WOYWW 72 – the one without the snappy title

I’m very glad we have WOYWW. Without it, Wednesday would pass by in a blur and get forgotten. We’d also find ourselves saying “OMG, where HAS the month gone”, rather than “OMG, where HAS the week gone”. Vitally important, that. We all think it’s making the weeks go by really fast but in actual fact it’s punctuating the month quite nicely, thank you very much, and slowing time down a tad.

OK, I’ve waffled enough. You don’t want to hear my mad ramblings….. hmmmm….I’ve heard that somewhere before…. *ROFLMAO*

We’re here for one thing and one thing only. Our illustrious, standing-in-for-Shopkeeper-Gal, Julia has this fab blog HERE where you will find out more about the wonder that is WOYWW. Go see. No, don’t go see, not yet anyway…. Heheheh

I think I’m playing a game with you guys without realising it. It’s called “see if you can work out what has changed on my desk this week….” The study books are still there but the CJ is actually open (*can I just add that it's not my entry page - didn't want to spoil the surprise for Alison, whose CJ it is, so am showing her own page!). We now also have the addition of a new storage box for my paltry collection of Copics (Silly Monkey Crafts has them on special at the mo, so I’m trying to work out how to extend my collection a little…..) and you might just spy a Joanna Sheen stamp of a lilac. This is for use in the CJ. I’ve been decidedly tardy in getting that one out in the post! To cap it all, the stamps I was originally going to use have also been used on the first page, and Mr B was cross with me for wanting to use the same ones. So – horror of horrors, hardship of hardships *snigger* – I’ve had to buy some NEW stamps to use. I’ll use the original one as well, but I need to modify it somewhat….

I have also figured that if I’m to use that button over there to the right… yes, that one, the one that says “Major Stamp Addiction”, I ought to put my money where my mouth is and show you guys what gives me the right to use it.

Voila.

In almost all these drawers (what’s that, 16?) there are stamps. Rubber stamps, acrylic stamps, see through stamps, un-mounted, wood mounted, kling on and EZ mounted. Wheels and medallions, borders and corners, cute and artsy – you name it. But it’s not all of them, no siree! There’s also, lurking somewhere, a postcard album filled with my un-mounted celtic knotwork stamps. As you can see, a real addiction. I tried counting them once. Did a rough guesstimate. And didn’t dare tell my then husband that it was somewhere in the region of 500. That was 4/5 years ago….. oops. Admittedly, some of them are TINY. Like the Stamp Tapestry peg stamps (got about 4 sets of those…..). So what would you do? Count them individually, or as a set? After all, I do use them individually on other projects where I don't use the whole set...

I’m a big fan of getting as much as you can for as little outlay as poss. Like buying medieval tile stamps from The Stampsmith – a WHOLE A4 sheet of them, about 25 stamps…. Cool….. I rarely buy wood mounted stamps these days – I simply cannot justify spending ten quid on a stamp when I can get a whole sheet of them for that. It has to be REALLY special (or a Hollyberry House medallion) for me to splurge like that!

The drawers themselves are labelled according to theme, but I think I’m in need of a bit of a sort out. "Miscellaneous", for example, is bursting at the seams – I need to create a new drawer for “Architectural” for a start. The one labelled “Fauna” may well need to be divided up into “Animals” and “Winged Creatures”. But under those circumstances, where would I stick the dragons? In “Fantasy” or “Winged Creatures”. The mind boggles….

And whilst we are on the subject of storage of stamps, as you can see from my medieval drawer (below) , my weapon of choice used to be the flat Ferrero Rocher boxes. They are the perfect depth for wood mounted stamps, and stack quite nicely too. They also hold a lot of UMs. I have more of those than I really want to admit to, though I will say that my post -Christmas gift from Mum used to include a stack of them she’d rounded up from her friends.

My fave companies? Anything with a decent Angel policy, for a start (hear that, Hero Arts?). But actual companies – Third Coast Rubber are top of my list. Stampsmith, Clarity, Crafty Individuals, Paper Artsy, Magnolia, Sarah Kay, De Stempelwinkel, Katzelkraft…..I could go on, and on, and on…. Which manufacturers always make you reach for your bank card without too much hesitation?

OK, that’s it. You can go now…… See you around!