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I went to an SU demonstration in Sept. 1997. I bought a set of Christmas stamps, black ink pad, pack of burgandy cardstock, a pack of neutral and watercolor pencils. I never used any of it! I was afraid to mount the stamps and wasn't sure what to do after that, anyway. I left it in the bag and put the bag in my basement.
I was invited to another workshop in July 2003. I loved it this time! Immediately went home and found the bag of stuff in the basement from 6 years before! I haven't stopped since!
Boy--all of you have such clear memories as to how you got started. I'd had stamps around for a long time--my SIL tried to get me into stamping/scrapping back in '97 when I got married. Gave me a book to scrap in and lots of supplies and everything. Never did much with it.
Fastforward about 5 years. My next-door neighbor invited me to a SU! workshop. I had a blast, and booked my own show. I had a great show, with just 4 people there (including my neighbor). I didn't go to another show after mine (which was about 2 years ago). I bought tons stuff and was totally addicted, but could never find the time to go. (So addicted that I bought 2 entire color families of ink pads during sell-a-bration last year just before moving) Then in February, we were getting ready to move from IL to KS. I needed a break, and went with my neighbor (also by this point my stamping buddy and best friend) to a stamp-a-stack with a different demo. Loved it!!
Moved to KS 4/1--bought a ton more stuff from the 2nd demo.
9/1--my best friend signed on as a demo.
10/15--I signed on as a demo and LOVE IT!!!!!
I, too, am addicted and don't want help!!
Jen
P.S.--not sure if my DH is still mad at my friend or not
I had just given birth to my baby, Cassie (who turned 4 on Sept 6) My friend (Now upline) asked me to a party for SU! She signed up to be a demo that night! I kept buying products for her and had a party in 2003 during SAB! I got so many sets for free.
Well, right about that time, my father was going through a Stem-Cell Transplant for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. What a stress- filled time. I started scrapbooking for stress relief and one day my husband says "you should start selling this stuff to pay for what you buy!" And the rest is history.
I am happy to report that Dec 26 was the two-year mark for my father and there is no sign of the Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. His stem-cell transplant was using his own stem cells and it has been a real success! Praise GOD!!
I always had a few stamps and pads around, from when I was in college way back in the dark ages (1969 and on). But I never realized what you could do with them.
Then in spring of 1998 I was introduced to SU! at a party my friend had. They did gold embossing. I was hooked! I liked it even better the more I realized how forgiving it is of mistakes!
Now I'm a hobby demo to support my habit.
__________________ Kathy Wrose "Fun must be always." - Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks "It was fun." - Kirk, Star Trek: Generations
I blame it on the makers of Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade! I was at a party, had a little too much to drink and told a friend that I would go to her SU workshop! I had no interest in it, but I went to the workshop and swore that I would NOT buy anything. I spend $90 and the rest is history. Signed up to be a demo 6 months later. :shock:
I've been stamping since i was 15 years old---- it started one summer when I was recruited to make 500 wedding invitations, thank you cards, and place cards for friends of the family. I was on summer vacation and I learned all about embossing, mulberry paper, layering, ribbons, etc. etc.
Since then, I've let my stamp collections grow, and I've shared stamping with so many of my friends that when I finally went to a Stampin Up party 2 years ago, I signed on as a demonstrator and voila! here I am and still going strong!
It's amazing how the techniques have changed. All there was to do way back in the day was emboss... I've gotten away from that for a few years (and the discovery of SU's great ink pads), but am bringing it back with the projects I 've been working on lately.
So that's my story....you can take a girl out of the stamp store but you can't take the stamp store outta the girl!
__________________ Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.
William Wordsworth
Location: This must be heaven...there are stamps & scrapbooks EVERYWHERE!!!
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Well, for me in was inevitable. I was already seriously into Creative Memories and scrapbooking. I was even selling CM at the time I discovered SU. My former CM Consultant had a SU party, but I was busy that night and thought..."so what...stamping sounds boooooring!" About 3 months later, I saw a thank you card she made after my daughter attended her daughter's birthday party. Then I said "I need to check this stamping thing out". So I went to the SU website, found a demonstrator and hosted a workshop. Needless to say, within a week I had signed up under her as a demo. The rest is as they say....history!!!!
__________________ Noelle
"If God brings you TO it, He will bring you THROUGH it!"
The year I got married (1986) I was at a craft show in a mall and one of the booths had stamps and I bought one with a snowlady and a snowman skiing and I had to have it because I had met my hubby on a ski trip. I used it on our Christmas card envelopes. (I still have the stamp) That was 18 years ago and I'm still stamping. Let me tell you all that it is so easy to find card stock and stamping suppllies now than it was 18 years ago. There was no internet to surf on. I had to rely on office supply stores. You know those ugly ink pads that only came in blue, red, black, or green. That's the only choices I had. Thank goodness I found SU! I've been a demo for 3 years.
