Hi. Welcome to my rubber stamping web site. I hope you enjoy it. Just in case you're at all curious about the person behind the site, I thought I'd tell you a little about myself.

My name is Cheryl Aldrich. For 10 years or so I was a software engineer. All those years I enjoyed art, but I never really had enough time to devote to it (did I mention that I'm a single mom with two teenagers?). A few years ago I found that I was no longer content with being a hobby artist, I wanted art to be a larger part of my life. I started taking more courses and putting more time into it. I started stamping and scrapbooking several years ago too and fell in love with both immediately. Last year I was laid off twice from software jobs, so I decided it was time to make some changes. While unemployed, I took advantage of my new found "spare time" and I took graphic art classes in hopes of breaking into this new field. Unemployment is long gone and I am still in search of any decent job so I can continue my pursuit of a graphic art/web design career, in my "spare time".

I've been developing web sites (mostly the back-end, the java stuff) for several years. Now I'm hoping to switch to the front-end work, the design and the graphics. I have a Design business now, Bean Tree Design and I hope to get established as a free-lance web designer. I don't have enough work yet; I am still trying to find new customers.

This site is not only a stamping resource, but an exercise for me in web and graphic design.

• The site is designed to be a 3rd generation site. You now have a menu bar on top of the screen so you can get wherever you want to go, from any page. The exception is the project details pages. These pages include a larger photo of the sample as well as which stamps, supplies, and tools were used for each sample. These pages are intended to be printable so I don't want the menu bar on them.
• I made the graphics in Illustrator. They're nothing fancy, but they are colorful. I want a simple site. I don't think my fellow stampers would be impressed with a bunch of flashy graphics, you want to see samples, right? This site is so image intensive, with all the samples, I don't want to slow things down with any more images than necessary.
• I made all the samples on the site, as of June 29, 2002. Since that time, with the new design, I have attracted many more contributors so now you can see the artwork of many talented artists.
• I wrote all the techniques and the dictionary. My hope is that this is a complete resource where you can figure out how to do any sample you see, with very clear directions. The techniques cross-reference the dictionary in case there are any terms or tools used that one may not understand.

Wish me luck with my job search. Graphic Arts jobs don't appear to be any more plentiful than Software Engineering jobs. I will continue taking courses, and expanding this site, as time permits (school can really keep a person busy you know and kids, wow). I hope you enjoy the site. If you ever have any questions or comments I hope you will send me an e-mail and let me know. I love hearing from you. Your input will help me develop this site for you.