Newbie?

Your welcome, and I hope to see you posting more, either here, OR there! Take care, Arleen

Cindy,

Welcome! I have been watching this group for almost a year, but have seen less than ten non-advertisement threads in that entire time (not taking into account the times I went for a while without checking in). I started stamping about three years ago. I don't scrapbook, but I do make cards - lots and lots of cards!

I am always happy to correspond with fellow stampers. If you start a thread with questions or a topic to discuss, maybe we can draw some people out and start making the newsgroup more active!

Barbara

Hi everyone, I've been lurking as well, and thought I'd pop up and say hello. I've been collecting stamps for a few years, but haven't done much stamping, and would love to learn more. Recently I moved, and decided to try displaying all my stamps in a small media bookcase from Target, although I think I need another one, since I have so many -- especially smaller stamps. I recently started buying unmounted stamps, and am figuring out how I want to organize those. I would like to store them in a binder, with another binder as a reference (have pages on themes, and stamp on those pages, so I can quickly see what I have). We'll see.

Anyways, I hope this group gets more active. I have a feeling there's quite a few of us just waiting for something other than ads being posted.

Jeannette

There was a time when the newsgroup was full of interesting discussions about stamps and stamping - check the Google Groups archives and you'll see what I mean.

Over time, though, the regular contributors got drowned out by the ads ... and bored with answering the same questions over and over. And to be honest, I think the general interest in stamping has tapered off quite a bit from what it was just a few years ago. The few stamping stores in my area have gone out of business or switched over to a scrapping emphasis (nothing wrong with scrapping, but not all stdampers are scrappers, or vice versa).

I still have more than a thousand stamps and all the accoutrements down in my studio, but I confess that I hardly touch them these days unless I need to make a quick card or something. I've taken up knitting, and these days my disposable income goes for yarn and patterns rather than stamps and ink and paper.

The best way to revive a newsgroup is to ask questions and start discussions. If they're interesting enough, I imagine folks will come out of the woodwork again.

Jeannette,

A suggestion when you are organizing your binder - if a stamp could go in more than one category, put it in the category you'll likely think of first. Then stamp the image and put the image in each of the other possible categories, and say "see......" For example, if you have a cute duckling. Put the actual stamp in animals. But then also put a stamped image in "baby" and write under it "see Animals."

Do you use the EZ mount system? I've been debating purchasing that system.

Barbara

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll probably will start working on the index binder in a month or so. I hope to make it as fun as possible, playing with some different techniques and colors. I plan to organize the actual stamps by manufacturer, if possible.

Yes, I am using the EZ Mount system, and so far I like it. I started buying some stamps from unmountedcentral.com and their stamps already have the EZ Mount foam on, and Ijust had to buy some acrylic handles. The EZ Mount is easy, and I don't have to worry about velco or double stick tape.

Jeannette

Oh what a good idea! I didn't really orginze my stamps, just stamped away in a binder.......(hanging head thinking of the daunting task of re-stamping/orginzing my images.....)