Stampin' Mama: A mama that stamps

"Questions & Answers" Sunday

It's been a while since I've done a "Questions & Answers Sunday." I didn't realized it's been a month since my last one! I figured it was high time to do another one and hopefully this will get me back on track for Sundays. As always.....a little bit of stamping and a little bit of personal stuff. Enjoy!

What was your first stamping tool? And do you use it often?
Posted by: Susanne Bihon

My first stamping tool was my paper cutter. I now own three of the Fiskars cutters, a rotary paper cutter and a guillotine cutter. Even with all of those cutters, I use my Fiskars Euro cutter (pictured at left) 99% of the time.

What is the one thing (stamping or not) you simply could not live without?
Posted by: Sara S

This would have to be my Fiskars Euro paper cutter. I can't sing the praises of this cutter enough. I love having that swing out ruler and making precision cuts. My first Fiskars paper cutter no longer has most of the numbers showing on the ruler because I used it so hard and they got rubbed off. I'm so glad that the Euro cutter has a stainless steel grid and permanent numbers.

Chocolate, Strawberry, or Vanilla?
Others have asked all the stamping/scrapping questions I have, so thought I'd try an ice cream question. :)
Posted by: Judy

Definitely chocolate. Strawberry and Vanilla have their place, but if I had to choose just one, it would be chocolate every time.

My phobia is definitely the dentist chair... What is yours?
Posted by: Linda SS

Long, old bridges over cold water. I had always been a little paranoid by this, but the movie, "What Lies Beneath," solidified that fear for me. The movie was filmed in the surrounding towns of where I live. The scene where the car goes off the bridge was shot on the bridge just 20 min. away from where I live. It's the bridge that connects Vermont to New York over a narrow part of Lake Champlain. Every time we go over that bridge, I pray hard and my hubby tries to be silly by pretending that the bridge is going to collapse. Silly man.

Thanks for the chance to ask a question; I'm new to your blog. Of your OWN designs, what's your favorite stamp?
Posted by: Margaret

I don't actually have any of my own illustrations made in the form of stamps (yet). One of these days, I'd LOVE to see my illustrations in rubber. For now, though, I fall in love with other company's stamps instead. :)

My question is......How many cards do you make in a day?
Posted by: Melanie Welch

Usually, it's one per "normal" day. I have so many things going on on any given day, but I try to get one card in per day. Some days, I have projects that need to be completed and will end up having 2 or 3 cards that I create. When I do the cards for my "Cards in the Mail" Program, I can do up to 40 cards in the course of 2 or 3 days.

The sweet thing about it is that it NEVER gets old. I love sitting at my desk and creating.

What do you do in your spare time..aside from crafting? Where do you find your inspiration? What kind of books do you read? What are your short term goals ?
Posted by: Susan W

1) I love to read, paint, cook and bake. In the warmer months, I like to take walks, spend time in the garden or at the lake with the kids.
2) I love to look at travel magazines for my inspiration. I also find inspriation in every day things, like clothes, my dishes, nature, etc.
3) I enjoy reading travel books, biographies, historical fiction and non-fiction, Biblical archeology books, travel and cultural magazines (National Geographic, Traveler, Adventure, Backpacker, etc.)
4) Some of my short term goals are getting published in a scrapbooking magazine and buying our first home this summer (after 11 years of marriage).

My question is this -- where in the world do you hang 3 weeks' worth of laundry in your house?!?!
Posted by: Amanda A.

I use a big, old wooden rack that's set up in the kids' room on laundry day. I hang up a good amount of laundry on this. I also have a small plastic foding rack that gets set up in our room and that holds things like socks, wash clothes, undies, etc. I hang up shirts belonging to the husband and I on hangers on the shower rod. If there's anything left, it gets draped on the end of the bed. We have a metal sleigh bed frame which is great for hanging wet jeans or towels on. If there's too many socks, the extras get hung on the side of the laundry baskets. You should see the upstairs of our house on laundry day! The whole second floor smells like Purex laundry detergent and there's laundry hanging everywhere.

But you'd also be surprised that when we do laundry every 2-3 weeks, we only bring TWO baskets of laundry to the laundromat. They're VERY full baskets, but I make sure that we don't have any more than that. The hubby recycles his work jeans because he's just going to get them incredibly dirty anyway. The kids have learned that if their clothes aren't muddy or dirty, they can be worn over again. Same with PJs. Towels get dried out and reused. I can fit 2-3 weeks of laundry in one of the HUGE 55 lb. washers (that's 55 lbs. wet) at the laundromat and pay only $6 to have it washed.

The laundromat is 25 min. away, so doing it more than 2-3 weeks is more than enough.

My question is: What is your favorite season?
Posted by: Sharla

Definitely summer. I really don't know sometimes why I'm still living in Vermont....except that I love it here, I love the other 3 seasons of the year and put up with the cold and long winters. I adore the green and warmth of summer.

Have you ever considered writing a book containing projects, how-to's and tips?
Posted by: Carrie C

The thought has definitely crossed my mind.....but if only I could find the time to do it. And if I DID find the time, I wouldn't even know how to go about finding a publisher for my book. But I do dream about it often.

The one thing that I have a really hard time with is cards for men. Masculine items (paper especially) seem so hard to find. So, my question is...What is the best tip that you can offer me when it comes to making a card for a man?
Posted by: Beth

My best piece of advice is to not over think your card for a man. Most men, unless they're totally tuned in to the creative process of stamping, will not notice the immense amount of details that most of us put into our cards. Go easy on the techniques and stick to the basics when making a card for a man. You can still make a basic card and have it look like it took forever to make it.

And here's a piece of trivia for you......this post marks my 499th post! Do you all know what THAT means??? Yup....you guessed it! Tomorrow, it's time for a GROOVY GIVE-AWAY to celebrate Post #500!!!

"Questions & Answers" Sunday on a Monday

This post should have gone up yesterday, since I usually do "Questions & Answers" Sunday. I was working on a bunch of different projects yesterday and then took part in GinaK's release party on SCS last night for her new stamps and embellishments, so I didn't have a lot of time left by the end of the night. By the way, there's four sketch challenges going on over on GinaK's forum, but they end at 11 am central time tomorrow, so make sure you hop on over there and take part before time is up. Gina is giving away free stamps for the prizes!

There were so many great questions that you've all asked that I might just do another post before Sunday to answer some more.

Do either of your children stamp with you or give you motivational ideas?

Posted by: Gail

My son, Zach, is okay with stamping, but just doesn't ask to do it much. I usually have to ask him if it's something he wants to do. He'll do it when there's a thank you card to be made or if he's really bored. He actually enjoys it when he does it, but he's more interested in bugs, dinosaurs and architecture and finds plenty to do that revolve around those things.

