In 1994 diabetic
complications during my pregnancy cost me much of my eyesight and lead to
disability retirement from an administrative position with the Department of Veterans
Affairs. I later regained most of the vision in my right eye, though
losing vision in the left eye. This brush with blindness fostered a keen
awareness of the value of preservation of visual imagery. This led to my
decision to join Creative Memories as a consultant.
As Creative
Memories Consultant, I became very active in the America On-Line scrapbooking
community. I was also instrumental in forming the first interactive list server
for Creative Memories consultants to communicate with each other. Membership on
the list provided me with insight into the needs of scrapbooking consultants and
consumers that few outside of Creative Memories have had an opportunity to
obtain
Having worked to
pioneer internet scrapbooking communication between consultants, I left
direct sales to foster communication between scrapbookers themselves with
companies in the scrapbooking industry. The website was known as The
Scrapbooking Idea Network http://www.scrapbooking.com. Scrapbooking.com was the
first dedicated scrapbooking site and the first stand-alone scrapbooking
community (with message boards) on the Internet. Scrapbooking.com was unique in
many ways. I attended the Hobby Industry Association Craft Show to cover the
even and share information on scrapbooking supplies for the first time in 1997. Scrapbooking.com became
the first website to offer an online review of a trade show, thus starting a
trend among craft and other sites on the Internet to provide trade show
reviews. My unbiased new product reviews become one of the most popular areas
of the website. Scrapbookers recognized my keen eye for spotting the best new
products and trends for scrapbooking. I took digital pictures and wrote articles
on the new products and techniques I found at the show and posted them online to
the website at night. Strong marketing skills and innovative ideas as well as
impartial information about safe scrapbooking products made Scrapbooking.com the
place for scrapbookers to meet online for information. The site was built from
the ground up on my home computer while I raised my son, Drew.
Because I did not sell my enthusiasm for specific
product lines and/or companies, I gained much favor with the public as a
provider of valuable, impartial information about scrapbooking. Scrapbookers
learned that when I raved about a product, it was because the product itself was
good. I was able to build many solid relationships with the companies who
emerged as scrapbooking was booming in the 90's.
In
addition to its popular message boards, Scrapbooking.com launched
five interactive list servers for scrapbooking consumers and retailers to
discuss scrapbooking-related matters. I actively participated in these
discussions. This
participation helped to keep me in touch and in tune with the wants and needs of
scrapbooking consumers and retailers.
In addition to the website,
I assisted with product development consulting for scrapbooking-related
businesses resulted in the launch of several successful scrapbooking businesses.
I was able to provide unique insights from scrapbook consumers that aided in new
scrapbook products coming to market, including the launch of the Cropper Hopper
for Leeco Industries. David Blackburn, National Sales Manager for Leeco stated
that after my review of the Cropper Hopper on scrapbooking.com "the phone
started ringing and hasn't stopped since!" In addition to consulting I
pioneered several successful online advertising campaigns for scrapbooking
products when online advertising was un-chartered territory.
Over
the years I have taught scrapbooking
classes, done demonstrations for local stores and developed a demonstration scrapbooking album for a craft chain.
I have attended the HIA, ACCI and CHA Trade Show with scrapbooking product distributors
to conducting scrapbook demonstrations during the show.
In
1998 I attended the HIA
trade show in Dallas to review products for scrapbooking.com. Scrapbooking.com
still had the only, live impartial trade show coverage on the Internet. Website
stats soared as anxious consumers learned what products were being released in
the coming year. I continued have sole responsibility for managing, editing,
marketing and running scrapbooking.com the largest scrapbooking
site on the Internet.
CK Article
Frequent requests for
interviews as an expert in scrapbooking and scrapbooking trends resulted in
articles in Canadian Living Magazine, Country Living Magazine, Rubber Stamp
Madness Magazine and numerous newspaper articles. I also wrote articles for
scrapbooking consumer and trade publications such as Creating Keepsakes
Magazine, the International Scrapbook Trade Association trade and consumer
magazine and Rubber Stampin' Retailer. In addition to being the webmaster for
The Scrapbooking Idea Network, I also developed websites for other scrapbooking-related
businesses including CropperHopper and scrapbookpartners. I added several new
informationa websites to the scrapbooking.com
family including learn2scrapbook.com and allaboutscrapbooking.com providing all
content, design and scrapbook projects.
I
was invited to co-author The Simple Art of Scrapbooking Tips, Techniques, and 30
Special Album Ideas For Creating Memories That Last a Lifetime which was
published in 1998 by Dell published the
Simple Art of Scrapbooking in 1998. I enjoyed being part of a 6-member team that
wrote and illustrated the book for Dell.
Scrapbooking.com
continued to grow and maintain its number one slot in the Internet search
engines. In April 1999 scrapbooking.com has a monthly readership of over unique
70,000 scrapbookers. Because of a family health crisis in late 1999 I sold scrapbooking.com to
A-Z Media
Since selling scrapbooking.com I have remained active in the scrapbooking
industry in a number of ways. I have continued to design projects and products
for companies in the scrapbooking and craft industry. I have taught classes and
done product demonstrations at trade shows and local scrapbooking stores.
I
have enjoyed watching the growth of the scrapbooking industry from just a few
companies with a few products to the hundreds of companies with thousands of
products we now have available.
I
would like to see the designers in the scrapbooking and paper crafts industry
attain a more uniform work environment as well as information repositories so
that we aren't recreating the wheel over and over again.
