what in the HECK was I thinking?????????? Of course, I cannot seem to part with these yukkie stamps (I have some 'room for growth' re: purging LOL).

Thanks, again, for the laugh

[buggainok]

Here is the first one I loaded in the Gallery, in January 2007, not too long after I became a member here. I remember being so proud of myself that I figured out how to do it, lol. I had not heard of Prismacolor pencils at that point, and I think I colored this with Roseart pencils from Walmart.

I also remember I was so in love with the House Mouse stamps. I still have a lot of them and haven't used them in a long time. Need to get them out again.

Valentine - House Mouse Series, Monica by buggainok - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[Kimzkardz]

Ladies, I am just loving seeing all your early creations. After I check those out I go into your gallery to see recent cards and the change is amazing. Not that these first cards aren't pretty, but it's so cool to see the progress and learning we've all made.

If you havent posted one of your first cards yet- come on, play along!
Kim

[jeanne3579]

I thought I already posted, but it didn't show up, so sorry if this ends up being a repeat. I don't have any pictures of my first cards as it was before I thought about keeping a sample or taking a picture and way before scanners. So here are some from 2001.

1-I only had some brown ink that someone gas me and construction paper left over from my kids. Think I picked up these individual stamps from Joann's.
2-One of my first SU stamps sets and completely CASEd from the catty, but I used a vellum overlay and thought I was really fancy.
2-Stamped the background as we all did in those days and used my favorite technique---embossing!

By the way I still have all of these stamps!

[Rebecca Ednie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stampin stacy

I don't have "a first card" to show but have been at it long enough to remember trying to heat emboss without a heat gun. Toasters, light bulbs and coffee burners are not meant for such things, despite what the stamp store told me.

I remember this too. They only made white, silver and gold powder. Now there are hundreds of colours and types.

[Brenda71]

Here's my first and second cards:

Nice & Easy Notes Birthday Card #1 by Brenda71 - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

Nice & Easy Notes Birthday Card #2 by Brenda71 - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

Holy cow - 8 years ago!!

[bwstamper]

The first card that I made was for my mother's birthday and when she saw it I so proudly said "I made it" and her reply was "Oh honey that is OK". That tells you how bad it was.

Here is an early card that I made and the first one that I posted:

Cindy Birthday by bwstamper - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[jeanne3579]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwstamper

The first card that I made was for my mother's birthday and when she saw it I so proudly said "I made it" and her reply was "Oh honey that is OK". That tells you how bad it was.

Here is an early card that I made and the first one that I posted:

Cindy Birthday by bwstamper - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

Certainly nothing to be ashamed about here!

[gobarb26]

This is the first card that I made when I first joined my advanced stamping club where I live. :confused: We had to do a safari theme. I didn't even own a stamp, but I was pretty good on the computer. I was the last person they let in who was NOT advanced. Now they say that I really have become an advanced stamper!

Safari So Good by gobarb26 - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

[fionna51]

Here's my first upload...
Miracle of Christmas2 by fionna51 - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers
Thankfully it's better than the ones that follow it. A bit. I'm not too terribly fond of it.

But it's far from the first card I ever made. That was back in 1982 and SCS didn't even exist back then. For that matter, I don't think the internet existed then! I even remember taking my kids out to breakfast at the local "hippie" breakfast place and we listened to the folks at the table next to us talking about all the wonderful features of this thing that was coming called "the internet". (Yes, I know. I'm a dinosaur!)

So...32 years later and I'm still making cards!

[k dunbrook]

Giggle...such a fun thread. Wow..trip down memory lane and so interesting to see what has come and then gone and come again.
Here is my first upload to SCS 7 1/2 years ago. I remember being so nervous about posting it after seeing all the fantastic cards here! I loved playing and making bkgs even back then. This card had a bkg made using crumpled up plastic wrap. Hmmm...maybe will have to try stamping with that again. Postage stamps were really big then too. Didn't even have a digital camera either just a scanner.

valentine by k dunbrook at Splitcoaststampers

[cjzim]

This thread is so fun! Thanks to the op for starting this : )

I think I started stamping about 12 years ago, but had made cards prior to that when I needed a card and hadn't had time to go to Hallmark; think, grabbing anything on hand like construction paper and markers, and drawing my own images - this would have been around the late 1970's and the cards were for our little nieces and nephews.

I don't have a picture of the first stamped card I ever made, but my first upload here was in 2004 when I had a scanner but no digital camera. I actually used that scanner for a long time before I finally started taking pictures. Here's my first upload:

Copper Deer

I was enthralled with heat embossing, so that was on a lot of the cards I made back then. I still think it looks great but I've learned so many other cool things I use it a lot less frequently.

[JanTInk]

I don't have a picture of my very first card. I made it at MOPS when someone brought some stamps in for us to make cards, and I thought, "I could do this...it's pretty soothing to do, and I could save money making my own Christmas cards!" Hahahahahahahah.....yeah. Pretty funny.

My first :real" card was a gold embossed Christmas card that I attempted to make enough to send out. I had bought a heat gun (which I still have) and then color in the pretty dove I embossed on the front. I was pregnant and caught the stomach flu and had a horrible headache the day I was working on them and gave up after maybe 8 or 9 of them.

After that, I experimented a lot. The attached is one of my first attempts and I still have it. It is the most butt-ugly card ever. I thought it was pretty thrilling at the time. I featured a set of these on my blog one April 1st and raved about how I had "discovered" this new technique and how I was going to one-layer cards....not likely to happen anytime soon!

[UnderstandBlue]

This is SOOOO much fun. I've been looking at all these and all of us were so nervous (and said so) to upload for the first time.

My first stamped card was when I was 15. A ristra of chili peppers, embossed in gold (still magic) on the stove and colored with some God-awful markers - red and green. I remember how clever I thought I was to make it a Christmas card by coloring them red and green instead of just red. Thought I was a genius. I actually mailed them out to everyone that year and have done so every year since.

This however, was my first upload. Painful to look at but I still remember making these and thinking how awesome it was.

Purse Note Totes by Understandblue - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers

One thing that strikes me here is color - how we were all using Kaleidacolor and in general just a lot of color and pattern on our cards in the beginning. So fun to look at.

[UnderstandBlue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JanTInk

I could save money making my own Christmas cards!" Hahahahahahahah.....yeah. Pretty funny.

What??

Each year that I make Christmas cards, I lower the average price of my cards to, uh, closer to $10,000 apiece!