The Paper Craft Central Story

My name is Susan Luke and I am the Paper Craft Central Story . I am something of a papercraft addict. In my case, my addiction has led to a positive outcome: the growth of Paper Craft Central.

Are you wondering how I became a papercraft addict in the first place and then started this website?

NOTE : Skip straight to my SBI! Review to read about some of the advantages of the business training I receive.

How the Paper Craft Central Story Began

Becoming a papercraft addict all started when I was little.

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

All the hard-to-replace supplies like sticky tape and wrapping paper were kept out of reach of children. 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 lived 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 therefore 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.

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 as a child.

Progression of an Idea

When I was old enough to work, I was living in Australia. I trained to be suitable for work in a paying job.

My jobs were always demanding, taking up time and space in my life during conventional work hours after hours too. It was interesting to work but after a few decades of this pattern, I started to grow restless.

Was I really doing what I wanted to do?

An Important and Tragic Signpost

When a colleague suddenly died before she retired, I began to rethink.

I was so tired of him and he was left without him. All of his life had been taken up by his job.

Suddenly I realised that when I thought about my work colleague, it was like holding a mirror up to myself. Was I headed for the same fate? Would I ever get to spend quality time with my family and friends? Would I get to retire before I died? When would I build that stock of paper craft items I wanted to play with?

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, being responsible, being dependable.

I knew that I loved stamped images and so I started the change by 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 but it wasn't till 2005 that I met a wonderful papercrafter online who introduced me to the much wider world of stamping.

I started learning how to make homemade greeting cards. The intriguing world of cardmaking began to open up for me and I met many talented women and men who were more than willing to give me tips and ideas. Papercrafters are a pretty giving bunch of people. My lovely stash of papercraft supplies started to grow then too!

By 2006 I started enjoying my off work activities more and made room for them in my life around my busy work schedule.

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

In spite of that , I started a blog about papercrafting and began to meet even more papercrafters online. I started joining in on swaps, local classes, competitions and joined in on swaps around the globe online.

Crossroad

Then late in 2007, there was a crisis in my work life. My health had begun to suffer from the constant stresses and demands. 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. 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.

My life had been a busy one, and coming to a full stop was such a foreign feeling.

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

I felt I was becoming a real cardmaker and scrapbooker!

Finally I realised that I could spend more of my time doing the things I loved, in my own time, and that it caused a lot less pressure in my life. Returning to work became possible, but I did not want to let go of this peaceful and creative aspect of my life.

This was an important point in the progression of the Paper Craft Central Story.

Website Stage

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

I had a few questions. Wasn't my blog enough? Why did I need a website anyway?

Angie had already learned how to create a web business 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 SiteSell. Building a website seemed to open up many more possibilities for communicating and providing information online than my blog did. Among other things, a website was easily searched compared to a blog, and content did not seem to go stale so easily.

I began to understand the need for the development of a web business.

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, I asked Angie to tell me more. 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 website and the Paper Craft Central story really began in 2008.

What Life is Like for me Now

Today I am enjoying the fact that I get to dream up papercraft project, then play with paper and actually create that project so I can share it with you. I retired and am able to craft to my heart's content now! I get to spend time with crafty friends. Lots of laughs and tears of joy there!

Paper Craft Central's ultimate success won't be known for some time, but I can see that by following the step-by-step plan that Sitesell provides, my content pages are growing. It's exciting to see that people are coming to take a look at what is happening here.

By having access to help, guidance, and the tools to build it, I'm making a website that has a great chance of succeeding.

Remember, I didn't need to know anything about creating a web business before I joined SiteSell. They are making it so easy by 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. It's fun. The forums you can access as an SiteSell owner and the relationships you can personally build up with other site builders there are just wonderful.

I am finding out how to add value to my life with the Paper Craft Central story.

What about You?

My story about Paper Craft Central 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.

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

If SiteSell is something you want to check out like I did, then I hope you will do so.

How Can YOU Create a Web Business Like Paper Craft Central?

You have a choice about how you can build a successful web business. If you are an independent self-starter then you will love jumping right in and finding out more about the ten step Action Guide.

If you would like to find out more about SiteSell's eLearning course so that you can have more structure and support while discovering how to build a successful web business, that is on offer too.

Whether it's from necessity, passion or logic, you can build your own Web business, a day at a time, just like I built the Paper Craft Central Story.

I sure like being a papercraft addict here at Paper Craft Central. I think I'll go create something new to show you right now...got to keep the Paper Craft Central Story alive and kicking!

PS: Yes, that's me at the top of the page when I first started papercrafting, and this is me now. Time passes! Don't wait!

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