Erika

I started papercrafting as a young girl. My mom still jokes with me about my constant questions as a child, "What can I do? What can I have?" My hands always seemed to want to be busy.

I loved to cut construction paper, glue, color, paint and collage. As I got older, my papercrafting took on a more sophisticated feel. In 1995, I started scrapbooking in a very crude form. Back then, scrapbooking was still very new to the craft world. I was self-taught and there wasn't much out there in the stores to even buy for the craft.

In 1999, I was invited to a home party featuring scrapbooking and learned that I was using products that weren't safe for my photos, so I tweaked my methods and was able to start buying products that I never knew existed.

In 2001, I was introduced to the world of Stampin' Up! I became a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in June of that year. 8 years later, I'm still here and still stamping away. For years I said that I would never stamp. All it took was the right company to come along and change my outlook on it. Stamping opened up a whole new perspective for my creative outlet. Stamping seemed to meld really well with my scrapbooking and a whole new obsession was born.

Over the last 8 years, my art has taken on many different forms and has gone through many different phases and transformations. I've done display boards for a local craft store, worked there as a teacher and have been teaching my own classes for the last 8 years. I teach courses at an art school in southern Vermont during the summer, fall and winter seasons, as well as occasionaly teach Altered Books as an integrated art which creates a hands-on approach to traditional subjects in Vermont high schools and elementary schools. I have also appeared on quite a few craft segments for a local cable station.

One of my newest passions is creating commissioned work for people that enjoy what I do.

And, of course, I continue to work on my own personal scrapbooks, altered art, stamping and papercrafts.

After all, it's more than a passion. It's an obsession. :)