My daughter loves to stamp and has a container full of her own stamps and just recently acquired one of Melanie Muenchinger's new sets: the Just so Hoppy set. She gets very serious about her projects. Just Saturday, I did a Valentine's Mailbox class here at my house and my daughter wanted to decorate another mailbox after seeing what all the ladies had done with their's. I let her pick out which color mailbox she wanted to decorate and then let her pick out the papers she wanted.

Here's her finished mailbox and what she put inside it:

Girly (yes, she has a real name, but we just don't use it) raided my chocolate stash and picked out things to put in it to take to school with her on Valentine's Day to give out to all her classmates. Good thing I have three more bags of Dove dark chocolates in my drawer or I might have been a tad on the defensive. *wink*

As for the question about my kids motivating me creatively.....well, my daughter's mailbox DID motivate me. I loved the colors she chose and that she picked a heart punch to create the hearts that went on the arm of the mailbox, so this morning, I created my own mailbox and used some of her ideas and papers. I'll be sharing that a little later in the day, so make sure to check back for that.

One of the questions that I get asked a lot is this:

I would like to know how you organize your time to do all that you do? You must be extremely well disciplined.

Posted by: Vivian

my question is what are your secrets to accomplishing so much? Teach us how to get more done!

Posted by: mary puskar

One of the keys to me being able to have so many irons in the fire is because this IS my full time job. I work from home. I own my own business. My husband goes off to work in the morning at 7 am and gets home at 3:30 pm. My kids are off to school by 7:45 am. I'm home by myself 5 days a week. While there are things that I do at home that don't include business, I do have a good amount of time every day to work on my business. I also have a lot of time uninterrupted that I can devote to getting things done.

Now......that's not to say that everything always gets done. But the other key for me in organizing my time is to set time aside to do certain things. I'm forever writing lists of things that need to be done and revising them. Things get put on the list in order of importance and those are the things that take precedence.

I try to make sure that I get the bulk of my work done while the kids are at school and the husband is at work so that I have time to spend with them when they come home. Something else that I found has worked for me is giving myself a time limit to do something or to work on something. I find that I get a lot more done and am a lot more efficient if I put tasks into time limits. 15 and 30 minute segments seem to work really well for me.

I grew up in a family that had several businesses running on at one time and my mother was very strict about time management. She's extremely efficient and is also a master list-maker. She taught us how to multi-task in a way that actually gets things done rather than getting things done in a half-baked manner. We've always worked well under pressure and that's usually when our best work gets done.

What's your dream vacation?

Posted by Shawn K.

My dream vacation is going somewhere that I've never been before. I have wanderlust like you wouldn't believe. Every day, I think about traveling somewhere. It pervades my thoughts. I'm constantly thinking of new places to go, new things to see and new things to do. I'm trying to take it all in before my time is up. We never know when that's going to be, so I have to make sure I get as much in as I can.

I do have a list of places I want to see before I go.....but that list is SO long and pretty much includes EVERYWHERE, so I'll give you my top 6 for now:

* Costa Rica (we flew into CR for a plane change in 2000 and only got to see the land from the plane and from the inside of the airport, but what we saw was enough to make us want to go back in a very bad way)
* Italy (I would love to see the Tuscan Valley)
* India (I have always been intrigued by the people, the culture, the colors, the food)
* Morocco (for pretty much the same reasons as India)
* Burkina Faso and Tunisia (my heart is drawn to the continent of Africa and I've been turned on to these two countries through seeing shots of them on different seasons of The Amazing Race)

My dream vacations include seeing places for what they really are....not just the touristy stuff that's plastered on the front of brochures. I want to see into the heart of the culture. To really experience the place for what makes it what it is.

My question is, Have you ever been in another country? If yes, for how long and what country is it?

Posted by: Giovana

Yes, I have. Here's my list:

* Canada - many times (provinces I've been to: Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia)
* Uganda, East Africa - I spent 2 months of my summer in 1991 (I was 14 at the time) on a missions trip there. My team helped to break ground on a medical clinic in Bukaleba that has been in full use for many years now.
* Kenya, East Africa - my team spent 3 days in Kenya in 1991
* Switzerland - 1991, my team to Africa spent a week at the end of our summer camping in the Swiss Alps
* Belgium - 1991, my team to Africa spent a day touring the city of Brussels. In 2005, my husband and I made a trip to Belgium to visit friends and spent 5 days in Brugge.
* Ecuador - 2000, my husband and I took a two week trip to help with a work project for a mission.
* Haiti - 2005, on the Stampin' Up cruise
* Jamaica - 2005, on the Stampin' Up cruise
* Grand Cayman - 2005, on the Stampin' Up cruise
* Mexico - 2005, on the Stampin' Up cruise (Cozumel) and again in 2006 on the Stampin' Up cruise to the Mexican Riviera
* France - 2005, when we went to visit our friends in Belgium, we took a 2 day trip to Paris with our friends since it was only 3 1/2 hours away (the picture above was taken with my friend, AJ, while in Paris)
* Norway - 2006, my husband and I took a one week trip to visit a Norwegian friend.

When I went to Switzerland in 1991, my team flew into Belgium and then took the train to Switzerland. We got to see the country side of Germany, France and Luxembourg by train...but we weren't able to see any more outside the train than one of the train stations in France. It all looked so pretty from the windows of the train, though.

(The picture at left is from our trip to Norway in 2006 - you can click on it for a larger view)

 I'd really like to know when and how did you begin stamping?  And were your first projects as juvenile as mine look?  Would you be willing to show us the first thing you did if you still have it?

Posted by: Jill Marie

As for how and when I started stamping, you can check out the answer in this past "Q & A" post here: Q & A from January 20th

I actually don't have the first thing I ever stamped, as I sent it to a friend after I created it, otherwise I would definitely share it with you. I don't have any of the first things I stamped as the rest were sent to someone putting together a box of cards for the soliders in Iraq (so that they would have cards to send home to family). I'd been hanging on to a lot of them for so long and decided they needed to see some use, so I finally let go of them and sent them on to a better place. :)

When I looked back at the first things I created, they all seem SO different than what I make now. I don't necessarily think they looked juvenile, but rather that I was trying to find my style back then. Even now, I have a hard time trying to think of what I can nail my style down as. Oftentimes, I just think of it as "free style" because I'm usually all over the place.

I have always wondered everytime i see someone with dreads...how do you put dreads in?  i have been a hair dresser for 13 years and have never ran across it but i have seen them and always wondered what the process of starting or maintaining them is.

Regina Cornelius

There's a few different ways that dreads can be put in.

