Stamper Girls Unite!!!!

Part of our team at Convention 2011

In 1997 I went to my first stamping party . . . my husband asked where I was going at 7:00 pm on a Tuesday night (not that he cared really, not with that dazed look a new dad has when he has a 4 month old baby, a rambunctious 3 year old and a 7 year old that was really just wanting attention, so maybe he just wondered how long he could hold onto his sanity).  I said I was going to a stamping party which was kind of like Tuperware and no, I wouldn’t spend too much, but could I take the checkbook, you know, just in case. When I look back at my life from that point forward (and I still say I'm only 29, just an OLD 29), I have to say the best thing I decided to pursue was my journey as a Consultant with Close To My Heart, the best stamping and scrapbooking company in the whole world. Not kidding, it's true! I've been a Consultant for almost 15 years (that's half of my 29 years . . . oh wait, now my math is getting kinda blurry. LOL)

I love being a Consultant and not just because they carry a FULL line of the best scrapbooking paper (yes, I sniff the new bags of paper. Best. Smell. Ever.), best clear stamps (I sniff them too), and matchy matchy everything from the inks to the accessories to the ribbons, oh how I adore ribbon. You can never, ever have too much ribbon. No, the very best thing about Close To My Heart is the friendships I've made and the connections I have made with both my customers and my team members and others in this awesome company from around the world. And let's face it, many of them became team members after becoming my customer or were my friend and I hooked them into this fabulous art world. Truly, when I say hooked, it really is addicting. My husband watched me with a class of stampers one day and he pulled me aside and said that it was a little like a drug deal going down.

Me: "This stamp pad color would go perfectly with that paper pack."
Mary Stamper: (name changed in case the husband reads this) "oh, yes! I love that color, is it Tulip?"
Me: "oh my, you know your CTMH color palette so well. Would you like to look at the other Tulip accessories?"

Michele P.'s beautiful card.

And so it is that Mary Stamper orders EVERYTHING she needs to make an adorable Cherry O greeting card and enough paper to create pages for her scrapbook and maybe even little goodie bags for her daughter’s birthday party. Yes, it is a little like dealing, I suppose. However, unlike dealing bad things, stamps and scrapbook things are GOOD things. Not only is it extremely therapeutic (I have a psychologist on my team who has endorsed stamping and scrapbooking as a form of therapy) but we stampers create a legacy of scrapbooks and cards for generations to come. Plus, it keeps us out of trouble. Right? Get the glitter, girls, we've got work to do!!