...tips for dealing with the 'curious-non-stamping' visitor.

Recently I had a visitor, a close relative who wanted to see my stamps, and how I made cards. The praise and admiration was swelling my ego and it was with a hop skip and a jump that i went to my treasure trove and dug out the goodies. Within a quarter of an hour I was a gibbering mess, blaspheming into the sink, up to my armpits in soap suds.

I would like to share with you a few pointers:

If the 'curious-non-stamper' is arriving on a scheduled visit, be in the hall, coat on, car keys in hand and as soon as you answer the doorbell announce in a loud voice "I'm treating you to Starbucks, let's go!" Believe me, the outlay is justified.

If the 'curious-non-stamper' arrives unexpectedly, or indeed if the plain old non-stamping visitor suddenly develops a desire to play with your toys you will need a plan of action, may I suggest...

1) Decide, quickly, on the way to your stash, on your three oldest, most least-likely-to-be-used stamps. - Importantly, be sure to tell your visitor that you just got these ones and they're your favourites - at this point your laying the groundwork in the hope that your visitor will play nice with your toys.

2) Also pick out your oldest and most used up inks - two should suffice. Keep one in your pocket for when the first one lands on the baby, who will have it partially digested before you return from getting "more paper".

3) You will be going to get "more paper" because you are not stupid enough to let your visitor go to the stash and pick their own stuff...are you? Use cheap paper, back of old wrapping paper, children's homework books, anything BUT the PTI card - your 'visitor' will stamp profusely.

4) Only allow your visitor to stamp on a surface that is HIGHER than their waist height, this avoids the need to surgically remove pieces of disintegrated stamp from ink pad after the torture, sorry, visit is over - It also helps avoid cracked-ink-pad syndrome as the visitor will not be able to get their whole weight piled up on top of your favourite dark Chocolate Palette ink pad...that you had shipped all the way from America...

5) Importantly - pick up and clean each stamp just as you sense the visitor is moving on to the next image - you want to avoid the fistful of mangled sticky stamps served in a bed of tattered paper with a sauce of Palette de Stazon. However bad it looks tho' don't let them wash the stamps - they're slippy when wet and visitors seldom understand about things like plugholes.

6) Have a 'get out clause' in your head for when you can't take it no more..something like "Gosh it has been great, what a shame I have to GO RIGHT NOW and pick up my friends' kid from school on the other side of town. Ah well!"

If you sense that you're merely whetting their appetite and they're going to want to come back for more, might I suggest PTI gift certificate - so's they can get their own.

I hope you find this useful, I would've...