There once was a young stud named Jim. Jim was single and independent, but he was also lonely. Young Stud Jim had recently relocated to a new town to get a fresh start in a booming industry when a very special young maiden (we'll call her Mercedes) caught his eye. After many "chance" encounters and passing sessions of small talk, Jim could tell that he was starting to attract the lovely lady's attention as well. As the days and weeks passed, "small talk" turned into hours of conversation and "chance encounters" turned into many "dinner and a movie"s. As weeks turned into months, Young Stud Jim continued to spend as much time as possible with his newfound sweetheart. The activity didn't matter; whether it was sitting in traffic during a commute, sneaking in to her workplace on the weekend, or giving her rides to and from night classes at the local community college, Jim was happy when he was with her.
One day, Mercedes said that she wouldn't see him that night. She had made plans to go with her coworker to a "rubber stamping party." Jim wasn't sure what that really meant, especially since "rubber stamping" and "party" weren't typically heard together in the same context, but he knew that he wanted to be there too. After all, a party's a party, and if it meant being with his dream girl then it was a win-win. So they went together but it turned out to not be much of a "party." There wasn't music and dancing. I don't even think there was food. It turned out to just be a few ladies sitting around a table playing with paper and rubber stamps and making cards. Oh and when the cards were made and Jim thought that they would leave, the catalogs came out. Which in turn brought the "oohs" and "ahhhs." Which in turn brought out the checkbooks. And a hobby was born.
The "parties" changed to "Make n' Takes" which then turned into "classes" and month after month Mercedes would go the the same house and sit in the garage and stamp away. And of course Jim would be at her side. Eventually the "classes" turned into something called a "Stamp n' Chat." From that point on, the third Thursday of the month became a rush to create, cut, and present a project that was suitable to impress the group. When the babies came, Jim would continue to tag along to help both of them have piece of mind that babies were fed and diapers were changed in a timely manner. Eventually the honeymoon was over, and Mercedes started to drive away alone, leaving Jim to fend for himself with the little ones.
Now years were passing and Jim would reminisce over the good old days when he and Mercedes would stamp in the lady's garage. He would feel the rush of excitement on the third Thursday when there would be a whirlwind of paper cutting and exclamations of "I'm so late" before he would look out the window to see the tail lights of the minivan as Mercedes would drive off without him. Alas, he longed for the days of the Stamp n' Chat...
One day Mercedes reminded Jim that her Stamp n' Chat was next week. As usual, a tear started to drip from his eye, his smile turned to a frown, and he started pleading his case for her not to go. This time, he tried the "I have to work late" excuse, but since her mother had moved in and the babies had turned into kids, this reasoning had lost all of it's power. But this time, instead of her normal "I'm going and you'll be fine" reply, he heard something wonderful. Something he thought he would never hear again. And it brought a tear of joy rather than sorrow: "Do you want to come with me?" And Jim was happy again.
:-)
So coincidentally, I recently got invited to my wife's monthly Stamp n' Chat! And much like the Jim of our story, I too was swept up on Thursday with the last minute paper cutting, shouts of "We're so late," and the thrill of hoping that the ladies would like my card. Here's what I made for the group:
I drew my inspiration from the Yee-Haw stamp set. The rustic look of the Baked Brown Sugar thick baker's twine and the Craft cardstock complimented the stamp set perfectly. All ink was Soft Suede and the background texture is Woodgrain, and the Star Strip was part of the Irresistibly Yours DSP using an emboss resist technique.
Hope you enjoyed and thanks for hangin' out. I'll be back in a few days with a sketch challenge from Can You Case It? so I hope you come back to check it out and play along!