* Natural method - this method is just letting your hair go without brushing. Hair will knot up on its own, though going the natural route can take much longer than other methods. With the natural method, you'll get varying textures and sizes of dreads, which make for a very interesting and diverse look. The natural method is sometimes called the "neglect method," though most people that choose this method are not neglecting their hair at all....just not brushing it.
* Backcombing method - this is one of the most popular methods used. The hair is sectioned out and then combed down against the scalp. The more you backcomb (and make sure you do it TIGHTLY), the more hair will slip away from the section of hair and pack against each other. If you pack them down tight enough, you'll end up with a head of dreads that stick straight out for a while, but they'll eventually tame down.
* Rip & Twist Method- this method is basically described as "chaotic braiding." It consists of sectioning off your hair just like you would if you were backcombing. You twist the section so that it's tight, then pull the section apart in 2 parts, pulling apart hard. A knot will form up the hair. Then twist it again, pull apart again hard. Keep doing this until you've knotted the hair all the way to the end. Each time you twist and separate, you should separate in two different pieces. Usually a little bit of backcombing to the roots helps to start them off a little tighter. Some people combine both the backcombing and Rip & Twist Method to create their locks.
* Dread Perm - some people opt for this method as they would rather have someone else do it and it does cost quite a bit. The hair is sectioned off and shaped using a comb. A chemical (perm solution) is put on the hair that locks them up. The hair is usually overprocessed to achieve these results.

There's a couple other methods, but these are the most popular.

I started mine with backcombing back in Sept. 2006. My mom put them in and it was a first for both of us. It took her 4 1/2 but they weren't done tight enough. Over time, they started to fall out a bit. In October 2006, my sister and I combed quite a few of them out and redid many of them by the Rip & Twist method. That seemed to hold much better for me. We didn't really touch them again until October of 2007. I had combined a couple here and there, but other than that, I've left them to do their own thing. Back in October, my sister went through my hair and pulled some dreads apart from others and combined many others since they had been merging at the roots. They wanted to combine so we let them. I started out with around 65 really thin dreads and now have a total of 19.

They're not hard to maintain....that's one of the nicest things about them. I just let them be. Some people like to have maintanence done on their's, but I guess I'm just not one of those types of people.

The picture on the left is just a few days after I had them done in Sept. 2006. The picture on the right was taken last month and is what I like to call "The Pineapple Head" hairdo. I've bleached my hair in the meantime (back on Dec. 8th).

(you can click on the pictures for larger views)

Thanks for all the questions.....this run was long winded, but there was a lot for me to say, I guess. :)

Happy Creating! Have a lovely week!

-Erika

"Questions & Answers" Sunday

Wow! Is it Sunday already??

I spent today at home with the kids so the hubby could go snowboarding with my uncle (well, my uncle skis and Davy snowboards). I got a whole lot of creative stuff done today so post for the next few days (one of those is coming right after I post this) so be on the lookout for them.

And speaking of snowboards, my daughter is very proud of her purchase yesterday. She's been working hard and saving her money for something very special. Yesterday, she bought her first snowboard.

Last winter, she starting sledding down the hill in our backyard (aka: the septic mound.....makes for a great "bunny slope" for both sleds and snowboards) while standing up. She wanted to emulate Dad, as he's a snowboard freak and she is always looking for the next thrill and extreme....just like her daddy.

We told her that she'd have to save her money if she wanted it as we'd rather have the kids work for the things they want (as opposed to the things they need). We're trying to get them to understand the value of hard work and earning money through that hard work.

We actually told her this policy a while ago, so she's been used to it for about a year. When we first told her, though, Girly decided that she was going to start her own business and one day, we found a sign on the bathroom door and below that was a pouch made out of paper and staples.

The sign says, "Just Girly's can go in the bath room. Boy peses pay and put the money in holder so you can go in the bath room."

It's amazing how much neater her handwriting is in just a year. Her grammar, punctuation use and spelling has also improved dramatically. This sign was done LAST winter.

I gotta give it to the kid for taking initiative. That's my kid, alright! *wink* I also love that I got into the bathroom for free and BOYS had to pay! That is SO my kid!

Anyway...about a month ago, she got after us and said that we're always telling her she needs to earn her money, but we don't often give her ways to earn money. She has drawn pictures when we had family members over and sold the pictures for 25 cents each. She's tried to do things here and there for a quarter. But when she realized that it would take a lot to earn what she needed for the snowboard, she told us that we need to give her a job so that she can earn it quicker.

One of the things that I'm always working on is finding ways to maximize my time. I now have a way to get my dishes done and get it done cheaply. We pay her $5 a week and she does the bulk of the dishes. And she does them well, too! What a great way to make some extra time for myself!We don't have a dishwasher so this frees up a LOT of my time.

Anyway.........there's your picture for the day! Girly on her new snowboard! (she'll be 8 in April, by the way)

On to your questions.....

 

So I was wondering which sets beyond SU you'd recommend for beginning stampers. I have Simply Sent Delights and another set now retired. Hmm, I guess I was also interested in which colors you use the most. I'm still learning my style and interests but I have tons of greens and pinks.

Posted by: Ying

I don't really have a lot of sets beyond SU, except for the companies that I design for: GinaK and Kitchen Sink Stamp. I do also have some Tuscan Rose stamps and love those for their artsy and collage style feel. I find that Gina has a great variety of stamps for all occasions and while KSS is a fairly new company, they also have a great variety of different styles and I love their alphabet and font sets.

I love earth colors but I go through stages with colors. I would say the colors I use most are brown, blue and green....all different shades of these colors. Right now, though, I'm using a lot of pink and reds seeing that Valentine's day is right around the corner. I think it depends on the time of year and what kinds of cards and projects I'm working on.

Do you have a favorite tape runner?

Posted by: Linda Peterson

I know there are people that don't care for the MonoAdhesive (aka: SNAIL) but I'm in the camp of people that LOVE it. For regular cards and projects, it's all I use. I've heard of people saying that their projects come apart after a while, but I've never really had that problem. I find that if you give your layers some really good pressure, there's no way it's coming apart. I must be really good at the pressure thing lately because I've actually torn both cardstock AND paper when I lay something down with MonoAdhesive and then try to move it or pull it up to reposition it.

I swear by my MonoAdhesive. I use it in my scrapbooks, as well.

Hhhmm...a question I have is when you scrapbook, are you doing albums for each of your children to pass along to them when the time comes and if so, how do you pick which activities/pictures to scrapbook. KWIM? I have 4 children and by the time I think about scrapbooking our Christmas pictures, another event comes along that I want to scrapbook. It just seems like I have a hard time keeping up!!

