Papers and punches, and stamps, oh my!

I should be packing but a little over a week ago I discovered a marvelous blog for the House Mouse Monday Challenge, and things have not been the same since. As happens with most blogs, reading that blog led me to many other blogs. Once I thought I had no interest at all in making cards. Now, I can hardly wait to get my move behind me, so I can really get started making cards. Aside from the fun of doing so, I will no longer be making Hallmark or American Greetings more rich than each already is. (Let’s not talk about buying stamps and ink and papers, etc). After the initial outlay, I think I will come out ahead. I will finally have a place to use all the wonderful quotes I have gathered for years and will be able to make a card exactly as I want, not having to accept the current trend in cards. I have a goodly supply of pretty papers as well as cardstock, and one heavy duty punch and another, not quite as heavy, with interchangeable cutting plates (die?). I have brads and photo corners, and some colored pencils, but need to venture into better pencils from Prismacolor, and a product called Gamsol (or turpenoid), to help blend the colors onto the design. It’s like another language, and in a week much has become clear and card making seems like it could be more fun than scrapbooking. Oh, and as I continue to pack, I just KNOW I will find the box of rubber stamps from D.O.T.S. (now Stampin’ Up), along with the few Pooh stamps I have. I have learned it is less costly to buy unmounted stamps, but of course then you need to find a way to handle them during use. There are still a lot of company abbreviations which are foreign to me, but I will figure it out. It has become apparent that not all scrapbooking clubs are created equal and some are actually reasonable, with very nice owners, willing to work with someone in the middle of a move.

There is someone on Word Press (where I first had my blog but then they changed everything about working with it, and made it too difficult) who would like to do a 1 on 1 Christmas card exchange and in preparation I ordered my first Christmas stamp. Knowing what stamp I will use, I spent some time last night in my old standby, “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations”, looking for just the right quote for this first card I make. I found one that was wonderful and appropriate, but this morning, while browsing some other quotes, found one even better. It pays to write down, or keep in some fashion, bits of prose or poetry which touch you in some way. The card develops in my mind, as I wait for the stamp to arrive. In looking at one of the scrapbooking magazines last night, I learned there is a preparatory sort of journal for those who dabble in paper crafts, in which you can save sketches from projects in magazines, to formulate your card before you ever make your first cut into cardstock. Must find one of these or at least be sure to carry a notebook where I can jot down ideas.


So, for now, the packing is calling rather loudly to me once again, and I must get back to it, but just needed to stop in to let my friends who have been reading this know that I have not disappeared. Stay tuned for updates on this new chapter in my ever growing category of things I just must do/make!


I did have a chat with a friend the other night about just the above - why there are so many things we both feel the need to try. Some seem content with one craft or art. I love so many of them - sewing for dolls, photography, quilting, knitting, and now, the wonderful world of paper crafts. How does one get it all done, especially when there are daily challenges on the paper craft blogs? I always need cards, so can begin to stockpile to be prepared for important dates as they arrive. Themes are not always so particular as a holiday, but can be a color, or a category such as a “thank you” card, and thus you could use any stamp and papers you wished, so long as you stay in that theme. (Hmmm, for every bag of “stuff” I have thrown out, getting ready for this move, I somehow sense some paper crafting supplies coming in to replace them….)!

Well, back to the sorting, tossing and packing, at least for now. More later.