I have to confess, that I have a stamping disease I have not revealed to you yet, you who have heard about all my OTHER stamping diseases. But this one is so shame-making, so hideous, that I hesitated to reveal it to you.
It is called Stamper's Postal Avoidance Syndrome (SPAS for short, pronounced SPAZ). Some of you may have this same disease; it consists of the inability to actually MAIL the cards you stamp to anyone!
Remember before you were a stamper? 'Member that? How you would actually (excuse me while I try to control my gag reflex) BUY cards? And send them in time for people to receive them? 'Member?
I do! I used to send cards to people UNTIL after I started creating them myself. Oh, I didn't come down with SPAS immediately; my first cards went out on time because I was so EXCITED about them!
But then, oh, then...the rot set in. Since I didn't have to...ack..BUY cards anymore, but could make them anytime I wanted to, I would put off making them, often until it was too late to get them in the mail on time. So I was left with the classic conundrum all people with SPAS have:
Do I:
- Send the card late?
- Not send the card at all?
As you can imagine, the second choice is the one that people with SPAS often choose! And pretty soon it moves on to the second stage of the disease:
- Do I bother to make a card at all since it will only get there late?
As a result, people with SPAS end up with a stock pile of cards, usually of a general nature, that when they look at them to see if one will suit their mother or their best friend, they will cry, "Oh, gee...NONE of these cards are right! I should make a card just for them with those stamps I just bought! Really!" And then they don't. So they don't send ANYTHING.
But there is hope for us with SPAS: recently I've founded a new society for those with my disease! It's called Stamper's Postal Avoidance Syndrome Sufferers Totally In Control, or SPASSTIC for short! Our society is devoted to learning how to control our SPAS so that we actually mail cards out for the occasions that we used to, on time! In every way, every day, I am getting better and better, I tell ya!
Our society has a creed which we follow, called the 2 Point Plan for Perfectly Postal Projects:
- Make a card.
- Send a card.
That's it! Make a card, send a card. Simple, no? We call it "gettin' postal wiv ya". In that spirit, since Father's Day approacheth and since it takes 2 days for a card to get from here to Kalamazoo, I had to take a break from my SU! current virgin rubbah and visit some retired SU! virgin rubbah; specifically a set I bought a couple of years ago with the idea I could make cards for my in-laws and my dad called The Back Nine. And in the course of things, it retired without ever having seen ink. But it is virgin no longer! I made two cards this morning! Lookie:
Ingredients: Stamps - The Back Nine (retired), Twill, Thoughts of Father; Paper - Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Naturals White, So Saffron, Ballet Blue; Ink - Stazon Jet Black, Craft Basic Black, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red; Other- Keytag punch, Detail Black EP, Ruby Red Stitched Grosgrain (retired), Vintage Brads, dimensionals, sponge wedges, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, aquapainter, Basic Black marker.
Is it not GOJUS?!?!?! (YILM!) This is one intimidating stamp to watercolor, because you have to sort out what the different parts of the montage are and make decisions on what colors should go where so you can actually make sense of the image.
I am LOVING this new Twill background that I got fairly recently. It was something I threw on an order to make it to hostess level. I was peeved, originally, when I saw it in the catalog because as a weaver (a former hobby, which can lead to talk of a totally DIFFERENT disease dealing with not being able to ever get rid of old hobby stuff, but I digress..), I knew that twill is a cloth with a diagonal pattern and this pattern is not diagonal. But I stamped with it and I really love the texture, don't you?
This card is for my dad, who has recently taken up golf again after a hiatus of a number of years. Originally, he quit because he was frustrated with his game. My dad doesn't do anything if he can't do it well. He's very good at lots of things, but if he doesn't do something to his own exacting standards he won't do it at all...and they wonder where I get that...LOL!
I loved the color combo so much that I came up with all on my ownsome, that I repeated it for my father-in-law's card:
Ingredients: Stamps - The Back Nine (retired), Sanded, Thoughts of Father; Paper - Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Naturals
White, So Saffron, Ballet Blue, Ruby Red; Ink - Stazon Jet Black, Basic
Black (craft & classic), More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red; Other- Word Window punch, Detail
Black EP, Ruby Red Stitched Grosgrain (retired), Vintage Brads, sponge wedges, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, aquapainter, Basic Black marker.
Again, GOJUS!!! (YILM!) My father-in-law is a really nice guy...and I have been really bad about remembering to send him Father's Day cards and birthday cards...oh the TOLL this disease has taken on my personal relationships!!! Oh, the HUMANITY!!!

I'm happy to report that the cards are in the mail! Oh, and I had to make special sentiments inside for each one. My father-in-law's has your standard corny greeting:
But my dad's required a joke, since my family loves funny cards:
Trust me...he'll love it (and so will my mom...really!!)
Now, for those of you who wish to join SPASSTIC, I am still working out the initiation requirements, how much chocolate you need to send me, and so on. In the meantime, I promise to go on to the next set on the list for the Stampin' Up! Uninked Rubbah Blitz! Stay tuned!