We are so sorry...............

We truly intended to have our web page up by now, but a lot has happened in our lives and it was difficult to even find out how to keep from loosing our halosrubberstamps.com website when it expired recently and to be able to go with another hosting site.

Please feel free to email us and we will get back to you immediately with whatever you need. Good customer service has always been our greatest desire.

LeeAnn is available to help you at lyonsleeann@comcast.net and she is working diligently to get the web site up. This is not easy for two ladies who are pretty website illiterate. It's the reason it never changed much in all these years!

I will be out of town for a death in the family until Saturday, but I check my email daily no matter where I'm at, and I will be happy to help anyone with questions or any other requests.

Thank you!
Sheryl Porter and LeeAnn Lyons

Make It Take It

We did a couple of really fun projects at the show in Vegas. The one that was the biggest hit was our Stamp A Bank. See them stacked in the top left hand corner of the photo. We have a "Can A Gift" that we can actually seal things in for gifting, but this time, Gary put slots in the tops for banks. When the bottom pull tab is removed to get the "loot" a plastic lid from hot chocolate, baby formula, etc. makes it a secure vessel again to fill up and save for a rainy day or something fun!

The kids really had a ball stamping these and seemed to stay forever. We didn't rush them because they were having such a great time, and hopefully we've helped create a new generation of stampers.

"Blood", sweat, and tears went into these mounts!

Just like Gary and I years ago, our daughter LeeAnn is teaching her children to work. Both Jesse and Kacie were able to earn money by helping us get ready for the two shows we have done this year. Gary had taught Jesse to make the mounts, but yesterday, Jesse had to learn the hard way that power tools are dangerous!

He is lucky he still has his finger. Fortunately Grandpa was a high school shop teacher and knew what to do to stop the bleeding until Lee got him to the emergency room. Being in "shock" also slowed the flow of blood, but when the packing was removed, the blood pulsed out and they were fortunate to be at the hospital where they could handle the emergency. The injury went right to the bone and the artery. After stitching it up and packing it well, he was able to attend the concert he had been looking forward to that evening, but by the time he was in bed that night, the pain medication had worn off and he had a very rough night! If Lee had known, we could have built a sling (from hook and loop tape of course) and hung it above the bed to hold it up to keep it from throbbing.

My first instincts were that this was not going to work and I was sure Jesse would never want to touch the mounts again, but he has a great attitude and his mom assures me that it will not keep him down. Now Grandpa gets to finish up this batch. He had to just turn out the lights and will return to clean up the bloody equipment in a day or two!

Thanks Jesse for your great efforts!

Recuperating one week later!

What a week this has been. Really, it feels like a month since we were in Vegas. We left Utah last week in a blizzard and snow, and today it is the same. Vegas was much warmer!

In the bottom picture is the front of the booth with Lee and LeeAnn (He-Lee and She-Lee). Not only do we use hook and loop tape to attach our stamps to our mounts, but this entire booth was constructed with hook and loop tape and clear acrylic envelopes with unmounted rubber.

In the picture of the miniature doorway at the front left side of the bottom picture, it is a bit hard to see the rods holding panels of loop tape fabric. At home, I have everything hanging on loop tape, from my heavy tape gun, to baggies full of stamps as well as individual stamps that stick directly to the loop fabric. Before I figured this out, I was constantly looking for my tools. I had been coveting wonderful craft cabinets with loop tape walls, but their pricetags were above $2000. Why not make my own storage?

I had actually been making puppet theatres with spring rods to put in the doorway for children, but wasn't sure the rod would hold much weight. When LeeAnn assured me that they actually held her teenage son (who is far from small), then I knew we had a winner! Now everything I need to find, gets "hooked", from the needle threader for my sewing machine, to my glasses! My cricut cartridges are all hooked with a tiny piece of clear tape and are secure on their hanging loop tape panel. The keyboard thingies are alphabetized and hang in multiples in zip lock baggies from the panel

I am a proud mother!

We are back from the Vegas show and I was so proud of the preparation and wonderful display LeeAnn and her supportive hubby Lee produced! When Gary and I did the shows, our booth looked nothing like this one. We were lucky just to get there.

