Hello & welcome to the re-imagined Your Scrapping Café. The Café was originally founded with the goal of providing a whole new atmosphere for working on your scrapbook or other crafting project; a space where you can relax, get away from the noise and confusion – an environment more conducive to inspiration, concentration and creativity. At the very heart of the Café is a sincere desire to help you find new ideas and learn new techniques on YOUR project and when it fits YOUR schedule. At their core, none of those goals have changed. The “delivery mechanism” is a bit different now but my desire to help others learn more about creating beautiful things is still the same.

Before I go much further, please understand that I am in the United States and have limited experience/exposure to products & services offered outside the US. That being said, I don’t want anyone from outside the US to feel excluded. Most (if not all) of the information and/or references I make will likely be US-centric. That’s not to say I don’t think more globally than that…I just don’t have a whole lot of global reference points. I will, when I can, try to include non-US points when I have some. The same goes for any products/tools I may discuss. Creativity is universal and all are welcome here at the Café.

I’ve always tried to help people come up with unique solutions to interesting problems. Sometimes it’s just a matter of helping someone think “outside the box.” And that can be a hard thing for all of us, I think. So here at the Café I want to help others do just that.

There is no doubt that creativity is one of the most important human resources of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would forever be repeating the same tired, old patterns. And here’s something else I’ve learned over the years working in the creative field: Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Making mistakes is how we grow. Knowing which mistakes to keep is what helps art evolve. Too often we strive for perfection. And that is an extremely lofty goal that ultimately can never be attained.

Here at the Café, I hope to provide moments of inspiration for my followers. Whether it be a new tip I learned or pointers on how to look at your creative life differently. One thing I used to tell my customers was this: There really are no rules to scrapbooking. It’s your project and if you like what you’ve done…that’s really all that matters. You should never compare your work to others’. Especially if it makes you feel inferior. Rather, you should look at what others do and try to take inspiration from it, learn, grow, change & break out of your old patterns.

And I will continue to provide custom solutions for people when asked. I have continued to do a lot of that over the past 6 years or so. I do still love helping people achieve their vision of a project. So, if you find something on Etsy (or wherever) and it’s not fully customizable, please use the “Message Me” page to drop me a line and I will work with you to see if we can come up with a better solution. If you’ve already read “my story” then you know I don’t easily back down from a challenge. And not much brings me more joy than making others happy!