Posted by: Kristin in OH

I've done a scrapbook album for each of my 2 kids from birth to one year. The rest of the scrapbooking I've done has pretty much been all over the place. I had started out thinking I HAD to do my books chronilogically. I couldn't get my mind past that. And then I got into a rut. This was a while ago. I got so tired of working on older pictures just for the sake of having to do them chronilogically. I had newer pictures that I wanted to work on and put them aside because I had it pounded into my brain by a scrapbooking company consultant that I had to do my books in order. That totally took the passion out of my scrapbooking. I actually put all my stuff away for about 6 months and didn't touch it because I couldn't bring myself to go back and work on those older pictures. I was tired of looking at them.

Then "Simple Scrapbooks" magazine came out. I've been a subscriber since their first issue. That magazine was a scrapbook life-saver for me. One of the articles in that first issue talked about letting go of the rules. To make our OWN rules. To allow ourselves to work on whatever pictures we wanted to, regardless of where they fell in the time line of our pictures. That was HUGE for me.

My daughter has started her own scrapbook and works on it every now and then. As she gets older, I hope that she'll continue to love it just as much as she does now and will continue to scrapbook her own memories. That will alleviate me from doing all the work. I figure that when they eventually move out on their own, I can always make color copies of the pages and put them into an album if there's any in my albums that they want in the worst way.

How do you find time to do your personal scrapping with all the time you spend on your business? I love seeing your scrapbook pages, and am trying to figure out how to make more time for my own.

Posted by: Jana Weaver

This is something that I struggle with. I'd love to spend more time on my own books, but I realize there's only so much time in a day. A scrapbook page is something I put a lot more time into than a card. I can walk away from a card, but I have a hard time walking away from a scrapbook page. Once I'm into the groove, I don't want to walk away. I need to make sure that I have time to work on it from start to finish. My solution is to create more hours in a day and more days in a week, but no one with the power to do that has listened to me or done anything about it.

I just finished a 22 page scrapbook for a private client and that really got me CRAVING the extra time to work on my pages. Also, I'm planning on entering the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest this year and time is running out, so I really need to get my butt in gear.

My goal is to be more proactive with my own books this year. My plan is to put aside a time on my calendar each week to work on my own books. Now I just have to put aside a time to put it on my calendar. :)

Have you ever traveled (Out of state) to do a SU deminstration/show? I live in North Carolina and I would love to attend one of your classes. I did not know if you would travel. Just a crazy question!

Posted by: Megan Mears

I actually HAVE traveled out of state to do things with my business. I live close to the upstate New York border, so it's not far for me to go across the bridge. I've done a few workshops over there. I also have friends in southern New Hampshire and have gone down to spend the night with them and have done her workshops down there.

North Carolina is a bit far to do a quick commute, but if you'd like to pay for a flight down, I'll start packing! haha! Anytime in the next 8 weeks would be great, as I'm ready for some warmer weather.

Enjoy the week ahead!
-Erika

"Questions & Answers" Sunday

It's Sunday and that means it's time for some more "Questions & Answers."

As always....some personal and some stamping related. Enjoy!

I want to know how you got started in stamping. and Have you always done/ loved crafting?
Posted by: Amy G.

I was never really interested in stamping before 2001. I had seen some stuff here and there in the stores, but it just didn't strike me as anything I'd really do. Back in the early 90s, a couple friends had some stamps and all they did was emboss with them. Just plain gold embossing. It didn't seem too exciting to me. Besides, all the stamps that I saw in the stores were sold individually and were really expensive. It seemed like something I could put a lot of money into and not have a whole lot of flexibility with. At the end of 2000, I found a foam snowflake stamp and thought it would nice to make some holiday cards, so I embossed a bunch of silver snowflakes on black cardstock and wrote with a gold pen on the inside of the cards. That was it for stamping for me.

In early 2001, my mother-in-law started talking about this awesome company that she had just found and was going to have a catalog party. We were visiting them in PA at the time and I told her I wasn't really interested but I would take a catalog with me and look at it....because it seemed like it hurt her feelings. On the drive home from PA (7 1/2 hours all the way back to northern Vermont), I had my nose in the Stampin' Up catalog and couldn't get my nose OUT of it. I fell in love. I ordered the Sun, Moon & Stars set from my MIL's catalog party and decided that I wanted to be a demonstrator since I hadn't heard of it before and figured that it would be a great business opportunity for me, not to mention being able to build a great collection of stamps.

From looking at the catalog, I could see that there was so much more to stamping than just embossing. A whole new world was out there. I was a scrapbooker long before I was a stamper and it looked like it would mesh really well with scrapbooking.

I made the decision to become a demo before even going to a workshop or holding that first set of stamps in my hand. The only workshop I've ever been to, other than my own, was the intro workshop my MIL did when they came to visit in May of 2001. That workshop got my business started, as it was obvious that my MIL wasn't going to do the 15 hour round trip commute for any bookings off of my workshop. My husband thought it would last about 3 months......that was 6 1/2 years ago and I'm still here, loving it more and more every day!

I shared the picture at left here on my blog back in October of 2006. This picture was taken right after my starter kit arrived when I became a demo in June of 2001. For those of you familiar with Stampin' Up stamps, you know that many of them need to be trimmed and mounted. This is what happens with the hubby gets into the rubber trimmings. And believe me, he's still as silly as he was back then....if not even more so. You can check out pictures from the past here: My Davycakes

Well...I've been thinking about trying to make and sell cards on-line, so...my question is how do you get started?
Posted by: Tara

There are a few ways to get started.

One of them is to set up and Etsy Shop. It's really easy and free to set up a shop. You can check out the site by going here: Etsy

Another way that you get started is to create a store of your own on a blog service like Typepad. There's a blog banner on my side bar if you scroll down just a tad. You can get a free 14 day trial by clicking on that banner.

I have my online store on a separate Tyepad blog. Click here: The Stampin' Mama Store

It was really easy to set up and while I use Cartville for my shopping cart buttons, PayPal also has the option to use their buttons and would probably work just fine for starting out.

It's great to have both, as you can pull people on Etsy over to your blog store that may not have found you otherwise.

What got you in to stamping? How long have you been at and what keeps you coming back?
Posted by: reflections:0)

What keeps me coming back? Well, there is always something new coming out to add to the craft. I love the friends I've made through this craft. There's always something to create. The versatility of the craft is truly amazing.

What's your recommendation for the best 2-3 punches I should have to make nice cards?
Posted by: Sequana

The punches that I find myself going back to over and over again are my two circle punches. The 1 1/4 inch and the 1 3/8 inch punches. I used them quite often. Another favorite has been the Scallop punch. This is newer to my collection of tools, but one that I find myself reaching for a lot.