I know that they spent hundreds of hours in preparation. Unfortunately, "while we were sleeping" (not really sleeping, but out of the scene for over 5 years) no one could find us and another system took over rubber stamping. We have a giant roll of the product that almost everyone is manufacturing their stamps on these days, but it has sat unused for 5 years. When I want to mount a stamp, I reach for my HALOS II. I don't even reach for the original HALOS, even though it would be my second choice and many customers still swear by it.

Why I love HALOS II over the other products. Cost is significant, but it's not just that. It is thinner and so much easier to cut. I can get the extra cushioning by stamping on a mouse pad. The dies are much thinner and thus easier to store.

We love hook and loop tape. It's our favorite "sticking" thing in the whole world--and how fun it has been to organize our stamps on panels of loop tape in clear envelopes! It's also how I've got many other craft supplies attached and easy to find, such as my Cricut cartridges and other accessories.

You can use HALOS mounts with ANY other system, but once people have purchased acrylic mounts without the recessed grooves, their use is limited!

No need to use just one system. Variety is the "spice of life". How much we'd miss out on if we never tried anything different. Sometimes we stick with something for years, not wanting to change. For a couple of dollars, you can get one HALOS mount that you can use on any stamp. If your stamp is too big for the mount, a little finger pressure on the areas not covered by the mount does just fine--in fact you can apply a little more direct pressure to areas that might have more detail.

We know we've got to re-establish ourself in the stamping world, so we have an offer anyone can afford. We made hundreds of cute little match boxes that contain a l" acrylic mount, and 3 mini stamps on HALOS II. We're selling them for a buck. We'll even throw in a full color idea book full of card samples for free. Because the book is so heavy, it will require $4.95 shipping, making the total only $5.95 for everything! If you like what we have, we'll even include special offers on other products. In fact, if you'd like to include a grab bag of stamp pads, glitter, embossing powder etc, just add $10. You'll get an assortment of 10 different items and it will ship with no additional postage.

More to follow including pictures! What a concept, Gary and I were too busy to even take such things during the many years we did shows, but with 4 of us at this show, we actually got to take a few pictures! Since we drove home after the show--from Vegas to SLC, Utah, we only got a few hours sleep, so this will be continued........................

Getting ready for Vegas show on March 6

Gary and I had decided the shows were too difficult to do, so we didn't really keep very good track of all our card samples, display boards and other things we'd acquired over the years. When we did the show recently in Anaheim, we only had a table space, but this show we actually have a 10x10 booth as well as an additional booth for make it take it's. We have been frantically searching for lost items and have found much of what we need except for our very best card samples. We haven't given up hope--we still have a couple of trailers where they might be.

It is very exciting to have LeeAnn's family taking over and helping to bring to fruition some of the dreams I had for HALOS that we ran out of energy to do.

I buy anything I find that is the "loop" side of the velcro. Now that I've found out how much I love HALOS II, it is a bonus that the stamps stick to this fabric. I see display boards often in the classifieds and the number of office cubicles I've seen for free over the years is endless.

Afer the CHA Super Show, I confiscated the display board (tri fold) to store my newly acquired craft supplies. The clear hook tape made by Velcro holds my scissors, Cricut cartridges, rotary cutter and sharpeners, tape gun etc. securely. Hopefully a picture will follow, but our camera is lost. We remodeled and have boxes of things that we have not had time to go through.

We are also working on a portable storage system that goes in a doorway suspended on a spring rod. I have also had wonderful success by putting hook tape along the top edge of closet doors and suspending the loop fabric panel from there. I've been testing how much weight they will hold and it is amazing. We will have these available at the show.

One year ago today.......

I had been in a cast with a broken right wrist since falling on the ice a month earlier. I had worn out the little piece under the thumb by turning my die cut machine too much and had just gotten a soft brace cast put on when the X-ray showed it hadn't healed. I had my daughter drive me to the post office and then I dropped her off and felt OK about driving two blocks home. As I passed the fast food restaurants, suddenly a 3/4 ton pickup driven by an 18 year old girl plowed into me. Could she have been on her cell phone or texting? My kids tell me not to judge, but I think she was. Anyway, my left wrist which was holding onto the steering wheel snapped and I found myself in what I thought was smoke, but was really caused by both air bags going off. Somehow I managed to unbuckle my seat belt and open my door and fall out on the ground so I wouldn't burn (or I thought burn). Thankfully, someone called my daughter for me and an ambulance and after what seemed like hours I was taken to the hospital which was also only a couple blocks away. My collar bone was also broken and I had surgery and metal plates put in it and the wrist a week later. A few days later, horrible pain resulted in gall bladder surgery

