The Paper Craft Central Story

The Story of a Paper Craft Addict

So how did I become a papercraft addict?

And how did that addiction lead to the creation of Paper Craft Central?

Well, I was thinking about that the other day and I decided it really all started when I was little. (Now stick with me here! It won't take long to jump to 'now' and I will be able to tell you the Story of Paper Craft Central this way!)

When I was a child I couldn't indulge my developing passion for paper. We lived in small mining towns where shops were usually pretty scarce. I learned more about sewing and other crafts like candle making as the materials were more easily obtained and were considered more 'useful'.

My mother made sure all the hard-to-replace supplies like sticky tape and wrapping paper were kept well out of reach! We had to buy everything by mail order in those days so it was no light matter to use things up.

For three years I remember living in far northern Canada where we were frozen in to our town for 10 months of each year. No cars got in or out during the bitterly cold winters. There were no stores, there was no TV and we only had short-wave radio. A small aircraft flew in once a fortnight just to check that everyone was still alive.

Our mothers guarded supplies like paper and ribbon and recycled everything they could out of necessity. No one was encouraged to play with such things and waste them. We had lessons in various crafts but the supplies of lovely crafty things to play with always seemed to be limited. Paper Craft Central, it wasn't!

This created a desire in me to one day have all of the stationery and papercraft supplies I wanted. I had no idea how I was going to achieve that, though.

When I was old enough to work, I was living in Australia (talk about a polar opposite as far as the cold is concerned!) and that's what happened - I worked. 'Work' was considered to be a nine to five job, doing something skilled that I had to have training for. That's what all of my family did, after all.

My jobs were always demanding, taking up time and space in my life both on-the-job and off. It was interesting work. I worked as a government employee in people related fields, solving problems and supervising and being the one where the buck stopped at the end of the day. I really loved the responsibility for awhile, but after a few decades of this pattern, I started to grow restless.

Was I really doing what I wanted to do? What did I really want to do, anyway?

I think I was having a mid-life crisis, only a little later than most!

A Turning Point

What really clinched it for me (that I needed to change my focus) was when a colleague suddenly died before he retired. He had energy and commitment and was responsible and influential in our field. He never talked about retiring, to my knowledge, but we all knew he was thinking about it.

He was in his early 50s when he died, and he didn't get a chance to retire.

All those dreams people have about what they will do when they are free of their traditional working lives were no longer possible for him. I was so sad for him and for his family who had been left without him. All of his life had been taken up by his job.

Suddenly I realised that when I thought about my friend, it was like holding a mirror up to myself. Was that where I was headed?

After I started thinking about these ideas, I consciously started to cast around to find something I really enjoyed doing. I figured I could have a hobby at least, even if I couldn't stop working just yet. I hadn't really had hobbies during most of my working life because there was never any time for them. I was raising a family (I have a daughter and two step-sons and a wonderful husband), being responsible, being dependable.

It took me awhile to remember my childhood passion for playing with stationery and paper. I remembered that I loved stamped images and so started collecting a few rubber stamps. I knew there was more to stamping than placing an image on the bottom of a letter or the back of an envelope (which is what I mainly used my stamps for at first!) but it wasn't till about three years ago that I met a wonderful papercrafter online who introduced me to the much wider world of stamping.

Carla helped me

• find a wonderful papercraft site where I started to learn about how people made cards,
  
  
• sent me some beautiful stamps and papers plus a few lovely embellishments to play with as a surprise,
  
  
• encouraged me to give card making a go, and
  
  
• before long I was hooked! My paper craft addiction had begun!

My childhood dream was finally coming true. I could finally play with paper!

But I wasn't thinking about Paper Craft Central just yet.

It wasn't too long after receiving Carla's gifts that I started learning how to make homemade cards. The wonderful world of cardmaking started to open up for me and I met many talented women who were more than willing to give me tips and ideas. Papercrafters are a pretty giving bunch of people. Oh and my lovely stash of papercraft supplies started to grow then too.

About two years ago I started enjoying my off work activities far more than I enjoyed my conventional working life.

Meanwhile, my job responsibilities were building rather than waning, and more demands were placed on my time and resources.

In spite of that and almost in self-defence, I started a blog about papercrafting and began to meet even more papercrafters online. I started joining in on swaps and competitions around the globe, and even learned what blog candy was! I still had no idea that I could build a site like Paper Craft Central yet, but it was all getting vaguely closer.

It was maybe eighteen months ago that I met my friend Vanessa (in real life) who introduced me to scrapbooking and photo journalling, another lovely papercraft. When she asked me to consider trying it, I wasn't even sure I would like it, but then I remembered how much I loved photography (photos are printed on PAPER, right??) and decided to give that a go too.

I learned so much from her about how to make a layout, place photos on a page and embellish them wonderfully while telling the story about the images. The world of digital scrapbooking also began to open up for me with Vanessa's help. I just loved decorating my traditional scrapbooking pages and using punches, pretty bits of bling and being introduced to a whole new world of ideas and possibilities with paper.

