Do you Remember When? - Letterboxing, Stampin' Memories, and an Itsy Bitsy Spider

"Look at me... I am a bold flower! WOW!"

That was one of the things I wrote in my post about the new Stampin' Memories catalog we used to have. What a dorky thing to say. I'm glad my writing has improved a lot since then.

Here is the rest of the post about the new Stampin' Memories catalog back in Sept. 2003

It looks as if this catalog is where Magic Mesh was introduced. Was it that long ago?

Letterboxing Craze

I remember when I was into Letterboxing. I really should get back into it again. Here is my original post.

Remember back in 2003 when a spider walked across my computer screen? Did I really write that?????!!!! There is a link on this post to my letterboxing clues too.

I picked up my letterbox from its hiding place about a year and a half ago because when I checked on it, it was waterlogged and yucky. I should get myself motivated again to make another letterbox.

Awww... how cool to read about when our kitty Wooster arrived!
Problem kitty at my husband's boss's house and Arrival of Kitty

Who doesn't love ice skating hedgehogs?

Remember when I made this card with the Holiday Hedgehogs stamp set?
I had fun making this card. I didn't win the SU WOW contest with it, but I sure loved makin' it! I still have it. One of my all time favs.


More lookin' back later...

Do you Remember When? - We all went crazy when the 2003 SU retiring stamp set list was released?

I remember being so excited on May 14, 2003 when I got my hands on the retiring stamp set list. I posted the list immediately on my blog and called all my customers to tell them to check out the list to make sure they buy the sets they want before they go away. I remember when I owned a lot of these sets. Some of them I still have.

Remember when I ran the first stamp art contest on a blog and gave out what is now called "Blog Candy"?

Yes, I ran the first blog contest geared towards rubber stampers! I tied the contest in with convention in Las Vegas. As the only Blogger attending the Stampin' Up! convention in 2003, I decided to post updates about convention on my blog. Every day of convention I got email messages from stampers around the country asking me all about the new stamp sets. Back at that time, only convention goers were first to see what the new sets looked like. Every one else had to wait until they received their catalog. So I went back to my hotel room and posted convention updates on the blog... my customers LOVED the updates and loved "participating" in the experience by doing the contest I offered.

Stampin' Up! didn't have a computer room at convention that year. There were no computers at all at convention for demonstrators to use. All my updates were done in the hotel room with my upline looking on while I made stamping history.

Posted from the 27th Floor of the Las Vegas Hilton in 2003

Posted while laying on my stomach in front of the computer monitor and a 2003-2004 Stampin' Up! catalog in my hand flipping through to tell my blog readers which Stampin' Around wheels retired so they can make a last minute purchase if they need to... Back then they didn't tell us ahead of time which wheels were set to retire.

Post about the brand new Inspiration Sheets that Stampin' Up! will offer for demos to give out to our customers. I believe as of 2007 they will no longer be producing Inspiration Sheets.

I remember getting a special release "Happiness is Stampin' Up!" rubber stamp. Only convention-goers got one.

I had dinner with my upline and other demo friends at Caeser's Palace.

The Stampin' Up! "Top Ten" 15th Anniversary list was introduced

The top 10 things Stampin'Up! has learned in the last 15 years

10- Never yell free stamps in a room full of demonstrators!

9- there is never enough... bathrooms, elevators, hot water, etc at
convention

8- SU demonstrators are shy introverted people (not!)

7-there is a fine line between hobby and obsession

6- demonstrators love a man in uniform especially the UPS man and go weak in
the knees when they ask what has close to cocoa done for you!

5- It is possible to cram 99 demonstrators into one hotel room

4- SU demonstrators are just IT nerds in disguise

3- When all else fails and you can not get that retired set there is always
E-Bay

2- Nothing is safe around a demonstrator when it comes to stamping (not even
the dog)

1- Stampin' Up! -often imitated never duplicated.


Awww.... memories.... more looks back at the past later...

