As you may or may not know about me, I am an avid stamper. It started about two years ago when my friend Michelle Schuler dragged me to a Stampin’ Up party…and I do mean DRAGGED. I had just started scrapbooking at that time and I absolutely did not think I liked stamping. I thought that it was too difficult to get the stamps straight and required way too much creativity. Hell, at that time it was taking me 2 hours to get just one scrapbook page finished!!! (Way before the days of digital scrapping for me but that’s another post for another day…)
In any case, I went to the SU party and was instantly intrigued. It was amazing the beautiful, crafty projects that the demonstrator showed and she made it look SO easy! When we broke out into small groups and did our own projects, my hands met rubber and ink and I was hooked immediately! There is just such a gratification in papercrafting and seeing your images and imagination come to life. After a round of Club with my future Upline and about $800 in stamps and ink, I decided to take the plunge and sign up as a Stampin’ Up demonstrator. I have not looked back since!
It has been more rewarding than I ever could have imagined. I have been able to fulfill my dream of teaching (and to adults, whom I have MUCH more patience with than my children!) and crafting. I have met more wonderful women than I ever dreamed possible and really look forward to our Club meetings every month. They inspire me to continue creating and learning so that I can pass the knowledge to them. That alone is one of the most rewarding parts of this “job” - the smile on someone’s face when they achieve pure bliss after it all comes together on paper. Ahh…sweet serendipity.
I’d like to show some of my most recent projects to you - Name Frames. These have been around forever but they are new to me. I had a class in November where each participant made one and they were all so unique and so gorgeous! That inspired me to make one for each of my kids’ preschool teachers (three total) for Christmas presents. My son’s teacher actually cried when I gave it to her…it was amazing. She said that no parent had ever done something so personal and so thoughtful for her and that she was truly so touched by the effort. That, my friends, is the reason I love stamping. There’s not many presents that will move a person to tears simply by the kind thought associated with it…it cost me much more time than money and it was worth every single second that I spent creating the perfect name frame for them. The director of the preschool even commissioned me to make one for another pregnant teacher at their school whose baby shower was coming up! What a compliment, right? I was thrilled and it has helped me get my name out there as one of the “crafty moms” in the school - I’m hoping I can help out much more around there as time allows!
Anyway, enough rambling…here are some pictures of the completed name frames. Feel free to comment and leave any questions you may have. I’ll be happy to share details with you.
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