I love it when I get surprised

 So I got my Cloud Nine National paper crafting card kit (if you want it, order it before the end of January) and I couldn't wait to get my fingers inked up playing with it.  I don't mean to get dirty, but it always happens.  It's a paper crafter's inevitable curse to go through life with blue or pink or orange fingertips.

I've been a stamper for a while.  Before I became a consultant, I fell in love with stamping and paper crafting, and became a collector of all things related (my husband uses the term habitual horder).  I love stamping.  I love the endless possibilities that stamping brings - the variety, the colors, the possibilities.  But yesterday as I pulled the above stamp out of it's plastic sleeve, I noticed that little circle on the card.  See it up there?  The little Juniper-colored circle right under the snap?

So I took a closer look.

Cuz I'm also a nosey broad (in addition to being a craft addict), I did what it said and pulled the card out to take a look inside.

Imagine my complete and utter shock and pleased surprise that it opened up and had care instructions inside!!  I mean, I knew how to do all this.  I learned it through trial and error.  But those genius, creative minds at Close To My Heart decided to make sure that even the newest stamper would have nothing but bolstered confidence with immediate success. 

This little care card talks about the three most important aspects of stamp maintenance; conditioning, storing, and restoring stickiness for your most loved (and used) stamps.  Not only is Close To My Heart the "Let me show you how" company, but they also know that sometimes you won't be with your consultant and you'll need to have these instructions within easy reach.

While we're on the subject of how much I love Close To My Heart and the awesome stamps we sell, I'm going to add one last thing.

I'm far from perfect and so is my stamping.  I make goof-ups all the time because I'm usually crafting around my kids - which leads to stamps that haven't been inked up properly or bumped elbows smearing stamped images.  But our stamps are completely clear.  And while that won't fix smeared images, if I don't get a stamp completely inked up, I can load it back up and line it up through the clear block and the clear stamp and restamp the image.  I can't tell you how many times I've done that!  And I bet you can't tell from the above picture where I goobered...

For the moment, I'm done crushing on Close To My Heart.  I have to run and take off my crafter's hat and put my mom hat back on (if I don't pick them up from school, they won't get home).  But check back from time to time.  Because when I get wonderfully surprised by CTMH, I'm going to share it here with you.  And I hope it makes your day as happy as it makes mine.