Welcome to Camp Happy Mail! This site is a friendly, welcoming place for paper crafters and experimenting artists to share ideas, designs, and general art experiences. As a classically trained artist who successfully transferred into the world of electronic software. I live in the fast paced electronic world of marketing and advertising but my roots are in inks, paint, and paper. As a professional graphic artist for almost 30 years, my days are spent creating on the demand of others. Interpreting ideas for campaigns with specific goals into visual brand managed compositions printed by commercial printers. Visual content meeting the needs and demands of a modern marketing department. Make no mistake I do influence the design, but because the brand is king and the products are it’s subjects, rarely are anything but compositions of my own choosing. It’s stressful dealing with many stakeholders who trust my artistic style and ability to convert the ideas and sales data into real need driven point of contact driven messaging and pages. Each night after a full day of pouring others ideas into a mixed platter of color, fonts, static compositions geared for visual scanning and logical reading material designs that are generally very simple industrial conservative. At night I can slip into my world of nontraditional ideas that are more conservative, content of my choosing and messages I want to convey using traditional media techniques I have an interest in. This is my comfort zone. Where I literally can feel my mind and body shift gears. A place I love to live.
After many many years of hobby crafting, modeling clay, watercolor, acrylic, collage and photography. I began scrapbooking in 1998 for personal reasons, as my extended family began to grow with the introduction of quadruplets into the family matrix. Following the life and times as my brothers family exploded onto the scene. It truly became a requirement to understand and witness how it takes a village to raise four children all the same age, all in the same developmental stages at the same time. I mostly was a helper, but every moment I could my sister-N-law and brother allowed aunt Maureen to participate in the love and sharing of those four lives. It was such a joy to both participate in the special moments and watch their mother try to organize the chaos and still find time to record the daily happenings of the fab four / quad squad.
I moved to the central part of the state in pursuit of my career as a commercial graphic artist and designer. Several hundred miles away from the fab four I was determined to participate and found scrapbooking to be less and card making to be more. Photography had became a part of my profession no longer just a hobby. I moved to Texas, then Georgia where I began transitioning deeper into the world of nature photography traveling to and exploring California, Alaska, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Puerto Rico. I began immersing myself into card making to stay connected to family and friends. Happy Mail became an outlet and a passion.
Sharing is caring, so I want to encourage this, as it inspires others to make the world a happier place. Here, we offer a friendly learning environment for those interested in memory keeping and encouraging a space to share happy thoughts. I personally have found my groove in greeting card making. I enjoy lifting others spirits with humor and love. I love paper crafting and for many years I have shared my ideas with others and enjoy learning, as much as helping others!