This has been so fun to read - everyone's stories are just a hoot!
As for me, my sister was invited to an SU workshop by a co-worker who was a demo and hosting her own party. My sister asked if she could bring me as I was a "sicko" and would buy lots of stuff! I had never heard of SU, didn't know the slightest thing about stamping or scrapbooking. I thought stamps were what you used at work for files and papers and such. :lol: I'd been an avid crafter, but stamps had never crossed the horizon for me.
Anyway, long story short, I LOVED IT at first sight - probably spent the most money of anyone that day. Got all my stuff and hadn't a clue as to where to go from there, but my demo (yes, now my upline!) had stamp camps where I learned lots of new stuff and got even more totally addicted. Signed up as a demo about a year later and am still spending lots of money!! I'm mostly a hobby demo - I share stamp camp duties with another demo (a co-worker I hooked early on - teehee!). Between that and purchases by myself and my sister, I more that keep up with my quarterly!
BTW, my niece (yep, that's her with me in my avatar) is anxiously awaiting her 13th birthday later this month so she can sign up at SCS and start posting. She started stamping with her mom and I and is fabulous (if I do say so myself). She made two beautiful 5x7 scrapbooks for my sister and our mother for Christmas presents - a six-month project that she and I managed to keep a secret from them! Maybe we'll post some of those pages when she's up and running... (do ya think she may be an SU demo-in-training?!).
happy stampin'
__________________ Dana You can never have too many stamping toys.
I started stamping about 2 years ago after a fire in our home. I went out shopping for new bedroom stuff, and next to the Bed Bath & Beyond there was a new store opening, and it was an Archivers. I went in (to be honest, I was quite depressed after the fire and would take just about any opportunity to wander around aimlessly and get lost in other things)...anyways, I went in and they were doing a grand opening special. I did some stample stuff and they gave out bags of goodies. I even bought a few things and went home and played with them. It was in one of the magazines that I picked up that I discovered Stampin' Up and the wonderful person who became my upline. It is funny, I saw a card in this magazine andcalled SU, asked for demos in my area. Susan was the first one to respond and she was having a open house. I went and the rest is history, but to this day, I have not even made the card or bought the stamps that they used on the one I originally called about.
I went to my sister-in-laws for a stampin up workshop and told myself i wasn't going to get into it. Well, when I saw what it was, I thought i hit the motherload!!! I wanted it ALL at that moment! The rest is history!!
Last May or June I was selling CM and a fellow CM consultant showed me a mini catalog from SU because it had a ladybug stamp in it (I love ladybugs) she told me that she had a friend that was a demo, I later tried to get ahold of the fellow CM consultant to get a catalog from her friend, I got tired of not hearing back so I got on the SU website and found a demo near me. I emailed her and told her I was interested in getting a catalog, I got the catalog and went home and had no idea where to start, I loved everything but had no clue how to use it. I emailed her the next day and asked if anyone was having a party I could come to and she told me I could come to her house and she would show me things...I again loved it all, I spent $180 and have never looked back. I think what has really increased my interest though has been the stamp camps she offers every month and the things I see on this website. I love all of the ideas.
By the way I think the ladybug set was little layers and I still have never bought it!!!
__________________ My avatar is my adorable niece, she makes me smile, thought she might make you smile too!!
Believe it or not I asked for this!!! :twisted: I love all things crafty, a friend was going to a SU workshop & I BEGGED to go with her. :? Went saying 'I'm not going to get sucked into this like I did scrapbooking!' A year later I'm enjoying it so much!!!
__________________ As we slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way!
I have a friend who lives in Japan as a missionary and she introduced me to Stampin' Up! I resisted until after my Sister-in-law signed up as a demo and I got jealous because she got to meet so many new people and I wanted to do that! Now I am a demo and she has dropped but we both stamp and I got to go to Japan for a month and homeschool my friend's children while she had brain surgery and stamp with her children!!!
one of my best friends is my demo. I met her through Partylite and she sold me name stamps.
Then I was talking to her aobut my need to scrpbook more and I decided to have a scrap/stamp party. She hooked me in the first day. Now I have sucked others into SU with me. LOL :twisted:
I'm an old stamper! I don't think I have ever met a craft I didn't like, and remember as a child (long years ago), my mother having some type of stamps that we used at the holidays. When my children were little (baby is going to be 30), I bought stamps for them to play with. The really large ones! I have been using SU for about 6 years. I had a friend at work who made me a card for my birthday. She showed me the caddie, and the rest is history! I can't wait to start the granddaughter (21 months) on crafting!