Do you chew gum?
Thought a less intense question was warranted...tee hee!
Posted by: Kim Marie

I used to be quite a proficient gum chewer, but for the last 4 or 5 years, I just don't find myself chewing much. Most of it is because of the worry of having all that sugar on my teeth for an extended period of time. I envision those little cartoon sugar-demons that we used to see on those "well teeth care" commercials on TV in the 80s.....eating away at my enamel and working their way into my gums with chisels. I'm always afraid of a filling coming loose or a tooth breaking on a hard gumball. I just can't help it. Gum scares me these days so I pretty much stay away from it for the most part.

My question-what is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten and it doesn't have to be people food.
Posted by: jan scholl

There are a few foods that I think of that come to mind when asked this question. I'd have to say: Crocodile, zebra, antelope and wildebeest. I got to try these while at the The Carnivore Restaurant while in Nairobi, Kenya way back in 1991 at the age of 14.

The other would have to be canned cat food. I think I was about 6 or so. There was a can of cat food left on the kitchen counter and I thought it was tuna fish. I'm sure there WAS something akin to tuna in that can, but it certainly wasn't meant for human consumption. My mom didn't realize what I was eating until it was all gone. I wasn't able to eat tuna fish until 4 years ago.

My question would be..what is your favorite dessert? Great Blog keep up the good work. :)
Posted by: kim3timemom

I actually have a few. My mother has made me a Jello-cake with Cool-Whip frosting on it for my birthday since I think I was 4 years old. This last birthday in December was no exception. The only birthday that was missed was my 21st birthday (I was married and living in PA at the time and my parents were up here in Vermont). You can check out the recipe here: Jello-o Poke Cake

I've always loved my father's Kahlua Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake. I'd eat that for breakfast every morning if I could. We haven't had it in a long time.....I'll have to make it myself one of these days. I'm sure it won't be quite as good as my father's, but it would satisfy the craving for me.

The other favorite is Uno's Peanut Butter Cup. It's like death by chocolate and peanut butter. A true symphony of chocolate and peanut buttery goodness. Hook me up with a liquified version of that in an IV line and I'd be a happy chocco-peanut-butter-holic, indeed.

So - what is your favorite animal and why?
And my dd wants to know what is your favorite color?
Posted by: Juli Smith

My favorite animal is the cat. I love my kitties and have had them around since I was born. I was very blessed to marry a man that love kitties just as much as I do. Right now, the two kitties we have are very loved....just like all the kitties that have come before. Noah is the baby in the family. He'll be 4 this year. He came from the farm of a friend and is an absolute beauty. He's long haired and seems to be part Maine Coon. It's hard to imagine him coming from a farm. He's so in love with himself and thinks he rocks our world....well, he does. *wink* He's also in love with my daughter and we've had him since he was a kitten. He'll let her do practically anything to him. Noah is quite vain but he really can't help it. He's just so beautiful. The picture at left is one that my friend, Jen, took while she was here in May. She was doing our family photos and Noah came waltzing in and made himself at home on the backdrop. He was all, "Here I am. You know I'm beautiful. Photograph me!"

Bertie is our other kitty and he'll be 15 in March. I've had him since the day he was born. His mama was my kitty and she gave birth right outside my bedroom door to a litter of 4. He's a big black kitty with a white belly and chin and weighs a good 18 pounds. He's such a sweetheart...so gentle and timid and loves to climb up on my lap on the couch in the evenings. Bertie is so affectionate and it makes me kind of sad to know that he's getting older....I wish that kitties had a longer life span. I could keep him forever.

My favorite color goes back and forth between 3 colors. Blue, brown and green. Muted earth tones of those three and I love them together.

Check back tomorrow for a great Groovy Give-Away and have a groovy week!

-Erika

"Questions & Answers" Sunday on a Monday

I had fully intended on doing my "Questions & Answers" Sunday post yesterday....on Sunday. But the day got away from me and here it is, Monday. I still wanted to do the post, so I'm just doing it today instead of yesterday. You'll just have to put up with getting a couple posts from me today because I have an awesome give-away to put up, as well (and I'm sure none of you will mind that).

As always....some personal and some stamping related. Enjoy!

While I'm thinking of it, postcards.. is Zach still wanting them?
Posted by: Patty W

Yes, Zach definitely would still love postcards. This is a project that we started for him in the fall of 2006 to get him over the winter and he loved it. He still enjoys the postcards coming in the mail and now that he sits in "big church" (as opposed to going to Junior Church during the main service), he brings his little postcard albums with him to look at so that he has something to do.

Here's the post to find out how you can send a postcard to Zach (along with our address): Help Zach see the world...Send a postcard!

Out of all of the crafts that you do...is rubberstamping the all time high? Or do you have another all time favorite to take your time?

Posted by: bonnie32002

Long before I started stamping, I scrapbooked. That's something I still love to do and probably gives me the all-time high. I don't find myself doing it as much as I want to, though, because it's more time intensive and cards are instant gratification for me. I really do want to put more time into my schedule for scrapping for myself, as I have a ton of pictures that need to be caught up on. Right now, I'm finishing up a scrapbook for a client and it's been a wonderful project to work on.

Something that I find that gives me the all-time high that includes working with my pictures is altered books. It's another kind of scrapbooking for me. It involves working with my pictures, creating with art, painting, telling a story, etc. It's all the things I love wrapped up into one. I have a ton of books that are in the thought process in my head and I just need more time in the day to put them into reality. I really need to stop sleeping altogether. That's usually my unrealistic solution for everything that I want to do. ;)

I guess I am wondering if you scrapbook at all. I have seen the beautiful albums you make but they've all been empty in the pics. Do you actually scrapbook or stick mostly to card making? I just recently got into digiscrapping and I am LOVING it!
Posted by: Jessica S.

Yes, I do scrapbook. (see answer to question above) You can actually see some of the pages that I've shared here on my blog by going here: Scrapbook Pages

You'll need to let the pictures load as there are a lot and it just takes a little time for them to come up. That could be why you weren't seeing them right away. Also, at the bottom of the blog pages, there are little arrows that you can click on (and the ARE little) to go to the next page of posts.

I read a few weeks ago that your your creative genius came from your Mom's encouragement. My question is, Is she really that awesome in person? And Why can't we all have a Mom like yours?
Posted by: Donna Diegel

(the picture at left was taken in July of 2006 at my mom's 50th birthday party....I made the HUGE Devil Dogs cake you see. You can check out other pictures and info here: Mom's Mt. Vesuvius Cake These pictures are pre-blonde and pre-dreads.)

