The Origins of Hobbies

I didn't mean to become a crafty,card making, rubberstamp-happy embosser! Truly I didn't.
It all started like this...

About a year ago I was despairing because of my lack of talents.
Now, don't get me wrong - I've been blessed the same as everyone else - everyone has some little talent. But my talents aren't the ones that are generally lauded. In short, I don't play an instrument and I don't sing.

To be honest, I do play with a number of musical instruments, but I'm too busy - make that too lazy - to practice, so no glory there. Furthermore there are nations (and probably planetary systems) which have strict laws against me ever attempting to sing within their boundaries.
Therefore, as far as anyone is concerned, I am talentless.

Just as I was planning on a good ice cream nosh to drown my talentless despair, a friend at work asked me if I'd like to buy his camera. A really nice camera. A REALLY nice camera.

If you're lucky you too have a friend like this - he always owns the latest and greatest of everything. And once he buys the latest, if you're in the right place at the right time, you may get a killer deal on a fabulous toy as he sells you his old one. And so I became the owner of a well cared for Canon EOS 10D. Lovely camera - I can't tell you how much fun it is!

Starting that weekend I became a photoholic. I was out and about the neighborhood, taking pictures of everything. Pretty soon it became apparent that I needed a really good lens. My friend had given me a so-so Sigma as part of the package, and he'd warned me that it wasn't a very good lens. He was right. Thusmy quest to sink several paychecks into Canon "L" series glass began. *sigh*

Suddenly I had not only a lighter wallet and a camera bag full of wonderfully expensive hardware, but I also began to have some really rather nice pictures. I was so proud!!


Now - what do you do when you find you have a bit of a budding talent? Hiding it under a bushel is forbidden, no? So I tried to think of ways to show off my fabulous pictures without making it look like I was showing off.

TaDa! The perfect idea hit me - make personalized cards!
In truth, I'm not a very good correspondent. Email is my best friend, it's the only way my poor mother ever hears from me. But I have been known to give out Thank You notes and Birthday cards… so I trotted down to the craft store and bought some cream colored cards and envelopes and a glue stick.

My first attempts looked pretty good, but I was hoping for something with a bit more panache. What I'd really wanted was a card with an embossed edge, to set off my lovely pictures, and since I couldn’t find any to buy I thought I'd make my own.

Years ago (way back in high school) I'd dabbled in calligraphy and had done a bit of embossing at the same time, using those nicely made brass stencils, but for the life of me I couldn't find a brass stencil in any store! Finally I found some on eBay.
However … the same people who were selling the stencil also were selling a nice selection of stamping inks for a really good price, and there's be no shipping charge since I was already paying for the stencil…

Yes, you see the pattern - now I have inks, but no stamps. Well, the craft store had some of those new clear gel stamps for very cheap, so I grabbed a pack. Yep. You see it coming.

Suffice it to say that I now own rubber and clear stamps, embossing powder, a heat gun, glue dots, foam standoffs, envelope patterns and fancy paper in every imaginable shape and form. But I can't claim this as a talent!

There are so many ladies in my church who are amazing scrapbookers/cardmakers, and I can tell you that I certainly don't play in the same league. So I'd decided to just have some fun and making a few cards.

The sad thing is -
I haven't touched my camera in a month.