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I am in a stamper 10 club where I'm obligated to spend $15 every month. I made a NY's resolution that I would only spend $15 and NOT buy stamps with it so I can stick with my budget. So for January I bought only CS and ink pads. I am dying to purchase IFB...but it's over the $15 I promised to myself.
Do I break my resolution??? :twisted:
UGH! Is IFB REALLY that great? (please tell me it's the worst stamp set you have ever owned)
Others may respond differently, but I bought IFB thinking what a grand set it was............I rarely use it, I prefer 2 step stampin flowers much more.
If I had to do over, I personally would spend the money on something else, just my 2..........
I haven't bought it. I've looked at it and looked at it, and ... I don't get why so many people love it. I usually love flower stamps, but there's something about that light "sketchy" style that I just don't like. I've seen things made with it that are GREAT, but ... I just don't like the set. To me it looks like ... a practice version. Like, the artist was drawing some flowers, and kinda thinking aloud ... and someone grabbed the drawings and made some stamps before the designs were ready.
If **YOU** aren't in love with it ... don't buy it. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's right for you .... something I've had to keep reminding myself.
I just don't see what all the hype is about. I really don't care for this set at all. I say, unless you can't live another day without it, save for something you love. Or...can you combine two months together to get it? Just a thought...
Whenever I've HAD to buy something (yeah, I've been there, HAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHA) but don't want to buy stamps, I pick a new accessory or something, something that I can play with and learn something new to add to the stamps I already have.
To round up an order I placed recently (had to get to $50, you know ...), I bought some window sheets. Never used 'em, but I know I can make some awesome cards with them.
I tell my downline that they are free to borrow any of my sets for a week to "get it out of their system". THere are certain sets that you just want to play with for a while and will probably not use again. You can save a lot of money if you have someone to borrow from and just get the sets that you will use over and over. Another idea is to adapt the wonderful samples that you love to a different set that you already have.
I LOVE this set!!! If you don't want to buy it right away, let me know & I'll stamp off some images for you so you can see if it's really your set. I've started doing that & then I get a chance to see if I really want it, like it, etc.
Since you have to spend $15 each month, maybe you could make a deal with another club member. She could spend $30 one month, you none. Then you could save and spend $30 the next month, her none. If you really, really want the set, find a way to buy it.
Personally, I have never liked the set. I can't stand all the little dots! Strange I know... I love what everyone does with it, but it just isn't for me.
Good luck with your decision.
C
__________________ "We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin
Since you have to spend $15 each month, maybe you could make a deal with another club member. She could spend $30 one month, you none. Then you could save and spend $30 the next month, her none. If you really, really want the set, find a way to buy it.
Personally, I have never liked the set. I can't stand all the little dots! Strange I know... I love what everyone does with it, but it just isn't for me.
Good luck with your decision.
C
Great idea...never thought of that! I really do want it and it's totally my style, but am having a hard time justifying my 'need' for it! LOL
I still have a couple of weeks before I have to decide...but I like to browse through the catalog and 'dream' about what I want!
I personally don't really care for the set either, and I think that in the type of club you are in, yourprobably cant do 2 months at one time because the benefits would have to go to 2 different people. otherwise I would say to do that also.
__________________ I'm a loser ~ 19.2 pounds gone...lots more to go!
I personally looooooooooove this set... I love to watercolor and it is perfect for that. I have used it quite a few times since I got it in my starter kit last week
I WAS a "what's all the hype about this set" girl. Then....I got it 2 months ago with a hostess benefit....I figured it was free, I'd try it. Since the catty came out I didn't LOVE it, but now....now that I have it.....I USE IT ALL THE TIME! I LOVE IT! I kick myself for not getting it earlier. It is so versitile! You can make it cutesy or classy. LOVE IT!!!
If you want someone to talk you OUT of buying it, I'm not that girl. If you want someone to talk you IN to buying it, I AM that girl. I love my IFB set. I use it more than any other.
__________________ Jess Don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big your God is!
If you want someone to talk you OUT of buying it, I'm not that girl. If you want someone to talk you IN to buying it, I AM that girl. I love my IFB set. I use it more than any other.
I have it, I like it, but don't feel like I've really given it a "workout" yet. It's great with H2Os.
Is there any other "splurge" in your budget you could give up to make up the $10 difference? Like a Starbucks habit? One or two fast food trips? A couple magazines to forgo? Maybe that way you could find the room in your budget and not feel bad.
You won't enjoy the set as much if you feel guilty about it.
