Hello, My name is LeAnn . . .

     I go by sillyleann just about everywhere I go on the internet whether crafting related or not.  I am married to the absolute love of my life.  We are celebrating our 10th Anniversary the sixth of May.  I am a SAHM with 2 delightful children.  I have a 6 year old boy and a 3 year old daughter.  They seriously light up my life and are so precious.  I think I could write a book about the conversations we have and the crazy concocted things they say.  I have a 7 year old boxer.  She is a great dog, but at times we have a love/hate relationship (it's the snoring, whining, . . . )  I am a huge Survivor fan.  It is the only must-see show for us - although I thoroughly enjoy Dancing with the Stars, the Bachelor, Biggest Loser, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution . . . can you say reality junkie!  I am a Mac fan.  I am a snob about it.  I do not like Windows anything and don't want to discuss it.  My husband says it is an obsession and I should seek counseling.  I am willing but, I am afraid it would bring up all my neurotic tendencies and that is a scary place to go.  :)  Speaking of neurotic, I am a self diagnosed obsessive compulsive.  Again, my husband says I should seek counseling but read above.  I think I have a somewhat twisted sense of humor and that is okay as long as you laugh with me and not at me.

     I have been crafting most of my life.  I started "scrapbooking", so-to-speak, since I was around 7.  My dad bought me a camera one day around my 7th birthday (I don't even remember why).  It was a 110 (not a 35mm) and took that funny long skinny film thing (it sounds like I was born in the 20's, but I really am 32).  I began taking pictures and putting them in photo albums.  I would find magazine pictures, make construction paper titles, create overlays, etc to put in the photo sleeves and around the photos.  I didn't know about real scrapbooking, so this is what I dreamed up.  When I first learned that scrapbooking was a thing, I fell instantly in love.   Years later, I got a digital camera for college graduation and realized that it seemed silly to print the pictures and then scrap.  So, I thought I was clever to make these collage things - the predecessor to digiscrap.  Oh, looking back they were horrible.  I thought everyone should be doing this and thought I had invented something.  Well, about 4 years later a google search turned up a whole new world - digital scrapbooking.  Oh, technically I had been digiscraping, but nothing like my new discovery.  That was 6 years ago and I haven't gone back.  Although I knew I would never scrapbook again, I was having paper crafting withdrawals.  I made a few digital cards (before hybrid was a word).  But I never really got the same satisfaction from it as I did digital scrapbooking.  So, I pulled out my dusty scrapbook stuff and went to work.  I was hooked!  I bought my first stamp (does anyone remember when stamps came on wooden blocks?) and haven't looked back.  After exhausting my local Hobby Lobby of anything cute, I went looking in other places.  Viola - PTI!

     I am super excited to be a part of the Papertrey Chicks.  I love, love, LOVE making cards.  My dream is to someday get published.  But, I enjoy it and find it extremely rewarding.  My husband and I started a letters ministry.  It sounds fancier than it really is.  We just go through the church directory and/or our personal contacts and send real, handwritten letters inside the cards that I make.  It has been so interesting to see the response.  I am blown away how such a simple act can be so significant to others.  I do sell my cards at a local store.  Trust me when I say - don't quit your day job.  I put all my earnings back into PTI (and a few small places here and there).  While I currently wouldn't be able to support my family on it, it does support my hobby (cough . . . addiction).