Sweet Stamp Memories

6/18
Jo Knowles
Monday Writing Warm-up

"For today's prompt, share a memory of working on a project with someone you love. What was the project? Why were you working on it? Why was it important, or why did it become important? What did you talk about while you worked? What did the materials feel like in your hands? Smell like? Were you physically exhausted? Emotionally? Show us why this memory is important to you."

Stamping Sisters

"Can you hand me the corner rounder?" Rounded corners often make the card or picture; it softens it to blend in with the colors surrounding it for a more finished card or scrapbook page.

My two daughters-in-law and their friends once met monthly to create personalized cards and family scrapbooks for our loved ones. Life happens, and we aren't as connected any more, but Stacy and I plan to get together again this summer for a stamping marathon.

Stacy and Autumn often provided the place, opening up their homes for our Stamp Club.  They rearranged things for plenty of space for people, stamps, and kids, and their homes became our hobby shop.

The kitchen and dining room tables and sometimes a card table held all of our stamps, ink, paper, tools, and accessories, spread out to share.

We had our favorite flavors: The vibrant colors of summer in watermelon, clover meadow, and star-spangled blue, the subdued flavors of fall in pansy purple, sunflower, and outdoor denim, the holiday joy colors in cranberry, ponderosa pine, and moonstruck, or the soft spring delights of orchid bouquet, kiwi, and sunkiss yellow.

We carefully cut the colored cardstock into pages, cards, backgrounds, and highlights. We stamped the perfect words and designs to match the personality of the recipient and the thought of the celebration. We pushed through complementary colored brads and wired beads for just the write touch.

The grandkids joined us with their own stamping pads, markers, and paper, creating along side us. In and out to play and stamp, they chattered and scampered and created.

We sipped water, pop, and tea, and took time for shared food: cheese dips, dill dips, lazagne, spinach salads, rice and ham salads. Yum.

We continued the marathon stamping, breathing in the sweet aroma of chocolate brownies baking in the oven. Brownies, our staple.

We talked about kids and kids' games and kids' teeth and, yeah: Moms and Grandmas talk about kids. We gabbed about TV shows and movie stars. We planned recipes. We shared funny stories and sad stories. We laughed at our mistakes. We hugged the kids and oohed over their creations, truly proud they would join us.

Our stamp club mentor taught us new tricks, and we bought more, gladly adding and sharing our collections, and adding to each other's ideas.

Sometimes these days were the calm in the chaos of our lives, and we treasured the time together, time for ourselves, and yet time to create memories and celebrations for friends and family.

We rounded the corners of our lives on these special days. Our cards and scrapbooks let us "scatter seeds of kindness" to those we love.

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Your turn: What project sticks with you? Re-read Jo's prompt and live the project again, sharing the time in detail.