Allow me to introduce myself. I am a cardmaker. And a scrapbooker. I am many other things, but this site is dedicated to this "other half of my life". For, as all you who are cardmakers understand, I have two identities. One is Mer, the citizen *out there* in the real world and the other is...

Mer, the cardmaker, the person I discover as I stamp, cut, arrange and combine paper and all those fun little elements. The cardmaker who delights in bringing all of her creativity together in one masterpiece, who loves to reflect on the qualities of the people around her and then look for ways to make one of those special people come alive in paper, colour and light. For a card is much more than paper and glue. It is a reflection of how I see someone and our relationship. It is designed to be given. It is a message to be sent. It is a sentiment to be cherished. It is an expression of friendship, love and caring. I rarely make a card with absolutely no one in mind.

Unfortunately for that little philosophical speech I just made, the first card I'm posting missed its intended audience. I was trying to fix up a Valentine's card for my cheri, and at the same time try my hand at Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch challenge. In the end I thought it ended up being a little too "girly" for him so I had to think up another combo. I do like this original however...so I guess some lucky girly will end up with it! (Shh...! I actually used the same sketch for his, but I don't want to post it yet...in case he sees it before V-day!)

As for all the ingredients...I don't really know the names for the papers and colours anymore. Some of them were an old "In Colour" from Stampin' Up! which you can't get anymore. I just did a great big move and I had to give away all my catalogues to lighten the load. (Notice I took all my stamping supplies so the load was still heavy enough!) My new catalogue should arrive any day now.

As I'm not trying to sell you anything, perhaps that doesn't matter. I can tell you that my stampin' desk holds very little else but Stampin' Up! stuff. And if you really want to know how I did something, I'd be happy to answer questions that you send my way.

I'm excited about my new little blog corner. I'm looking forward to sharing with all my old stamping friends, and maybe making a few new ones too. Cheers from my stamping desk to yours!
-Mer