Hi everybody! I’m Chris, aka inkpad, here on Splitcoaststampers. I couldn’t believe it when Lydia asked me to consider a stint as a Dirty Girl and I am so excited at the chance to be playing along with everyone here.

I was introduced to stamping almost 22 years ago when a friend had a Stampin’ Up! party. I brought my two young daughters along so that I wouldn’t have to actually do it myself. Quickly intrigued, it wasn’t long before I was stamping too and within a couple of months I became a demonstrator. Though I’ve moved back and forth between hobby and active demonstrator, I’ve always treasured relationships that are built over stamps and ink.

I’ve been married to Kelly for almost 34 years and we have three grown children. When we aren’t visiting them we like to spend time on Lake Superior’s North Shore.

We’ve lived in various communities across the state of Minnesota and a few years ago we downsized into a condo in downtown St Paul. It was a lot of work thinning my accumulated stamp supplies so that I could craft in a space that was less than a tenth of my previous studio. Now that that’s behind me I can happily tell you that you don’t need a lot of room to be creative.

I’ve recently retired from nursing and am relishing having more time for my crafty friends, both in person and online. Recently, I was so privileged to join the Color Challenge Team here on SCS. The past few years I’ve also enjoyed setting aside extra time for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges which does so much to stretch my creativity.

Many thanks to Lydia for inviting me to join this Dirty Girl adventure!