Do you Remember When? - My Ugly Pea Green Template

In 2003, there were only a select few blog platforms to choose from. The largest and most popular was Blogger (Blogspot). At this time, Blogger was not owned by Google yet. There weren't many blog templates available on the web either... so my first posts were all made on an ugly pea green blog template that I hated. Wanna take a look-see? YUCK, you may say!

But to this day I still have this statement on my current blog as I did back then: "Welcome to my Online Stamping Diary. Here I ponder all the mysteries of stamping and share ideas with new friends. This is where I chat about my "innermost stamping secrets". (Mom, if you are reading this, logoff!)"

If you read some of my posts in the Pea Green template above, you can see I experimented with a stamping survey - first one ever on a blog -

I also listed upcoming episodes of DIY scrapbooking that featured Stampin' Up!.

Remember the Stampin' Up! 15th Anniversary retired set re-releases?

In my posts on the Pea Green template link, I announced the re-release of selected retired sets! I had completely forgotten about those! Fish Frolics was re-released Oct. 15, 2003, Sept. 15, 2003 was Meow Meow and Architectural Elements, August was Definitely Decorative Noah.

One of the things I remember about the early Blogger is that back then, Blogger didn't have their own photo storage and upload system. The photos I put on my blog back then were uploaded on some free personal server space that I had and then I wrote the html in the post and linked out to my server. I no longer have any photos there anymore. Therefore, some of the photos in these old posts are not showing up any longer because they have been deleted off the server (I'm not using it anymore). Sorry... but it hasn't been a priority to re-upload all these old photos. I'm too busy working on upcoming stuff ...

Stay tuned for more walks down my bloggy memory lane...

Do you remember when? - First post in a series honoring 4 years of stamp art blogging!

It was a cool spring day in Wisconsin - on April 30, 2003. I was updating a Library Science research blog that I authored for about 2 years - it was a blog where I posted links to great resources for the news reporters where I work. Well one night, I went home from work to prepare for an upcoming stamp class in my home and I needed to call all the ladies to make sure they bring certain supplies with them. I was thinking that there must be a more efficient way to inform them of supplies to bring as well as sharing with them lots of fun stamping links on the web.

It suddenly occurred to me that I have the tool that will serve my needs right under my nose and I'm already using it -- in the form of the Library Science research blog!

I practically bopped my head with my hand and a lightbulb went off in my brain... why not create a blog for my stamping customers? I could put projects up there, cool stamping links, stuff I've made, details about the last month's stamp class for those who couldn't attend... and since it would be a diary format, they knew to check the blog for latest updates... and blogs are free... and I can update it remotely...

As soon as the idea hit me, I did massive internet searches to find out if anyone else had ever used a blog to supplement their SU website... I'm a Librarian (with Master's Degree in Information Science) so it was not hard for me to conduct the appropriate searches and find out that THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE DOING WHAT I WANTED TO DO! I was floored. It seemed too obvious to me that no one had thought of it yet. But there I was... braving uncharted territory... It was just too good an idea not to do!

Also at this time, although I didn't realize it, another rubber stamping website called Splitcoaststampers was in its infancy... you could say that me and Splitcoaststampers grew up together. We both began at just about the same time and both developed side by side.

In fact, over the years, when I attended Stampin' Up! events, I have had countless demonstrators come up to me and say that they were introduced to Splitcoaststampers in the first place because of my blog.

Back to April 30, 2003 - almost 4 years ago... my first post consisted of 3 links:
My first stamping blog post

My first post was to the website of Cheryl Aldrich - a fan of rubber stamping who started a website to organize swaps. For awhile, I assisted Cheryl by sizing swap photos and writing html for her website. I remember Beate Johns participating in Cheryl's early swaps as well.

My second post was to Teddyland's Webshots site. At one time there was an album on her site with display boards from Stampin' Up! events. Going there now, I don't see any Stampin' Up! photos... she must no longer be a demonstrator.

My third post was the website called Christian Crafting. Since I'm a Christian and I love crafting, this site was a favorite.

Stay tuned for more Ink Artist memories of the last 4 years...