The Crisis

Then late last year (2007), there was a crisis in my work life. My health had begun to suffer from the constant stresses and demands placed on me. One day everything came apart and I found myself in the doctor's office, being told I was too ill to return to work for awhile.

It took me some time to understand how serious this was. I thought I could just get up and go back to work in a day, maybe two, after a rest and a good lie down. My tiredness and symptoms continued and the days off work stretched into weeks, then months.

My body was finally telling me that it was going to be a long time before I was well enough to return to my previous position, if ever.

But I couldn't just do nothing, right?

My life had been a busy one, and coming to a full stop was such a foreign feeling. I kept telling myself that all I needed was a little rest, and I'd be good to go.

What Did the Future Hold?

Nothing I did seemed to hurry me along to regaining my former energy and strength. I slept for days. I took vitamins. I started walking. I prayed. I received counsel. I looked after myself in every way I knew how.

Nothing really seemed to work.

On days when I felt well enough, I would pursue my passion for paper at home. I made cards, studied other people's scrapbooking layouts, made more friends on the Internet, and each week I went to a workshop with Vanessa and some of my friends.

Sometimes I didn't feel up to facing the world, so I would stay home, often spending time on the computer and finding websites about papercrafts and forums and blogs and the real people on the other end of them, all passionate about paper and what it could do. Of course, I would also make my own cards and page layouts, too, and the practice of almost anything makes you better at it. I felt I was becoming a cardmaker and scrapbooker.

It was a lovely world, this papercrafting one, and finally I was realising that maybe I could spend more of my time doing the things I loved, in my own time, with a lot less pressure in my life. The idea of creating Paper Craft Central was still over the horizon. Little did I know it would one day appear, and soon.

By now I was beginning to think I would never return to my conventional job. But spending my whole life doing nothing? Now that was a dismal prospect.

The Road to Paper Craft Central

Another real life friend, Angie, had seen my blog. She asked me why I hadn't started my own website about papercrafting yet?

Now there was an idea I had never considered. Wasn't my blog enough? Why did I need a website anyway?

Angie was a true friend. She had already learned how to make a website so she showed it to me and told me her own story about how she had built it with the help of the tools available through Site Build It. It seemed to open up many more possibilities for communicating and providing information online than my blog did.

I was beginning to understand the need for the development of a website.

Now this was intriguing and fascinating, but I wasn't ready to think about starting something new. I needed more time to digest this information. Angie was someone I could trust though and she was making sense. And Site Build It (SBI for short) seemed to have all the tools I needed to get started the right way, right away.

Time can be a clever tool. It can help you think, toss up possibilities and find answers to questions if you let it.

Over the period of a few weeks, my excitement about the idea of making a papercraft website grew. I asked Angie to come over and tell me more. I looked some more at her site. I considered the tools SBI makes available to its members, and I gradually began to realise that this was something I really could do, if I wanted to.

I even thought of a name for my possible future site - Paper Craft Central. Finally Paper Craft Central was beginning to appear over the horizon!

With the encouragement of my husband and my friend Angie, I started Paper Craft Central in May 2008, and I registered the Paper Craft Central name.

What Life is Like For Me Now

Today I feel as though I have a new lease on life. Some days I play all day at Paper Craft Central, enjoying the fact that I get to think of a papercraft project, then play with paper and actually create that project, then take pictures of it (more paper play!) and finally write about that project to share it with you!

I'm finally living my childhood dream. I'm surrounded by yummy papercraft materials now.

Paper Craft Central is in its infancy. Its success won't be known for some time, but already I can see that by following the step-by-step plan that SBI provides, my content pages are growing. My traffic counter is going up. It's exciting to see that people are coming to take a look at what is happening here. I am adding to the site every couple of days, watching it take shape before my eyes.

By having access to help, guidance, and the tools to build it, I'm making a website that has a chance of succeeding. I hope it turns into a long-term, profitable e-business in the future.

Regardless of the outcome, I am excited about what I am doing again! Paper Craft Central has changed my life.

I didn't need to know anything about making a website before I joined SBI. They are making it so easy - doing the web-hosting for me, helping me build traffic, giving me all the tools I need to build comfortably, and guiding and supporting me through the whole process.

Eventually I will even learn how to earn a living with Paper Craft Central.

What about YOU?

My story may have inspired you to think about your own life. Are you doing what you want to do? Is it time to think about a new direction? Do you have a passion that you haven't been able to pursue yet?

Life is short. It seems to speed up as I grow older, and I don't know how much time I have to spend in this world before going on to the next with my Lord. I do know I am happier now that I am doing something I enjoy doing.

I hope you take the time to find your own passion and pursue it.

And if Site Build It is something you want to check out like I did, then I hope you will have a look at the information about this wonderful tool.

Meanwhile, enjoy the projects you can try on Paper Craft Central right along with me.

I've decided I like being a papercraft addict here at Paper Craft Central. I think I'll go create something right now...:)