stamp my heart...

We are very excited to share this fabulous post with our lovely readers today. Please welcome todays contributing editor & guest Jayde from Little Paper Lane. Little Paper Lane is a dream come true for any stationery lover and has got to be the sweetest stationery/paper shop I’ve ever seen!

Jayde turned her life long passion for paper into a beautiful and inspiring shop. Little Paper Lane is where Jayde can gleefully revel in her passion for paper and then share it with all of us. And today we are very excited to share her wonderful passion for these amazing rubber stamps. This story is very special to us as it comes straight from the heart. Enjoy x

{Winter Scape Box set $49.95, Paris stamp set $19.95}

Jayde:‘I remember my first stamp purchase! I was visiting my Nan and Pop in Victoria in their hometown of Frankston. We would take little trips to Bayside shopping centre and my Grandparents would always buy me a little gift, usually something I could create with! My Nan is a big crafter, and quite a skilled one at that! I remember my Nan taking me into the very new Cardiology shop and I was very heart fluttered! From a young age I was very fond of stationery, I am even more so now ;) but I had never seen a whole shop with such beautiful stationery and most importantly...Stamps!

They were all in rows and rows on the wall and all had a little wooden top with the picture on the wood of what the stamp created! There was ink pads galore, and not just solid colours, I remember seeing a rainbow pad and thinking it was the best thing I had ever seen! There was embossing powders and plain cards to make your own cards and just everything a little (and big) girl could dream of!

{Petite Tea Time stamp $21.95, Matchbox tea time stamp $12.95}

{Seedling my stamp city $23.95, Babushka Marche stamp set $27.50}

I still remember that it took a very long time to pick my stamp!My Nan didn’t ever get impatient, and just giggled when I changed my mind 12 times, it was a very important decision in my mind! My Pop would wander in from time to time and I would show him the hard choice I was making and you could tell he was busting to just let me take them all home, but my lovely Nan knew not to over spoil....just spoil enough! Finally I made my choice! A beautiful stamp of a heart of little flowers and she let me pick a mini pad and I chose red because I thought that hearts should be red!

I think I stamped every possible piece of paper, I wrote my Parents letters just so I could stamp them and my Pop sat with me for so long stamping away and he even got out the old school date stamps to use so he wasn’t using mine...I did want to share, but he knew I was having too much fun with it all! He always joined in with my adventures, I even have a picture of him doing ballet with me :) The next day my Nan had things to do and my pop snuck me back to the shopping centre and bought me all the stamps I was trying to choose between....and a rainbow stamp pad :) not because I asked, it was a very big surprise for me, he just saw how much I loved using my little stamp and thought I needed them all! I still have them all, and quite a few more now!

{The lovely stamps that Jayde received as a gift from her Pop}

I don’t think I realised until writing this that my love of stamps must come from that experience! My Nan patiently and so happily watching me choose the little stamp like I was choosing a puppy to take home and my very cheeky Pop completely spoiling me with stamps not because I was selfish and wanting more(although I am quite sure I badly wanted more) but because he saw the joy in my face that a tiny little object made from rubber bought his granddaughter and he just loved me......I loved him everyday of my life and still do and miss him so much and especially miss the love he had for me!

Today I sit in my little shop surrounded by the most beautiful stamps from all over the world and honestly smile when I look at them! They are just beautiful! A customer came in with her daughter in the holidays and let her choose a little treat, it didn’t take her long, but she picked a tin of stamps that included a stamp that had a ‘thank you’ stamp in it! I asked her what she would be creating and she said she wanted to make a card for her Grandma and Grandad to say Thank you for having her the previous week. It made my heart melt! Stamps are awesome.’

Love, Jayde
{of Little Paper Lane}
http://www.littlepaperlane.com.au/