The First Challenge

A lot can happen in a year. In fact, your entire life can change before your eyes within a year. I know mine has.

Last November, Rachel influenced me to go to Homespun Holidays, a half-day function at our church that involves craft classes, lunch, a garage sale, and a speaker. Rachel and I taught two classes, and for the third class, I went and stamped Christmas cards. This class forever changed my life. We only made three cards, but I enjoyed it so much. All of the sudden, I wanted to stamp. I went home that day and with gushing excitement told Steve that my new hobby would be stamping.

It took a little bit to get started. Stamps aren't cheap. And then you have to have ink (all sorts of colors) and paper (all sorts of colors as well) and accessories (like sparkly stuff and ribbon). My wonderful mother-in-law bought me a stamping set for Christmas, which was just enough to keep my interest alive.

Fast forward to this past summer. I decided to take a Stamping 101 class at UNM Continuing Education. Not only did I have a blast at the class and learn awesome techniques, but I met Amber, a Stampin' Up demonstrator. Next thing you know I'm committing to a ten month stamp club, attending stamp camp, and increasing my obsession and collection of stamps.

Recently, I was told about Split Coast Stampers, a stamping forum of wonder. Each day, they have a different challenge, and you make a card answering the challenge. Discovering this did not help my obsession.

Anyways, yesterday was a sketch challenge - they give me the layout and I make a card using that layout. Since it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, there's another challenge to incorporate pink into your card. It took me two evenings and a canceled class to finish my card for the sketch challenge, but I finally finished tonight. I'm so excited!!! I heart stamps. I feel so accomplished. I totally want to quit my job and just stamp and scrapbook all day, every day.