Anyone else got a "My first stamp" story? If so, please share it, or better still, post it on your blog, if you have one, and leave a comment here with a link to it so that we can all come and read it!
Saturday, 19 December 2009
My first stamp
Sally's post earlier today about her St. Nick stamp got me thinking about the first stamp I ever bought, back in 1992. It was the "Santa with toy sack" from Hero Arts. I was at a local Christmas craft fair and someone was demonstrating stamping and embossing. I thought the embossing was magic, and my passion for stamping was born at that moment. It was the time when art stamping was just beginning to filter over here from the USA. Basically, it was just stamp (and maybe emboss) on plain white card, colour in with pencils or felt pens and add a greeting. My very first stamped card was just that, using a toaster to heat the embossing powder! I've tried to reproduce it here, complete with wonky greeting (I never did get round to straightening the rubber on the mount). I cringe now when I think about it and compare it to the sophisticated techniques that we are now able to employ, but I was proud of it back then!
As you can see, I still have the stamp, still use it and it's still as good as new. But who would have envisaged then that stamping would take off in the way that it has, that we would have the mind-boggling wealth of tools, materials, equipment and inspiration that we enjoy today? I certainly had no idea at the time how stamping and things related were going to take over so much of my life. Not to mention my house!
Anyone else got a "My first stamp" story? If so, please share it, or better still, post it on your blog, if you have one, and leave a comment here with a link to it so that we can all come and read it!
Anyone else got a "My first stamp" story? If so, please share it, or better still, post it on your blog, if you have one, and leave a comment here with a link to it so that we can all come and read it!
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8 comments:
He is very cute! I can see why you bought him. Are you going to enter it into the tuesday taggers challenge? It doesn't have to be a tag and I'm sure they would love it!
What a lovely story and a lovely Santa too. You're right about the plethora of tools and techniques that we have but the fascination of embossing is still just as thrilling I think.
Lesley Xx
Boy, your post has taken me back a few years, well nearly 20! The first cards Ian and I made were very simple, no-one had actually showed us how to do it all before we started selling the stamps, we had to work it out ourselves.
Ian demo'd 7 days a week, all day long, mainly with a PSX rose stamp for gold/silver embossing and a Mickey Mouse stamp with black pigment ink and clear ep.
That's where he got his nickname from, The Stamp Man, all the children were asking their mums if they could watch the stamp man, they were fascinated with embossing! We were originally called The Stamp Pad, but no-one called us by that.
We sold inks and powders in a starter kit. There was no Versamark pad then so the starter kit we sold had a dry pad and bottle of ink which many people struggled to ink correctly, anyone remember having to do that?
Back then it was just as you described, a simple stamped image coloured with felt tips or pencils with not much else on the card, perhaps just a wonky greeting!
There wasn't much available back then, not like there is today. It wasn't even considered a proper craft when we started but look at it now!
I know my mum was really worried when I told her what we were going to be selling, but I took her to a show and she was gobsmacked at how popular it was.
Great post Lynne, sorry my comment has ended up so long!!
Jill x
Great story Jill! I always wondered how you got started.
very interesting lynn, Love your santa card, it was just the same for me I think I might have to find my first stamp too!!
lots of love chris xx
Cute card Lynn! I can remember my first stamps which were teddy bear ones, and my first efforts at cardmaking were cringeworthy! I heat embossed using my ceramic hob!! Thank goodness things have evolved since then! xx
Morning Lynne
So enjoyed this post, it's good to make you reflect and bit;
I certainly remember my first venture into stamping. I saw a stamp I liked (a little Victorian girl sitting with her doll - a collage type stamp and just about the worse I could but for starters)- we are talking a good few years ago and came out of the shop with six.
I spent hours stamping away and every card went in the bin one by one because they had horrid edges from the rubber.
In the end I threw them all in a carried bag slong with the ink and embossing powders and they went into a cupboard for a good couple of years.
Then I discovered there was a shop not too many miles away where they sold stamps and did demos (we are talking pre Stampalot days here even).
What a revelation that was and I discovered the golden rule - ink to stamp, not the other way round. I lost all those nasty rubber edges and the rest is history - ask my bank balance.
Now I have one of those lovely units that they have in schools with big doors that open out like Pandoras box to disclose drawfulls of stamps. And me thinks that's due for a clear out because they are now three deep in each draw.
My other recollection of early craft days is seeing and buying lots of 12x12 papers because they were so pretty, but had absolutley no idea or imagination what to do with them.
B x
This is a great story Lynne. I will have to have a think about my first stamp although I can tell you where I got it and who started me stamping. That's down to Mr Stampman. Jill's husband had a little shop in Ilkley when they first started and I bought one of their first started kits she mentions in her comment. I still use the silver and gold ep that was in it, it's lasted all these years. She'll laugh at that. Ian demoed how to emboss and it was like magic.
I hope you and your family have a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.
Hugs
Lisax
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