Hi! My name is Karen. I'm still a bit dazed from being asked to be in the Dirty Dozen. I joined Splitcoaststampers back in 2004 and I remember when the first dozen was revealed - they were amazing! While I aspired to join their ranks - I am astonished to now find myself in the dirt pile! Thank you so much Lydia!

I found out about stamping - well scrapbooking first - in 2001 when a past coworker invited me to a CTMH scrapbook party. My daughter was just a few months old and since, being the baby of my family, I always lamented the sparseness of my own baby book, I figured scrapbooking would be perfect. After the first scrapbooking party, I attended some card making parties and enjoyed finding the creative side of my brain. I managed to get my mom involved in stamping - she became an SU demonstrator - and it was through her that I found Splitcoaststampers.

As I said, I joined in 2004. At first I just lurked and enjoyed all the inspiration - and challenges. Oh the challenges! At the end of 2005 I decided to host my own challenge - the Inspiration Challenge. It was so much fun to hostess and it helped me stretch my own creativity. I had so much love for SCS that I wanted to give back and at the end of 2007 I became a gallery moderator. In 2008 I had to step down from the Inspiration Challenge (this is when my kids started school and I got drafted into the PTA), but I kept up with the gallery moderating. In 2009 I started helping with the Index Card project. Between the PTA and now a job, I've had to give up my daily moderator time, but I still moderate the index cards and help as a sub for the gallery mods.

About me personally, I have two daughters (both teenagers now) and a wonderfully understanding husband. I was a stay-at-home-mom until my youngest got to middle school, then I got a job with a local school. While I have a secretary job now, before kids I did lots of computer type jobs (ranging from tech support to web programming). I still keep my fingers wet with the programming (my first love) by taking care of my mother's SU website. When I'm not crafting, I am reading (and reading, and reading).