The answer to that is....she really IS that awesome in person! I love my mom immensely. She's one of my best friends, even though most people wouldn't have thought so when I was in my early teens. I think she seriously considered selling me to the gypsies or the circus quite a few times. In fact, I think she would have been happy to just GIVE me to them.

More than the creative encouragement, my mother, without realizing it, has given me the encouragement to be truly and uniquely ME. She gave me the tom-boy side for which I'm extremely grateful. She gave me the love of fine food and my love of baking (she's really turned me into a food snob). She gave me the insatiable need to work with my hands. She gave me the strength and craving to work under pressure. She gave me the lust for insomnia so that I can constantly be creating. She gave me the determination and life skills to run my own businesses.

But most of all, she gave me the gift of individuality. When I think of my mother, the picture that comes to mind is a highschool girl with long flowing hair, carefree, nothing holding her back, with a mind of her own. She knows who she is. She's secure. She has strength and resolution that is truly inspiring. She really is one my biggest sources of inspiration.

As for why you all can't have a mom like mine.....well, there's only one of her and she's all mine. Well, I have to share her with my siblings, but yup, she's all mine.

My ? is... Where is your favorite place that you have ever been to?
Posted by: Lori J

I've been to a lot of places and I have this need to always be going to some place new. There is, however, one place that I always find myself missing and wanting to go back to: Nova Scotia. Particularly, Cape Breton Island.

I first went to Nova Scotia when I was 19. My grandparents were planning on a road trip to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and I desperately wanted to get away and go with them. I saved up my money and we took off for 2 weeks. I fell in love with the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. 9 months later, I was married and heading on another road trip for my honeymoon. We did both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, but the place that held a love for both Davy and I was Cape Breton Island. We went back again for our first anniversary and have taken our kids twice so they can see what fascinates us so much about it. We haven't been back since 2003, but we talk about going back all the time.

The combination of the highlands, the ocean, the woods, the clean air, the nothingness.....pristine wilderness with no one else out there to crowd you out. It's everything that we love about it.

Above is one of my scrapbook pages from our 2002 trip to Nova Scotia. You can click on it to get a larger view.

Hi Erika!  My question is...
Have you lost your mind?!  A groovy giveaway in the middle of the week?!  That's just crazy, man.  ;)
Jodi
Posted by: Jodi Galland

This question totally made me laugh!

My answer: Yes, I HAVE lost my mind! I spend my whole day crafting or doing things related to crafting. You can imagine that with all the glitter, embossing powders, glue, ink, etc.....that my mind isn't as sharp as it once was. Then again, if you knew my father, you'd realize that I was doomed to craziness and insanity right from conception. I mean, LOOK AT THAT FACE! Just one look at my father and you'd know that anything crazy is totally possible in my world!

And speaking of craziness and groovy give-aways in the middle outside of a Friday, I have another one coming up after I post this!

Ooh, I'm excited to see this blog....I have lots of reading to do! My question is: what motivates/inspires you when stamping and scrapbooking?
Posted by: Lori M.

This is something I get asked quite often. Here's a post that I created back in September of last year to describe my creative process and where I find my inspiration: My Creative Process


Are  you a "glass half full" or a "glass half empty" person?
Posted by: Cheryl Kelly-Van Domelen

The majority of the time, I'm definitely a "glass half full" type of person. Every once in a while, I turn into the other person, but it's few and far between. I try to find the positive in every situation even when there doesn't seem to be one.

My question is how tall are you?  My guess would be about 5'5" - Am I right?
Posted by: Linda SS

I'm actually 5 foot 7 1/2 inches tall. Close. :)

Are the new Copic markers really so great?  How are they different?  I don't want to NEED them....
Posted by: Jack Loy

Some of you are probably going to laugh at this, but......I have NO idea! I don't own ANY Copic markers. I see all the wonderful things done with them on other people's blogs, but just haven't made the jump to get them. I actually tell myself the same thing....I don't want to NEED them. But the more I see of them, the more I want them. The fact that you can get pretty much seamless blending is what makes me lust after them. There are two things that scare me about them. 1) The space for more stuff. I have a limited amount of space to work in, so I try to keep my supplies condensed. 2) The price tag. Though GinaK DOES have a very budget friendly way of getting the Copics if you HAVE to have them.

My question to you is, when do you do your stamping and creating, before or after your daily duties? (I'm working on organizing my time better)
Posted by: Rosella

You can check out the answer to this question in last week's "Questions & Answers" post by clicking HERE.

I have a question......How the heck do you carry 3 weeks worth of laundry from 4 people into the laundromat by yourself?? What do you drive to get it all there? A big rig? How long does it take? What does it cost at a laundromat now a days?
Do you feel exhausted but refreshed to have the dreaded chore done finally?
Posted by: kimmiek

I love how this is more than one question! Kim, you always make me smile the biggest smiles EVER!

1)  I don't usually go by myself. I hate driving. I make my chauffeur take me (aka: the hubby). He helps me carry it in.

And here's a secret to doing laundry every 2-3 weeks. We're a family of four, but my rule is that I don't do any more than what will fit in two laundry baskets. Usually, we're pretty spot on. Those two baskets are PACKED, though. They might be a little mounded on the top, but that's my rule. Two baskets full. The key to this is the hubby wears his work clothes over and over. They're gonna get dirty anyway. The kids re-wear their clothes over again if they're not dirty. My daughter LIVES in her PJs when she's at home, so that means that once she gets home from school, her clothes get checked over and then go back in the drawer if they're good to wear again. Same thing with me. I live in my PJs, too, so my clothes get worn over again if they're still clean. Towels have a long life in our house.

2) We have one vehicle. A mini-van. Well, two vehicles if you count the bicycle my hubby rides to work each morning, but you really can't transport two HONKIN' baskets of laundry on a bike. ;)

Yes, that's a picture of the back of our van. I get so many comment on my bumper sticker. :) One of the best was from a little old gentleman. He was probably close to 80 years old and he held the door for me as I was leaving the post office and he was going in. He smiled and said, "I love your bumper sticker. Moms rock, huh? You look like you do." That just made my day! Especially that someone of his generation knew what it meant!

3) It takes all of about 25 minutes for my laundry to be washed at the laundromat. It takes us about 25 minutes just to DRIVE there, though. We hang all of our laundry up (either on the line in the warmer months or on a couple racks in the colder months), so we don't use the dryers at the laundromat.

