Art supplies

I guess I now consider myself an enthusiastic stamper.

It all started with a trip to Art Scraps to gather supplies for an upcoming craft project.  Art Scraps Reuse Store is part of Art Start, a local nonprofit arts education organization.  Per its website, the store:

collects scraps, overstock, factory rejects, and other items normally destined for the landfill. ArtScraps makes these products available to teachers, parents, artists, scout leaders, day care providers – anyone working with children or interested in reducing waste through reuse of discard able materials.

I suppose I at least fall into that very last category, don't I?  The real appeal for me is that it's a constantly rotating motley mix of art materials.  You never know what's going to be in there, and as soon as I entered the store, my imagination just exploded!  In addition to a mix of paper, envelope, ribbon and fabric scraps, there were tiny glass tiles, photo slides, postcards, old advertising magazines, and on and on.

It was incredible and I loved the whole place.  You should totally go here.

It probably doesn't hurt that I overheard this exchange between two shoppers, a dad and his very young son:

Son: This is a baseball store.

Dad: Yeah...except there's not baseball stuff.

Son, merrily: Except the baseball stuff.

Dad: I don't know that I agree with you.

I picked out wonderful, kooky, fun art supplies for my project, and the total cost was much less than I would've paid for a similar range of new products.  Am I setting up justification for a more frivolous purchase?  You bet I am.  (Oh!  I got my flu shot this morning and my doctor did say I should pick up a little treat for myself!)

Well, I found myself wandering down this aisle chock full of rubber stamps, and I remembered how I used to love rubber stamps.  They were all less than one dollar and I confess that several ended up in my basket, plus an ink pad labelled "shimmery iridescent purple ink."  In case you were wondering, one I will use with a straight face and the rest fall into the "so goofy I love them" category.

I was so tickled by my new stamps that I would randomly start laughing out loud to myself on the walk home, thinking about what I could do with my growing stamp collection.

This one is my favorite.  It's really big.

I absolutely cannot wait to go to a party and afterward drop a note to the host in the mail that says simply "Had a great time" via my new stamp and shimmery iridescent purple ink.