French Stampers - How Global are we?
 

I'm curious to know if there are stampers out there who live in France. I know there is a big stamping community in Canada, but I'm was wondering if stamping has taken off as a hobby in France or not.

My family lives in the South of France (Perpignan) and I'd like to find out if there are any stores or clubs I could visit the next time I'm out that way. I'd love to make some connections with my "hommies" - if there are any to connect with. So far.. I'm feeling like there are not many of us out there - :(

I believe Stampin Up sells in France (or they did at one time), but I have found very few French blogs dedicated to stamping so I thought I'd give a shout out to see if there are other "frenchies" out here on SCS.

A bientot mes amis! ;)

Most of the DT on the Ready Steady Stamp challenge were French and all had blogs. Several of them were not really English speakers so they're unlikely to be here on SCS. Sadly the challenge stopped a little while ago and the blog is no longer there but Isabelle Norris (who ran the challenge) has a blog roll on her personal blog that has links out to her French stamping buddies - she even lists the country next to the person's name so you can zoom in on the (FR) ones! You can find Isabelle's blog here and the blog roll is on the left hand side. Isabelle herself is French although she now lives in Canada.

HTH!

Thanks for the tip, Joanne. I will make my way over to Isabelle's blog to see what I can find.

Merci!

I would imagine that it's a growing hobby over there. We visit most years, and I've noticed the amount of stamps available increasing over the years. But that's in Paris - any time I Google supplies in general it tends be more scrapping than stamping that I find - that's definitely big! I'd love more French sentiment stamps (my mother was French), so it's something I keep an eye out for.

You are right, Sabrina... I have found the same thing - scrapping is much bigger over there than card making is. Thanks to Joanne, I found a French version of SCS yesterday but it's on a much smaller scale in terms of participation and it's primary focus is scrapbooking but I'm hoping to make some connections there even though I don't scrapbook.

I too am looking to invest in some French sentiment stamps - I look forward to my next visit since I just recently got into stamping and never shopped around for stamping supplies when I was there on vacation in the past - oh goodie... now I have more places to go treasure shopping for. ;-)

I guess that is always going to be the case. Just in terms of the size of the "market" the US is so much bigger than anywhere else. Even if the same percentage of the French population and the US population were stampers you'd have a much, much smaller number of French people. Those of us with English as a first language find it easy to join in here no matter where we're based which of course swells the numbers even more. Glad you found somewhere that might provide some useful leads for you, anyway!

For sentiment stuff, you guys might be interested in looking at Katzelkraft - they're a French stamp maker and they certainly have wording stamps in French. I just had a quick look on their site and they do offer international shipping. You can find them here.

There is a French designer on the Crafty Secrets DT. Here's a link to her blog: floliescrap CS also has a sweet French stamp set: Clear Art Stamps: SM30 Bonjour Merci

Oooh yes, the French Mail set also has "Bonjour" and "Je t'aime" - good reminder Marcy!

Thanks for the additional tips Marcy and Joanne.

It's interesting... since I've found some french blogs, I'm noticing that even french stampers/scrappers are having a difficult time finding "french" stamps. That's too funny... just goes to show what a strong US market this hobby has. It certainly gives me reason to think that someday when I retire, I should move back to the South of France to open a stamping supply store with my own line of stamps... oh the dream plays out so well in my mind. There's nothing wrong with a little daydreaming... right? ;-)

I'd certainly buy from you, grandepuce! As would many of my Qu�becoise friends!

Frantic Stamper has the Aladine stamps which are what I've seen in Paris, and also some rub-ons, but they're both more scrapping oriented than what I would be interested in.
aladine

Note to self: Start taking Business Management classes and keep Brandi's contact info handy so she and her friends can someday help my new business venture become a success! LOL ;-)

Que la vie est bien....

Just remembered that Alluring Impressions has some French stamps - the site can be a bit confusing to navigate so I searched for "French" and these are the results.

You could always use alpha stamps and spell out whatever you want, of course!

Katzelkraft, tampons et scrapbooking - Katzelkraft
oh thank you for reminding me of this company!!
I lost many of my faves on the last crash/computer replacement/husband's "maintenance":rolleyes:
The catalog link is at the top of the main page and you have to get the hang of virtually flipping pages of the virtual book it is...but ohhh MY!! The most inspiring and beautiful stamps and ARTwork I've ever seen. Wow. :)

"Tampon" is the French word for stamp so that makes sense! (take a look at the Katzelkraft title in the next quoted post)

Gald to have hooked you back up with a fave :D

LOL! Ya, if you could get on that right quick, I'd be super stoked. ;) Effectivement, la vie est tr�s belle!! :)