4) The cost depends on what laundromat you go to and what washers you use. The laundromat that we used to go to in town (it's no longer there, which is why we have to drive 25 min. to the nearest one) used to cost me between $12-$15 to do my laundry. Now, I use the BIG BOY washer at the laundromat and can fit up to 5 loads in there. Usually, I range about 4 to 5 loads, which is the max that will fit into my 2 baskets if I pack them really tight. I don't bother sorting the laundry. It all goes into ONE washer and it's a whopping $6. And....because it's in one of those huge washers that conserves on both energy and water, it only needs one cap-full of detergent, so I save money on that, too!

5) Yes, I feel completely relieved to have the dreaded chore of laundry finally done. I dread it so much and that's why I go 2-3 weeks in between doing it.

Happy Monday everyone!

-Erika

"Questions & Answers" Sunday

Happy Sunday.....even though most of it is already over for many of you. I'm starting to fade and will be heading up to bed soon, but I wanted to do my "Questions & Answers" Sunday post before I head up to bed.

First off, I just wanted to share a picture that my daughter and I took a couple weeks ago while waiting for the school bus to pick her up. A dear friend of mine in Belgium sent matching scarves for the two of us and we wanted to model them for her so we could send a picture by email. When I uploaded the picture onto my computer, I realized that I have a Mini-Me! That kid is just like me in so many ways, it some days scares the cripe out of me. *wink* People are always telling me that she looks just like me, but I don't usually see it unless I see a picture of the two of us together like this to make it all new to me again. Man, I love that kid. :)

So anyway.......on to the Questions & Answers:

Yup, I'm still working on questions from THIS POST, but I'm quickly making my way through them, so I'll have to do another Questions give-away soon so that you can all give me new questions to answer. :)

One of the questions that I found was recurring throughout that post was this:

How much time do I stamp every day?

Here's some of the questions in that vein:

I am curious to know how much time you allow a day or week or whatever to your crafting? Do you do it at night when the kids are in bed or when they are in school?

Posted by: Greta Adams
 

My questions is... when do you find yourself creating? Morning, noon or night; when do you find your muse?

Posted by: Vanessa G.

Because my business IS my full time job and I work from home, I spend a lot of time creating, brainstorming, stamping, etc. I usually spend about 8 hours a day, give or take, on my business. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I'm usually pretty good about sticking to a schedule, but I'm also pretty flexible when I need to be. I try to get as much done during the day when the kids are in school and the husband is at work so that I can spend the afternoon and evening with them. My kids are usually in bed by 7:30 (whether they're actually sleeping or not is a whole other store) and because my husband works a very physical job (he's a carpenter), he's usually asleep on the couch around the same time. I then use the rest of my evening (till around 11 or midnight) finishing up projects, typing up my blog posts, answering emails, making lists for the next day, putzing around online if I have the time, etc. Sometimes I'll stamp after the kids go to bed, but I usually do that during the day.

How much time everyday to you spend stamping? (I know that this has already been asked, but is pertinent to my other question.) And does this effect your housework? I'm always having to decide...clean my house or stamp!

Posted by: Heather

HAHA! Yes, it DOES affect my housework.

DISHES: There are days when I'm really good at keeping up with the dishes. We don't have one of those fancy dishwashers. I AM the dishwasher.....like I said, no fancy dishwasher. *wink* I go through stretches where I do them once or twice a day. Then there are times when I'm working on creative deadlines and they go 2 or 3 days without getting done. I make the kids use paper plates or paper towels for snacks and such and then they put them in the recycle bin.

LAUNDRY: We rent where we live and there's no where to put a washer. We're looking to buy our first house this summer so that's going to change. WOOHOO! In the meantime, I've had a rule for YEARS. I don't do laundry any more often than once every 2 weeks. Yes, you read that right. Sometimes we go three weeks in between trips to the laundromat. Every one in our family has enough underwear and socks to last us at least 3 weeks. Speaking of which, I'm down to my last pair tomorrow so I guess it's time for a trip to the laundromat. ;) We've taught the kids that they can wear something more than once if they keep it looking nice. Davy has his work clothes that he can rotate and get quite a bit of use out of. I'm the queen of "wear it again, more than twice." That does NOT apply to underwear and socks, though. HA! We don't put any of our clothes in the dryer....it all gets hung up (either on the line in the nice months or on drying racks in the cold months). This keeps our laundry holding up for YEARS.

The laundromat in town closed about 4 months ago, so the closest one is now a good 25 minute drive away. This is why we now go about 3 weeks between trips. It's in a town that we don't really have a need to go to on a regular basis. Basically, I hate laundry. I don't mind hanging it up on the line outside because I find that therapeutic, but other than that, it hardly gets folded. It usually gets "draped" or "rolled" into our drawers.....or not. ;)

BATHROOM: I clean the bathroom. Often. I'm picky about stuff like that.

OTHER CHORES: That's what I have a husband for. He dusts, he mops, he vacuums, he sweeps.....he basically does everything else. He's picky about those things, so I have no problem whatsoever in letting him do those things. ;)

Do you usually have a general idea of a type of card you want to make on any particular day or do you just go to your craft area and search for inspiration?

Posted by: Christy

I usually have a general idea of the stamp set or technique that I'm going to use, but I don't often have an idea of the actual card that I'm going to make. As fruity as it may sound, I like to let the colors I choose, the stamps and the technique guide my creative process. Sometimes I walk away if I feel at a loss for inspiration. Oftentimes, I turn on music and things just happen. I'm not sure how to explain it. It's a fluid process that happens as I create. One thing leads to another and so on.

I'm personally very happy that you are such a chatty gal! Ok...here's my question.....do you talk as much as you write or are you just chatty in print?

Posted by: Shawn K.

I had to laugh at this question.....because I DO talk as much as I write. Perhaps even more than I write. Maybe that's why I love to write so much. It's another extension of talking for me. I even find myself talking TO myself during the day when I'm home alone. I'm so used to yakking that I find myself doing it even when I'm the only one here. The good thing about talking to myself is that if I ever argue with myself, at least I know I'm always going to win! ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I have some fun posts ready to put up to share with you and a big announcement coming later this week!

Happy Creating!

-Erika

"Questions & Answers" Sunday

It's time for another round of "Questions & Answers," being that it's Sunday! I'm still working on answering questions from THIS POST. And just like the last few weeks, I'm going to do some personal questions, as well as some stamping/crafting related questions.

The hubby and I just got back from going to see National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. This was my choice for my birthday movie. Every year for my birthday, I pick out a movie I want to see and the two of us go out together. Great movie!

I was hoping to see a little more of Paris, since I'm in love with that city since going there in 2005, but it was just a short blip in the movie. Even so, it made me want to go back even more than I already did. And, oh, be still my beating heart.....I saw a poster for the upcoming Indiana Jones movie coming out on May 22nd. That happens to be Davy's birthday, so I think we've just come up with his birthday movie, as well!