So, today I'm thankful for two hands and wrists that I can craft with, and hold grandbabies with and make cinnamon rolls and little Wyatt should be arriving in about 5 minutes. Also today I get to tend my twin granddaughters, Jaden and Courtney -- age 6, and Also Claire and Curtis, ages 2 and 6. My first grandson, Jesse -- age 16, is coming to learn how to make clear acrylic stamp mounts from Grandpa, so he can help his mom as she takes over HALOS. We have signed up to do a show in Las Vegas in early March and there's much work to be done.

We got bumped from our flight home from the CHA Super Show

Flying standby is a risk, and for the first time, we didn't make the flight home from Long Beach to SLC. It had to be because of the sold out flight of Californians traveling to the Sundance Film Festival. We understand that even the jump seats were filled with employees of the airline. Luckily, we were able to squeeze into the vehicle LeeAnn's family drove to the show, but what a long, long drive home.

Within 18 hours of arriving home Sunday evening, we were busy at another daughter's home making blankets for the Linus project. I had never done one of the quilts made from polar fleece where you cut l" strips 4" in depth all around the outside and then either make a knot at the top of each strip or make a tiny slit at the top and pull the 4" length through the tiny slit. I purchased a wonderful tool to make these slits where the rotary cutter is guided in perfectly aligned rows, but of course I couldn't find it, so we made do with a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and clear rulers.

One of my fun toys purchased at the CHA Super Show was a freehand cutter that is made by Purple Cow. Shaped like a computer mouse, it made the tiny slits perfectly with simply a push in the right spot. It probably would have worked well to cut the 4" strips if I'd thought of it. Now I'm anxious to buy more polar fleece and do more. It was a lot of fun once I got the "hang of it"

Another fun tool I purchased at the show was a chenille maker. I haven't had time to try it out yet, but it will be fun to be able to use up some of the tons of fabric in my stash. I was a seamstress long before I became a stamp maker. To make the chenille, you put about 7 layers of fabric on top of each other and sew rows of stitching side by side completely quilting the entire project. The tool slices through the top layers between the rows and when it is washed, they fray and form the chenille. It reminds me of the large letter openers, but they don't work! Believe me, I tried before spending money on the real thing. They are a bit pricey, but there are always coupons!

Website coming down for an overhaul

I honestly don't know how long the web site has been there (halosrubberstamps.com) but I want to thank two really nice people who put it up for me--Mark and Jodi Hansen. I know it was before they became parents. I took an html class to try to learn how to update it, but I just don't "understand" computers.

On the other hand, my kids showed me how to do this blog, and there's not much I can mess up here. I am anxious to learn how to put pictures up, but one thing at a time :)

My daughter LeeAnn, the oldest of my six kids, is going to take over HALOS and we need to clear out lots of inventory. The site doesn't have a fraction of the rubber we make, but there's still a lot! Make notes of any stamps or sheets of stamps that interest you and we'll make you a deal you can't refuse. We can do grab bags also for $10 and up and you may choose at least one stamp that you want for sure. It may be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but we'll try. We can put a lot of stuff in the flat rate mailers for $4.85 postage, including a free idea book.

CHA Craft Supershow - 2010

The first day of the show was quite slow. I'm sure that a lot of people were working on Friday and also the weather may have kept people away. My cute grandchildren, four-year old Charity and six-year old Dallin, had a wonderful time in the Kids Craft area. They may have even enjoyed it more than the Craft Discovery Museum or the beach.

LeeAnn and I enjoyed meeting crafters and showing them our clear acrylic mounts and mounting system. We gave away hundreds of idea books featuring Azadi's wonderful stamps. We feel so thankful to have the unmounted rights to these timeless images. We found that most of the new generation had never even heard of this amazing artist, who's art was the inspiration for many a company. We also noticed how many of the people at this event did not stamp. Because we only had a small space (8 foot table), we were unable to teach them the wonders of embossing and the exciting things you can do with stamps. Hopefully the make-it take-it samples will get them started.

In order to make stamping affordable and enticing to newcomers, we sold grab bags that included 5 stamp pads (some dye ones and some embossing ones), a bottle of embossing powder and 2 ultra fine glitters for $10, and we paid the tax. We certainly didn't make any money, but with the multitude of companies giving things away for free, it seemed the least we could do.

