Two years ago, my friend Rita moved to Nevada to enjoy her retirement (she’s known as daffyrs1 here on SCS). When she downsized her craft room, she gifted me over a hundred stamps and other supplies. I had done some scrapbooking about fifteen years ago, but I had never made a card or done any stamping. It seemed fun and I was eager to learn, so I began obsessively searching Pinterest for card ideas. I started to notice that I was liking a lot of pins from splitcoaststampers.com, so I figured I should check it out. Wow! What an overwhelming volume of beautiful creations, tips, tutorials and expertise! So I uploaded my first cards and, of course, Cheryl welcomed me and recommended that I check out the “Start Here” forum and told me how much I would love it here. I wasn’t so sure. I’ve never been one to get into online forums and chat with strangers. I thought it was a nice place to post my cards and get ideas and kind of stay on the sidelines. But then I tried a challenge, and then another, and another, and I started to comment on cards and receiving comments in return. I began to recognize artists by their style and really care about the stories they told about their cards and their lives. And I fell in love. It’s not just a cool website with a lot of neat tricks and ideas. It’s an amazing community full of amazing and caring people. And it doesn’t matter how much negativity is out there in the rest of the world, everything that goes on here is positive and uplifting and really just pure fun! I am over the moon excited to join the Dirty Dozen, because this place just feels like home.
But what do I do when I’m not stamping? Well, I was born and raised in Freetown, MA, where I’m married to my high school sweetheart and surrounded by family and friends. We have two little boys (4 and 2) who keep us both busy and entertained. I’ve been a math geek my whole life and I work full time as an actuary. I know it’s usually math and science that go together, but for me it’s always been math and art. I was voted “Most Artistic” in my high school graduating class because I was in the art room every chance I got (when I wasn’t at Math Team). To me, making cards is like art class all over again, especially when trying new techniques. My other hobbies—if I can find any time—are knitting, Zumba, and mountain biking.

Thank you all for being you and for inspiring me every single day!