So.......on to "Questions & Answers."

Do you have "helpers" for your business or are you a one woman show? (Or..."How the heck do you do all that you do?!")

Posted by: Linda 

Well, for the most part, I run the majority of my business by myself. :) But there are people behind the scenes that play a part in what I do. My husband is great about taking the kids when I do a workshop or if I'm teaching a retreat....or anything else that he needs to watch the kids for. He helps with loading (and unloading) the van. I do get inspirational, technical and business advice from a couple of very trusted friends, as well. And from there on out, it's me. :) I do have plans to have some help with my next BIG Tutorial CD & To-Go Kit (I can't WAIT to make the announcement on that one) so that I can make sure everyone is getting them as quickly as possible.

These two questions go hand in hand:
Were you always good in art? You just seem to have such a natural ability.

Posted by: Melissa Roth

Do you have an art background/education?

Posted by: Cheryl Kelly-Van Domelen   

My background/education in art is not wrapped up in a college degree, but in my mom and dad's encouragement to pursue my creative and artistic side. I actually never went to college. My mom is a very creative person and she was always sewing something for us as kids. She's also a master in the kitchen and was always creating some new recipe. Both my mom and dad are amazing cake decorators. They are artists when it comes to food. Especially my mother. I also come from a line of artists. Two of my great-grandfathers were painters and one of my grandmothers loved to paint, although she really should have pursued it further but never did.

This leads to the next question:

Question, question, question...hmmmm...were you always creative as a child and given lots and lots of encouragement in all of your efforts?

Posted by: Denise

As a child, I LOVED to create. I think much of the encouragement I got at an early age was because my mother was always trying to find something for me to do. We joke about it to this day that I was always coming up to her and asking, "What can I do? What can I have?" I was constantly on the lookout for something to do with my hands. I loved making things. I loved to paint, draw, cross-stitch, glue random things together, play with paper, hand-sew, do bead work, do leather work (and incorporated bead work into it), etc. I vividly remember making my own clothing catalogs as a child. I would staple papers together to create a catalog and then draw out different fashions, complete with sizing and pricing. I would then go around to family members and school mates and get them to "order" from my catalog. I think I'll have to teach my daughter to do that....it's something I think she'd love.

What is the dual embossing technique? I have seen it on many cards and can't figure out how to do it.

Posted by: Amy

I actually did a cool tutorial on this technique, which is often called "Double Resist," last January! Here's the link to it. Enjoy! Double Resist Tutorial

Hope you all have a wonderful and creative New Year!

-Erika

"Questions and Answers Sunday"

It's time for "Questions & Answers Sunday."

I'm still working down the awesome list of questions you all gave me on THIS POST.

So, here goes. :) There's some personal questions and some papercrafting questions both answered. Enjoy!

How many funy, rude, inquisitive, and strange looks do you get when you go out in public with your dreads?

Posted by: Ally Warner

Well, fortunate for me when it comes to that, I live in northern Vermont. There's enough of us dreadheads around that people are used to it. I don't think there's many right around where I live particularly, but I'm not that far from Burlington and Middlebury and it's not uncommon to see us around here and there.

When I go out of state, though, I find that people stare or look at me like I just walked out of a time warp from another decade, but I realize it's because they probably don't see a lot of dreadies around.

I've gotten some pretty funny questions.

A friend asked when I was going to have normal hair again. haha! As if it were fake hair or something. That made me chuckle.

The girl at the register at a craft store yesterday asked me what I have to do if I decide that I don't want them anymore. I told her that I seriously haven't thought about that because I don't plan on getting rid of them. But other people have combed their's out (which takes a lot of patience, time and a pain threshold), cut them part ways up and combed the rest out, cut their hair near the roots or shaved their head completely. She looked at me like it would be something akin to cutting off one of my limbs and wouldn't stop staring at them. HAHA! Considering that she works in Burlington, I know this couldn't be the first time she's seen dreads. It's probably the first time she's ever asked that question, though. ;)

In October, we went to Florida to visit my uncle, aunt and grandmother. I haven't seen my aunt and uncle in over 9 years. I had to laugh when my uncle tugged on my hair when he saw me and said, "What's this rat's nest?" He was messing around, so I took it in good fun.

And speaking of dreads.....here's another question:

My question is about your dreads. (I think they look great on you by the way.) What inspired you to that hairstyle, made you decide to grow them?

Posted by: ~Shelly E.~

My dreads were done in September of 2006....so they've been in for 15 months now. They've been tweaked over time. My mom did the original ones for me but they were too loose. My sister and I re-did many of them a month after. Since then, I really haven't done much to them except to combine a few here and there. In October, though, my sister and I did some heavy maintenance on them. We ripped and cut some apart, rolled and felted some, wrapped others and combined a bunch. They're much happier this way. I have a total of 19 now, where I started out with about 60-ish.

I did them mostly because I hate doing my hair. I've never been one to feel that I need to impress people by the things I wear or by my outward appearance. I'm very much a second generation hippie. My parents grew up in the late 60s and 70s and were very much a bunch of hippies. My family went through a really creepy ultra-conservative cultish legalistic stage (thank GOD they're out of that) and are back to their hippie roots again.

I found that after I had my kids, I was losing a lot of hair. I also found that using shampoos and conditioners on my hair was stripping it of its natural oils. Brushing was also not kind on my hair. I have fine, thin hair to begin with and with all of those things, it was really doing a number on it. I also just LOVE the natural and chaotic look of dreads. It just seems so down to earth and unpretentious to me.

Over the past 15 months, my hair and scalp have become SO healthy. I use an organic and natural soap concentrate that I water down on my hair and roots. I'm not stripping anything out of my hair and my hair has really bulked up. Because I'm not stripping my hair or brushing it, I'm also not losing much either because it's so much more healthy than before. Any hair I DO lose just gets dreaded in. Now, when I pull my hair back, I end up with a pony tail that's 3 times the size it used to be!

There really wasn't a religious or a political reason for having them, just simply an extension of the way I try to live my life.....as free and natural as possible, unhindered by what other people think of me and unhindered by how other people think I should live my life.

One of the things that I didn't quite expect with this journey is that I've gained even more self confidence than I thought I had before. Funny how hair can do that to you. :)

From where do you get inspiration when you are tired or can't get creative???

Posted by: Marcia

I find that a lot of people ask me this question. I think this same thing about other desingers, too. It's always interesting to see how people's creative minds work and where they find their inspiration. I actually wrote a post back in September that described my creative process and where I find my inspiration: My creative process

Thanks for such wonderful ideas! Where do you find the inspirations and the time?

Posted by: karen