I have a feeling many of you are just like me….there’s always something new calling your name.   Etching?  Enameling?  Soldering?  Okay, I know many of you can do all three.  The thing that has caught my eye recently is the world of art journaling.   Papercrafting is actually new to me…so I have a lot to learn.  Many of my blog land friends are mixed media artists, so there is a wealth of inspiration (and advice) out there.

One of the fundamental techniques to use in papercrafts is stamping.  Now I have my fair share of stamps, but what to do with them…that was the question.  I remembered the beautifully stamped journal that my fellow Charmsters friend Maureen brought to Art and Soul to use as a class notebook.  I emailed her to ask about what she used to journal…and she so kindly suggested sending me a sample.  Look what I received in the mail the other day!  I didn’t want to open the package, it was so pretty!  And would you believe, none of the postage stamps ended up getting marked.  Inside I found a wonderful book…ready for me to stamp away in.  Just look at all of the beautiful techniques Maureen used for inspiration…and I bet this didn’t take her long to do either!

Luckily there is a brick and mortar stamp store just around the corner from my house.  I stopped in Angela’s Happy Stamper shop today and entered a whole new underground world.  There were ladies filling there baskets with stamps and talking about things that were foreign to me.  I was out of place.  Must be how a newbie feels when going in to a bead store for the first time.   I was amazed at the class calendar and hope to start at the beginning and take their intro. class next month.  After all, who knows when to use pigment ink versus dye ink??  Until then, I stocked up on some great back-issue magazines that  were all marked down 50%…Somerset Studio, Altered Art, and Cloth, Paper, Scissors.   Let me know about your favorite inspirational blog/site…I’d love to know!