Mail Call!

Much to my surprise, I'm happy to report (no, not happy - ECSTATIC is more like it!!) that my Stampin' Up! Starter Kit arrived in the mail today. Woohoo - I am now officially in business! I feel a little bit like the squirrel in that hilarious animated movie Hoodwinked; right after they give him coffee. Stamps! Ink Pads! CARD STOCK! It's all just too much excitement. :)

This is the part where I'm going to tell you how I came about becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. My husband is in the military, so we move where Uncle Sam sends us. This is sometimes annoying (such as having to sell your gorgeous 1950s house with the immaculate refinished floors and imported Mexican tile...sigh!), but also has its advantages. Aside from the fact that you get to live in places you might otherwise not even have traveled to, you also get to meet lots and lots of different people. At times, this comes with its own challenges. You get along with some people, not too much with others. You miss your friends from your last duty station. You wonder how old your best friend's children will be the next time you see them - and whether they'll even remember you. But it's all part and parcel with being married to a soldier!

I've always been a very creative person - I love to write and I have a collection of amazing collaged shoe boxes that stem from the time before I left home for college. But I was never really into papercrafts at all - admittedly in part because I wasn't really aware of that whole "world" until after I got married. I was too busy living life!
After I got married and moved in with my wonderful husband, I met lots of great, interesting women - one of whom told me she was a scrapbooker. At the time, that really didn't mean anything to me. Scrapbooking? EH? Might as well have been Tagalog to me! So when she and I went over to someone else's house one evening and I worked on an embroidery project, she set up shop on a large dining room table - and within minutes you couldn't see the surface anymore. And then there was this strange-looking piece of luggage that, apparently, served as a storage device for all her "tools of the trade". I laughed to myself (although not nearly as much as I do now at the recollection) because I thought, quite honestly, that the whole thing was completely ridiculous. Of course it's not nearly as ridiculous now that I have entire storage containers devoted to stamps - not to mention the prerequisite wheeling tote that is a total must-have for any "respectable" scrapbooker!! ;)

But I'm getting ahead of myself (you'll see this is a recurring theme). Three years ago I met this woman called Carol. I don't really remember how I met her - I think it was through an online group and because she offered me a ride when my car was in the shop. The how, where and why is really not that pertinent. Carol was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I had no idea what that was - but when we started hanging out, I saw some of the fun & creative projects she did...and I liked what I saw! Here was a hobby I had totally underestimated. Scrapbooking had seemed like a rather dull hobby - you know, crop some pictures, glue them on a piece of paper, slap some stickers on, file away never to be looked at again. But stamping suddenly gave what had seemed like a mundane pastime a totally new dimension - now the possibilities seemed endless! And before you could say "unmounted stamp set" I was totally hooked.

Now I love papercrafts. I don't consider myself a scrapbooker, or a card maker, because I love experimenting with all different aspects of crafting. I've done some mixed media projects, altered journals, artist trading cards (ATCs) - and I continue to do scrapbooking and make cards when the mood strikes. Sometimes, the desk in my "studio" (or rather "box room", the appropriate term in the local vernacular) ends up looking like a bomb exploded - and I look like the "before" picture in a Lysol commercial. I've had an ink cartridge explode in my face (really rather hilarious, although not quite so funny when I tried to explain the splotches that I couldn't scrub away for days), glitter all over my clothes, paint and glue on my hands...and I love it! I admire people who are organized, tidy crafters, but I sure am not one of them. When I get into a project, I go all out - I use my hands, my tools, my desk, everything around me. I love trying to find new uses for old things - whether it be vintage notions, pieces of packing or scrap paper that most people would throw away, or everyday items that seem destined for the recycling bin until I have an AHA! moment.

So today I'm particularly excited, because I'm looking forward to experimenting with my new craft supplies! :)