This is Margaret. So let me give you a bit of background information. Kathy and I used to both live in Arkansas...we met through work and thanks to us both being dog people, it was a friendship made in heaven. Or hell. No you didn't hear me say that (She's reading this you know). Anyway, I say that because she's the one who got me into stamping. When I moved to Arkansas from Arizona (Actually I did a brief stay in Baltimore--it was a rough year), I had just gone through a divorce. I had been an avid scrapbooker and tried to get Kathy into it (even though the passion of it was lost on me still--a little numb from the divorce experience and having two in diapers.) Anyway, she started doing the scrapbooking until she went to a stamping party. Then she got excited and wanted to get me into it. I said, 'Uh uh. No way. NO INTEREST"
RIGHT---you know where this is headed. So she just kept going on and on about this and sooner or later, I went to my first party...and I was HOOKED. I mean hookline and sinker. No more woes over the divorce. My therapist arrived! It really helped me get through it I think, come to think of it now. We ate, we breathed, we dreamt about stamping. We've even taken trips---vacations--to places where there are good stamping stores. ALL the way to New York City even to visit the famous Ink Pad! We even got my children doing it--they're part of the team now and they each have their own "stuff" which they're very protective over and their own stamping space. They consider themselves card artists--I love it! And to this day, we still live stamping, except now there's a lot less time for me as I'm settling into a new job. :( My poor stamps are sitting in their room all lonesome, waiting to be used.
So we talked about a blog for a few years--a dual thing so we could share posting since we both work. But work always got in the way. Darn it that thing we need to do to support our stamping habit! So recently, I moved to Colorado and Kathy is in Arkansas, though she also moved to a new house during the same time. We were both a mess, packing and moving, can't believe we won't be within a few mile of each other, and making sure our stamps were very well secured. That, of course, was the most important part of the moves. [The movers really thought I was nuts..."What is that", they asked? "40 plus bins of stamps," I replied innocently, "And whatever you do, don't lose or mess up any stamps. I don't care about the furniture, the crystal...just don't touch the stamps." LOL When we arrived in Colorado, at one point, one of the stacks of bins crashed to the floor of the truck and the stamps spilled out all over the place and the guys all stopped and looked at me horrified, worried I was going to yell at them. I was like, "OK Nobody move...girls...go make sure the stamps are OK." haha. I think we found them all. Life can go on. Can you see it?]
We talked about starting a blog NOW so that we could be forced to send each other friend and missing you cards. Cool idea-- except no one acted on it. So the other day I log into my email and nearly dropped my computer on the floor when I saw she started this blog. She did it...it feels sort of like someone pushed me on a roller coaster and I can't get off, and about to free fall. Why is this so scary, for the entire world of faceless people to read? I don't know, but 2012 is as good a year as any to do something new and great. Last year I was recovering from a knee and head injury (now you understand why I'm loony over my stamps--the knock over the head did it), and contemplated over applying to this job I'm in now. Today I'm in another state, posting on a BLOG. YIKES!
So to christen this blog, I'm posting a photo of a mandala. It's one of our favorite things to do (Guess who got me into the mandala stuff too!) It's actually a mandala I made for my daughter a few years ago in the summer. My children stay with their dad all summer and their wishes (my commands) are to get a card or mandala every week. That year they wanted mandalas of every color. This was one I made for my sunshine youngest child who loves yellow. I think of the sun, like her joyful sunny disposition when I see it (of course you will notice some black in there--that's because my sunshine child also has a dark cloud...so when she's happy everyone smiles with her, but when those murky cloudy moody days come out...everyone runs away as thunder is about to hit).
This is one stamp, stamped several times and embossed in gold on different colored paper and just cut out multitudes of times, glued together with 3m tape (the raised kind) to provide depth. Looks complicated but even my girls (tweens) can do these. Quite well too! They're perfect as decorations or ornaments, or even mounted in a shadow box, where they really give off their sparkle. 'Til next time! (I promise to be less of a windbag too!)
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Stamp: Outlines (Blossom series)
Ribbon, tassel, jewels, cardstock: all Hobby Lobby brand and Svarovski crystals (small ones)
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