On Saturday, the sun came out and so did the crafters. It was exciting and exhausting, but we found time to do a bit of shopping as well. I will post about my purchases another time. I learned to use items I'd purchased months earlier and that had intimidated me. There are still some things that I spent a fortune on and have never used, but they will remain nameless, because there are tons of crafters who love them. I don't know anyone who doesn't love to stamp once they learn the basics.

We want to make stamping affordable and fun for everyone--that is our mission!

Our journey to the CHA Craft Supershow

As I mentioned, we didn't have a lot of time to decide whether we could pull this trip off. LeeAnn was a busy pre-school teacher as well as working at Costco. She also has two teenagers, and two little ones. We enlisted the teenagers to help do our make-it-take-it projects. For days they used the die cut machine to cut out clear lids for the tiny matchboxes (cut out by me while tending baby Wyatt). In the boxes, we put a l" clear acrylic stamp mount (manufactured by Gary) and 3 mini stamps on HALOS hook tape. I froze up the gears on one die cut machine and actually ended up using my little Zip E Mate for most of the boxes. I "cooked" rubber every day. My rubber was actually "old" and required that I squish it really hard in my vulcanizer, but I was happy not to waste it. Sometimes rubber "cures" just sitting on the shelf for a couple of months.

LeeAnn's family wanted to drive in order to get all the stuff there, and Gary and I wanted to fly because we had free flights, thanks to two daughters who work for Jet Blue. The time to go arrived really fast, and reports of bad weather made us very nervous. We got a report that the airport had closed from flooding. It was too late to ride in the truck because they had already taken off. They hit storms in Cedar City that delayed them hours, arriving at their hotel in Nevada at 2 a.m. Thankfully, we were able to get there the next evening on our flight. As I exited the plane, I noticed David Archuletta in the front seat. No one else even recognized him! I didn't see him again for over a half hour as we waited for each piece of luggage on the completely full flight to be unloaded one by one because of a power failure. He must have gotten tired of waiting for his companions and came looking to see what caused the delay. I couldn't resist telling him how "darn cute" he is, and I'm sure I embarrassed him. I didn't have a camera, but Gary said after I left a lot of people recognized him and he graciously posed for pictures.

It had been 10 years since we exhibited at the big CHA show and while this was not that show for retailers, but a smaller show for the general public, it was still a scary thing and I didn't sleep much. The rain did not stop all night it seemed and continued throughout the entire day, which I'm sure affected the show turnout.

To be continued.........

Back from CHA

Until the recent CHA Craft Supershow, it had been years since HALOS exhibited at any shows. Gary is busy in a second career (so we can have health insurance), after retiring from 27 years of teaching high school. We have also been busy with grandchildren, and aside from filling orders from customers of years past, we were mostly retired!

We were way ahead of our time with our mounting system. We loved the years we traveled all over the country (even Hawaii) demonstrating how to use our system, which used thick black loop tape on the stamps, and the opposite hook tape on the mount. It allowed people to have rubber stamps galore, store them in a fraction of the space, find them easier, and see where they stamped. One "issue" was the lack of companies who would sell unmounted. We acquired many wonderful images over the years and and I loved "cooking" them up in rubber. We had so many images, we never ever got them all online.

When the economy changed, we decided to slow down.

None of our five daughters had time to continue our business... until now. Our oldest daughter LeeAnn, (mother of six also), now has teenagers that need jobs. She is excited to take over!

Our decision to participate in the CHA Craft Supershow was one we heard about one day and only had the weekend to sign up and less than a week to prepare for and travel to Anaheim. The weather did not cooperate for those of us who flew, and those who drove, but we made it! More later.............

Original HALOS and HALOS II

These two systems are exactly opposite of each other. Original HALOS has hook strips in the recessed grooves and loop tape on the stamps. Loop tape is thick and provides more cushioning. The first time you cut out the stamps, there are "fuzzies" which some people did not like, which led to the development of HALOS II.

HALOS II has loop tape in the grooves and clear hook tape under the rubber.
The clear hook tape on HALOS II has a number of advantages over original, most importantly, no fuzzies. It also is easier to clean the stamps because it does not absorb water or ink.

Many customers still prefer the original HALOS as there is more cushioning. As a result, we have continued both lines.