Back when I got hooked, the gals at the office where I worked used to joke around about our "addiciton". We used to joke and say that were were just like the mouse in the book, "If you give a mouse a cookie...." we were/ are the mouse - we just ahve to have MORE!
My husband has been very supportive of my "habit". He's a woodworker, so my "tools of the trade" are much cheaper than his!
One of my favorite things to do now is show "nonstampers" the art of stamping and watch them get hooked too! :lol:
Jen
__________________ Jen
Phillipians 4:6-7
a little bit of Sarainty.
I have a friend that wanted to find a hobby, to stir her mind from the casinos, one of the parents of child I watch in my home day care is an SU demo, and was having a workshop in her home, we went together, I was just going to suppot this other friend, I bought about $75 to $100, and could not wait for it to come, we hit hobby lobby, micheals, WI craft market and JoAnn's checking the papers for weeekly deals. Well then I was tellign my mom and sister about it, this was all in August 2004, I have probably spent $125 a month on supplies and SU orders, so after taking to my demo, and finding out about the free sets and discounts with sell-a-bratiosn and throughout the year, I decided to sign up, I mailed in my paperwork on January 4th, and my kit is secheduled to arrive tomorrow, I was really hoping for today, but my house was soooooo crazy that I would not be able to do anything with it until later anyways.
Katie
__________________
"Someone is always doing what somebody else said couldn't be done."-Anonymous
"Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing well those you do hold."-Josh Billings
My SU story - a co-worker of mine had a demo at her house, I went and bought the markers since I did not think I would use any of the other stuff very often. A year or two later our favorite baby sitters mom invited me to a party and I went, it was MaryBeth's first show as a demo - well - she must have the touch .... I cannot count how many stamp sets, supplies, stamp camps, stampin evenings I have been to since. I think I have 5 or 6 SU catalogs so I guess that is at least 5-6 demos at my house.
I now even get stampin supplies from relatives, my husband gave me a large dollar bill with Santa in the middle and on the bottom was written MaryBeth bucks and enclosed were actual dollars to spend.
So that is my story - here I sit with a cat on my arm when I should be in the shower...getting the clothes in the dryer...cleaning the house before I get the kids to ECFE and school and to the doctor.....
__________________ Kyloe
The lesson from Charlie Brown: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.
Hey Chillin, I also got into SU because of a fire!!! The house next door to us caught on fire in the middle of the night. We were awoken at 2:15 by another neighbor calling on the phone telling us to get out off our house. It was a chemical fire(dirty oily rags spontaneously combusted in their garage) so there was a lot of explosions, popping. Thankfully everyone in that house got out safely. Needless to say we were up all night!! Anyway I went to my first SU party that evening. I had to take the kids w/me(don't remember where husband went) so we were all exhausted. I couldn't stay long at the party b/c my kids were starting to "hit their brick walls". I was just amazed by the samples there though & couldn't believe you could make all those cute things. Anyway I bought a sampler kit my upline had put together & booked a party then left to put the kids to bed!!! I say I was delirious that night & now I'm still delirious with SU!!!!
I went to my first SU! party a few months after I got married. My husband's aunt was having a workshop and his Grandma invited (*read pressured) to go. I was amazed!! I booked my first workshop and the rest was history!! Ironically, none of my husband's family is actually into stamping. Talk about God stepping in with a plan!
I started out as a scrapbooker 7 1/2 years ago when my son was born. I didn't know anything about CM or scrapbooking at all. I just knew I needed a book with space for pictures and journaling. I bought my stuff at a local scrapbook store, and soon started branching out to more decorative ideas. Later on, my sister in law told me how much she liked CTMH albums, so I looked somebody up and went to see. I was not really impressed, but sort of intrigued. Then when Stampin' Up came out with the Stampin' Memories catty a friend of mine called me to tell me about it, because she knew I was a scrapbooker. I flipped for that catalog!! I just couldn't get over how well everything coordinated...the cardstock, ink and designer paper...not to mention the alphabet stamps!! My demo tried and tried to get me to sign up, and when I picked out almost $800 worth of stuff, I don't know why I didn't. I didn't sign up until August of 2003 when there was a discount on the kit.
I love making cards now, too, but I'm still primarily a scrapbooker.
This is fun reading all of these posts!!
About three years ago, my friend said she had something really neat to show me. She had just returned from visiting her best friend back home & learned how to emboss. Well when I saw that I was hooked. At the time her SIL was a demo for Stampendous. Well the stamps are not a nice as Stampin up! I went to a demo for SU & was hooked!! Not sure if I am demo material yet...
I was invited to a party and had to have everything!!! At the time I was a CM consultant and had been for 6 years (thought I would never leave CM) I knew after the party I had to be a demo! I signed up and that was the best thing I ever did. I could never get anyone interested in having a CM show EVERYONE wants to have a SU party! I love it and the $$$$$
