Happy World Card Making Day!

Welcome to I Stamp, Paper, Ink - a.k.a. I SPI!

I am hoping that today will be an auspices day for me to start blogging about something I love to do - make cards. If I could make cards all day, every day, I would be one very happy lady. What a pipe dream! As much as I love card making, I also love to see what's happening in the card making world so I tend to do a lot of surfing, looking for different artists, tips, techniques, shops and of course, cards. I'm certainly not to proud to case and I hope you'll do the same. I also hope you'll share your own card making experiences with me.

I am a beginner blogger, so please bear with me as I figure it all out. I also love to write, which makes blogging something that I hope will come rather naturally. Advance warning to everyone though, I have writing and grammar errors that I just can't seem to fix, so I apologize in advance for comma, semi-colon and "however" mistakes. I consider myself a novice card maker looking to perfect her craft. The first public display of my cards was on my Facebook page and that was pretty well-received (thanks girls). It certainly helped build my confidence enough to share my work with the World Wide Web. I'll likely never consider myself an expert but I love to learn and I love to create so I figure this blogging venture could be just the thing.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of card making, paper crafting and stamping blogs out there so it's hard to do something unique and this blog won't be all that unique except that it's about my card crafting, which, when all is said and done, is or will try to be, one of a kind. It is also a chance to share the tidbits and treasures that I find while surfing the web. There is some pretty cool stuff, blogs and shops out there. Besides, I'd hate to think all that surfing time is wasted time.

While I would love to post everyday, that probably isn't going to happen thanks to work and family responsibilities. I will however do my best. I've planned out different themes for each day of the week but the best laid plans ... we'll have to see how it goes.

Today is actually a day full of firsts for me. My first true blog post. My first card swap. I met some great new card makers and received some beautiful Christmas cards. Many thanks to Carol Ann for the invitation. It was lovely and I had a great time!

WCMD Swap Cards

I also met a new supplier today, Rosa, over at The Paper Passion (http://www.thepaperpassion.com/). Thank you for the Spellbinder dies. I hope this is the start of a long and fruitful relationship.

Finally, I thought I'd share a couple of favourite cards. Hopefully many, many more of these to come!

I hope you've enjoyed this first I SPI post and I hope you'll come back again!

Thanks! Gisèle