Sharing my mail art collection of 91 envelopes with stamping friends triggered a turning point in my life. When a friend told me, “Lock those in a safe deposit box and start a rubber stamp company,” I did just that! In 1948, heartbroken Marge had drawn pictures on envelopes she sent two or three times a week to her son James who, quitting high school six weeks before he was to graduate, had joined the Marine Corps. Marge, fearing the loss of her son with the Korean War just beginning, had poured her heart out in the drawings. Those drawings represent an endearing time in my life and, to this day, are very precious to me. Upon returning from the military, my brother returned the envelopes to Marge, who, much to my delight, gave them to me. Having been born in Boise, Idaho, and the daughter of a civil engineer who worked on dams and water distribution systems, it was inevitable that my family would follow the California Central Valley Water Project. Upon graduation from Fresno State College in 1953, I pursued a 38-year teaching career. After retiring from teaching and with a desire to experience the business world, in 1994 I started Stamps Galore. For ten years, a friend and I traveled throughout the United States selling at approximately twelve stamp shows each year. When my mother had a stroke in 2005, I moved to Coos Bay, Oregon, and cared for her until her passing in 2011; whereupon, I moved to North Idaho to be near my daughter’s family. One of my fondest pleasures is enjoying our weekly family gatherings and watching four great-grandchildren grow up. What sets my rubber stamps apart from most stamp companies is that using a scroll saw, I closely trim the rubber that is on the “mounted stamps” and the rubber on “cushion and cling.” When you stamp with my stamps, you avoid the frustration of having “touches” from unnecessarily extended edges.
Categories
- Accent Stamps1010 products
- American Indian Art143143 products
- Animals22 products
- Brownies168168 products
- Frames & Backgrounds9595 products
- Greetings & Messages177177 products
- Insect22 products
- Scenes9696 products
- Scenic Elements520520 products