Well, not so much the story of creation as the story behind my creativity.

I’ve been creating in one form or another since I was very young. I come from a long line of crafters and artists and I like to think that perhaps I inherited the creativity gene.

Even as young as I was in the photo above I was creating. I would fill spiral notebooks front and back with drawings. When I wasn’t reading, that is.

I was and am a voracious reader. Shortly after learning to read I quickly began surpassing my peers and was working my way through the Little House on the Prairie books at the age of six.

After that, starting in about the third grade I moved on to writing, though I did continue to draw quite a bit.

Writing was a long time passion of mine and is something I still enjoy. I began writing short stories and gradually shifted toward writing poetry. I have large binders full of my poems. Some are fairly good, most are rubbish.

When I was seventeen the county I lived in secured a small grant through the state to provide teenaged foster children the basic supplies needed to start a hobby. One of my social workers at the time was an avid scrapbooker. By sharing her gorgeous albums with me she was able to persuade me to give it a try.

I loved it. Granted that the majority of the “layouts” I created consisted of carefully glued down photos and a ridiculous amount of stickers, it was still a way for me to curate people and things that were important to me. After highschool I didn’t scrapbook very often, preferring to instead write.

I returned to scrapbooking after the birth of my son. It was important to me to preserve my memories for him. Having lost my mother at a young age I know how much I would have treasured something like that. There are many things I do not know about my mother. Through scrapbooking I have been able to ensure that my son will know a great deal more about me than everyday life could provide.

I continued to dabble in my various hobbies and creative outlets; crocheting, knitting, writing, cross stitching, and my scrapbooking eventually transformed into making mini albums.

Then, in the spring of 2018 something magical happened. I went to a card class at a real brick and mortar scrapbooking store. I was able to make a card in a fairly short amount of time.

With the exception of writing all of my hobbies are very slow going. They can take me several weeks to several months to even several years to complete.

Being able to make a card in less than an hour was incredible. Nearly instant gratification.

That led to one thing, then another, and now I’m here.

It’s been an amazing journey and I can’t wait to see where it leads me next. Thank you for joining me.