Hi! My name is Cheri – welcome to my site. Here you can find a little bit of everything….and a whole lot of stamping!
I started stamping in the early 90’s while living in Australia. The first few things I made were simple embossed cards for Christmas with my gold embossing powder and my 3 watercolor pencils (red, green and brown). I had never heard of an embossing gun (not sure they existed) but my iron flipped in my shoebox worked just fine. I made my daughters baby announcements in 1994 and colored that gold embossing powder in with crayola markers. I stamped for a few years before I owned a colored ink pad!
I had lived in Scotland for a couple of years, then moved on to Australia where I met my husband. We came back to the USA for our wedding, returned to Oz for our daughter’s birth and then relocated back here not long after she was born. But my 20’s were spent traveling the world. I made friends in countries everywhere. It was a different time, no internet, no cell phones, cheap cameras with film. A phone call home cost $4 a minute – the fax machine was a wonder in new communication!
My dream life would still be living from a suitcase – I have been blessed to see so many wonderful parts of the world. Scotland, England, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, India, Singapore, Bermuda, Iceland, Canada and of course Australia.
When we moved back to the States I was excited to hit the craft stores and acquire more Stamp Supplies – surely there was more available here than in Australia? But, sadly, I couldn’t find anything. The internet wasn’t ready for shopping yet. Then, my aunt ran into someone who told her about Stampin’ Up! She had a workshop. I held a catalog. Within 1 minute I knew that I was going to do ‘this’ too. That was in September 1995. I am not sure that I knew I would be doing it this long…..but here I am.
Way back in the day I did lots of in home workshops and so many classes in my own home. It was nearly a full time job and I was so happy to have a job that allowed be to be a stay at home mom at the same time. Once high school hit – and the need to be available so many nights for sports and the busy life of a teenager – I made the decision to go “back” to work and just do my stamp gig as a part time fill in. Those high school sport nights turned into some College golf dreams – so I worked a few years longer than I had thought, but again grateful that I can adapt Stampin’ Up! to fit the needs of my family.
Finally College graduation and an empty nest – and I am able again to focus on Stamping full time. This time around it’s much more of a hybrid business – some in home and a whole lot of online! Oh, how the world has changed!
Not only has Stampin’ Up! brought me a creative outlet, but it truly has given me lifelong friends. Demonstrators on my team include some of the women I most love in my life. I love getting together with all of them. They include one of my dearest (I won’t say oldest) childhood friends, one friend I met in Australia, and girls I have shared so much of my adult life with.
This website has a little bit of all. An empty nest and a free-er schedule has enabled us to travel internationally again. This time we have cameras that actually take good pictures! As I have lived and loved so many places I also love to recreate the flavors, so I hope to include many of the dishes we love – so check back for the gallery of pictures and recipes to come.
So step into my studio and join me on this adventure!