Stick to your budget! You'll feel better about it if you do! But if you love the set and it's your style, try to make the deal that someone else posted: see if another member of the group will spend $30 one month and you can spend $30 the next. That way you won't be breaking your budget! Sticking to the budget is more important than stamps (and I LOVE stamps!)
If you wait until July and still want it then you will know that you love it and are not just buying it on a whim. Just a thought. I think Sunf1ower is right. You will feel better about sticking to your resolution. But I must say it is a tough one to skick to. $15 doesn't go very far. Maybe you should set a more realistic goal for yourself if you can afford it, then you will have a better chance of hanging in there and feeling success rather than failure. I know when I don't keep a resolutin I feel kinda bad about myself so I try not to make them sooo hard to keep. Just my.02
Personally, I LOVE this set. I have tons of great sets, but I always go back to IFB. No matter what I do, it turns out beautiful.
Now...one thing to think about is that it has to be colored, so you will need to have watercolor pencils, or markers, or lots of different colors of ink with a blender pen or aquapen. If you have any of those accessories, I would think you will love this set.
Good luck with your decision! Isn't it fun to have so many choices???
:lol: Alicia
You might be able to put out a request in the Buy/Sell/Trade section & see if someone would trade their IFB for something that you have. Then you wouldn't be breaking your resolution & you could spend the $15 on accessories.
I bought it and I have NEVER made anything with it. I sat down and tried but nothing was comming to me. I'm more into images that don't require so much coloring.
Joy
With it being Sell a Bration, could you host a "catalog party" with friends who are not in your stamp club, and then use those hostess bennies to get the set? It would only take a $250 party to get enough hostess dollars to pay for it, and then you'd also get a hostess set.
If that doesn't work, come to know the wonders of brand x mac & cheese. At my grocery store it's only 35 cents a box, and it feeds the three of us for a meal. It'd only take, like, 7 days in a row of nothing but cheap-o mac & cheese (and maybe a can of tuna for protein?) and you'd have that puppy paid for outta your grocery funds! Hah! I'm kidding of course, but it makes you think...
I think it is a great set. I looked at it for a time and then finally at bought and love it. I did the same thing with the Stipple Shells and finally got that at my last party and really like that one too.
My demo used this set at our stamp club last summer. I am not an impulse buyer (I think and worry about what sets to buy ALL the time!), but I bought IFB the very same day.
I don't use it much, but it's one of the sets I'll keep forever (well, a long time anyway ). I agree with others: it's versatile. And, I've seen a lot of beautiful cards that AREN"T watercolored...
I keep a list of "want stamps"... each month, I review the list and often I take some sets off and put others on. I say hold out until your hostess month... by then, you'll know if you really have to have it, or if it's just a 'passing fancy'.
I agree with everyone who says wait. It is a very nice set, but I rarely use mine, and with it's popularity, there will be ample time to purchase it later. You will feel so much better about yourself by sticking to your resolution, than the momentary joy you get from receiving the stamps. Plus, if you do it once, it seems to open the floodgates to "well, just one more time" at least it does for me.
Or, you could just buy the matching wheel. I know it doesn't quite offer the flexibility the stamp set does, but you can do a lot of different things with it too. It might give you enough taste of wether you would really use the whole set or not. Then buy, it in July with your hostess benefits!
My DH gives me a monthly "Craft supplies" allowance. Once my allowance is spent - its gone until next month. However, we did come up with a bit of a "compromise". I am terrible about not using coupons. So, in order to encourage me to use coupons, he lets me have 75% of what I save with the coupons to use as I please. Well, this has made me use coupons like mad.
Maybe you can do something like this to justify spending the extra $$$, and still not really go back on your resolution.
Do you have someone's birthday coming up that you would spend $$$ on? If you purchased the set & made them note cards, etc. then you wouldn't have to spend additional money on their gift, you've used the set.
Is there anyone else in your club perhaps that would be gracious enough to let you borrow the same set so you can make a few cards. I can relate to the feeling you are having right now. I have a wonderful friend though who lets us borrow her stamps so we can save money. This is really gracious of her specially because she is an "SU Manager". Can you go that route? Now, if you still want the "IFB" set once you have finished those cards then just go ahead and buy it! You will know for sure that this set needs to be in your collection, and it won't be sitting around on the shelf collecting dust forever.
Thanks for all the suggestions! But I think I got my answer this morning when I looked at my checking acct online...a big fat overdraft fee . Ironically enough the fee is about the same price as the IFB set. :?
I guess I will wait as it will probably be in the new catalog in July because its so popular.
What's a girl to do?
