As My Scrapping World Turns: Episode One

I love to create! And I am obsessive compulsive. Put the two together and look out; you have the makings of well...I wouldn't say trouble, but certainly semi-organized creative chaos.

When I started rubber stamping back around 1996 I never knew that I would get hooked so fast. It all started when I found this little rubber stamps store in a quaint artsy consignment mall on the west side of town. I had seen rubber stamps at the craft fair and was intrigued, but never stopped to buy. Then the fated day came. I remember it like it was yesterday. My first rubber stamp was a heart adorned with flowers and I thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread. I stamped my first image on a Valentine’s Day card that I made for my husband. I was very proud of my accomplishments as I presented my beautiful work of art to the sweetest man in the whole world. It was a special moment.

Let us pause in silence.

My first rubber stamp led to a second, which led to a third and then a fourth and soon I had a collection that was out of this world. Add to the stamps every paper arts product, tool and ink pad known to creative man and over a period of about 8 months I found that I had way too much stuff and not enough space to store it. I would spend countless hours organizing and reorganizing because, well, because I was obsessive compulsive and everything had to be reachable, findable, and usable.

Not long after, I found out that the store where I bought my first stamp was moving into a regular storefront and they were looking for instructors. I brought in some of my cards and the owner was very happy with my work. Before I knew it, I was teaching stamping classes on Saturdays.

At the time we were living in a three-bedroom house and had two children. I was already thinking that I needed a place where I could keep everything safely away from curious toddlers and the dining room table was rapidly becoming an eyesore. So when my youngest grew out of his crib and graduated to a toddler bed, I seized the opportunity and moved the boys into one room together. Since I was now teaching classes I also felt that I needed a place where I could “work”; where I could “create”. That is when my first Stamp Room was born.

Much creative time passed and in 2000 I moved here to the Houston area. The company that I went to work for moved us, lock, stock and barrel. Moving was a joy, let me tell you. Before the packers came I had to inventory (with a dollar value) everything I owned, including my Stamp Room. It took weeks to inventory every single stamp and stamp pad, embossing powder and jar of glitter. The fun part was writing it down and luckily I had left price tags on everything; so accounting for the value was easy. The not so fun part was when I had to add it all up for a final dollar value and well, let’s suffice it to say that the screams could be heard for thousands and thousands of miles. Why, if you stop and listen closely I bet you can still hear the echoes of my husband’s fainted gasp even to this day. That was a real eye opener, a turning point, one of those OMG moments when your heart skips a beat. I would forever be changed. After the move I could barely bring myself to look at another stamp for months. How dare I? How could I? I just couldn’t.

Stay tuned to see what happens next on the next episode of As My Scrapping World Turns.