A while ago I heard about a group in Miami that gets together once a month to create and trade ATCs. Something or another always prevented me from going, but finally – the day after Thanksgiving – I was able to go. Since Jonathan’s Mom was here, I petitioned for several hours off (comp time for all of Jonathan’s recent traveling, you know).

I got there in time to camp out at Starbucks across the street for a while beforehand – trusty laptop in tow. I was tempted to stay there all night, but my dormant right brain was threatening a strike and needed to let loose in a brief creative frenzy.

The entire evening was completely different than expected.... both socially (for the first couple of hours I was the youngest by about five two decades) and artistically. These women are a little too old to have caught the scrapbooking mania, but they are rubber stamp divas. One woman had three large plastic containers of just Christmas stamps. And they carried all of their creative stuff in these little suitcases like flight attendants and pharma reps use.

For the most part they already knew each other and got to talking right away. So I just cut, drew, pasted, and mostly listened. They were really funny to listen to.

Basically they ate pizza, showed off any newly acquired stamps/paper/ embellishments/etc., complained about their kids, discussed the election, and maybe made a few ATCs along the way.

I asked to borrow a stamp, used it, and got a friendly and well-meaning ten minute lecture on proper stamping techniques. Turns out it’s not just plunk into ink and push onto paper. You have to use baby wipes and such....

(to be continued)