Lydia,
I REFUSE to cop to how many things around my house I feel the same way about!!! LMAO!!! Love the pic!

Oh, this is so me---just ask my husband, who dutifully drove to the stores in strange cities and took a nap in the car while I enjoyed myself in the store. Sure do miss those huge stamping stores, but materials are still available and most likely always will be. I love this hobby!

Thanks everyone! I feel better now. I do love the hobby-just being around stamps and paper makes me happy. :-)

I can't believe anyone would think stamping and card making was dying! It seems like every time I turn around there's a new stamp company opening it's online doors. I think it's true that digital is changing the game, but a digital card doesn't deliver the same tactile experience that a card with embossing paste, ribbon, sequins or whatever else you can stick to a piece of paper can! I don't run across many card makers in real life (as opposed to the ones I know online) which attests to the fact that our numbers might be low, but I can say for sure that everyone I know that gets a hand made card goes crazy over it. Long live the paper crafter! :)

I think like style, card crafting has trends. I believe we're seeing that now with mixed media. And, like style, trends change to keep this wonderful hobby fresh and fun. Card crafting is here to stay! :D

Group hug!

I love card making. Now I do take it in spells. I make cards all the time but then there are other times when I join in almost every challenge in the forum. I started scrap booking about 20 years ago and a friend of mine kept trying to get me into SU. Well finally I gave in and oh my. I can't afford to stop! I have so so much money invested in this craft and love every minute of it. It all goes in full circle and what was old is new again. I will probably always make cards. Welcome and enjoy your self.

Just because I use digital images, elements or papers does not mean I send digitally made cards. I Print them out and use as you would a stamped image or store bought piece of paper. It just means I can store all my images on my computer (suitably backed up) and can print the size I want. I only need to print backing paper the exact size I need. My cards still have all the embellishments a girl could want.:)

I think traditional scrapbooking may be dying a very slow death to digital scrapbooking and that is because of the digital photography more than the paper products. I still enjoy the whole process of laying out a page - that is what appeals to me. I already sit at the computer too much to also do full scrapbooks here, too. Time will tell. Stamping, on the other hand, you just can't do on the computer with the same effect - yet. I like the word "evolving" that someone used in their post - so many trends come and go, but stamping has never left. And some resurface - I remember my mom painting all our dining room chairs lacquer black and then painting flowers on them. I just painted my kitchen table with Chalk Paint - new but the same, kwim?

The irony is that I'm now considering traditional scrapbooking as it isn't so competitive anymore. I'm not a perfectionist but I don't like being told that this is the way to scrapbook and I felt a lot of pressure that I wasn't going to do it right.

I feel that way about stamping. I was told so many times over the past few years I was not stamping right. Does it really matter what my style of stamping is? I think it would matter more if my projects turned out to be something I loved and I was proud of. I felt a lot of pressure too where I just didn't enjoy stamping any more. I don't feel like that now.

I got fed up with all the pressure. The last time I heard "Are you really going to use that?" I told the old bat that yes I was. It's my choice like it was her choice to wear those pants. That shut her up.

Scrapbooking is the one area I don't feel pressure. I do know what you mean how much pressure and competitive it is. I really don't think I could go to a crop. My nerves would be shot. I guess I don't feel the pressure because I don't share my books. They are personal to me.

Kristen- I bet your scrapbooks are going to be beautiful.

I started serious cardmaking early in 2008 and and joined SCS later that year after discovering SCS via a Search Engine when I was looking for Christmas cards with snowmen. Back then, there were no dies and I bought my first large Circle punch which I thought was the MOST AMAZING tool ever!! And oh, I love cardmaking even more than when I first started: I still feel excited to be in my Craft Room. I don't think cardmaking is dying - I think it is just evolving and I love how cardmaking is branching out into using stencils and watercolouring and other fun techniques. And oh, the die EXPLOSION - how fantastic are all the dies that are available now?!! Most of all: I really love that I can turn this little blank canvas into a card that is tailored especially for the recipient.

I got fed up with all the pressure. The last time I heard "Are you really going to use that?" I told the old bat that yes I was. It's my choice like it was her choice to wear those pants. That shut her up.

Read more: http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...#ixzz3CXlWvmM0

DeeAnn! I almost spit out my tea!! LMAO!!!! Good on you!!!!! I am still laughing.

I am grateful that my Yoda has always taken the position that "what's right" is whatever I say is right. That this is a form of creative expression and art meant to make me feel good. And maybe someday this will inspire me with enough confidence to do other things like take up watercolor painting.

If you want a good laugh...go sit in an art museum and listen to what people say. It is funny. Some are very pretentious and either know (or pretend to) art and have their "opinion" and then there are the ones like me who simply react to the art very honestly. Same thing to me.

The only time I am willing to "conform" is for stuff like OWH.

Ok that's weird and not the first time. If I cut and paste a piece of a post to quote...the sytem is inserting that link to the whole thread.

Anyone know what that's about?

Instead of cut and paste the best thing to do is "quote" the person. It's the button right next to the "like" button in the bottom right of their comment. A box will appear and you can add your comment after the quote which will end in [/QUOTE]. If you want to condense what you are replying to go between the first bracketed "quote" and second and edit. HTH

Thanks Kristen. I just have never seen that before.

I wasnt using quote b/c it could be a big post (ie like mine, I cop to it) or already a quote trail going on...I didnt know I could edit inside the quotes. Cool! Thanks! :)