Create. Connect. Share.

The Detour

I still have all my sewing supplies. They live in a bin I open periodically and do the odd sewing activity like mending or adjusting a pant hem. Sewing has always humbled me in the most frustrating way — one mistake, and you’re ripping out seams and starting over. It never gave me the satisfaction I was looking for, and while I have made some things I am very proud of, they took forever!

The $200 Cart

While watching YouTube one day, searching for my next sewing project, I found a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator making ten cards in twenty minutes. She made it look easy and fun. I put $200 of supplies in my cart — real commitment, zero hesitation — then discovered she wasn’t Canadian, and I couldn’t check out. A tragedy. That cart deserved better.

Figuring It Out the Hard Way

So I went to my local craft store and started purchasing craft supplies online instead. Surely I could use similar supplies that she used and get the same beautifully easy results…how hard could it be?

My cards looked… homemade. Not in the charming way. What was I doing differently?

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

I wondered if I just wasn’t cut out for this.

It Wasn’t Me. It Was the Supplies.

After more time and cost than I’d like to admit, still nothing coordinated. Colours that almost matched but didn’t quite. Paper that clashed with ink that clashed with ribbon – not the look I was going for.

Then I found Stampin’ Up! again — and a Canadian demonstrator who showed me what real coordination looks like. My first projects were suddenly polished, I felt proud with what I created. I was hooked, in the way you get hooked on something that finally, finally works.

Then I Discovered CASEing

Copy And Share Everything. Yes — the C really does mean copy. I didn’t need to design from scratch to get started; I could find layouts I loved, copy exactly or take elements, credit the source, and make something my own.

I didn’t need more talent. I needed the right supplies and a starting point.

The Moment I Knew

A New Year’s party. Two girlfriends. My craft room. Heat embossing, for the first time — which, fair warning, is basically a magic trick the first time you see it.

Watching their faces light up — that was it. I didn’t just love crafting. I loved sharing it.

I’ve been a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator since 2017, and I built The Canadian Stamper around that exact feeling.