The Creative Journey

True stories about the creation of The Artful Stencil from Kathy's and Joni's perspectives.

Kathy's journey

Ten months ago my phone rang and I found myself meeting Joni Prittie, a woman who would change my life. She'd found my laser engraving business on the Internet -- NOBODY finds me on the Internet; I have no metatags! -- but there she was cold-calling me to see if I had need of a vector artist. Of course I did, I'd just been thinking that, but I'm very particular about artistic style. When I saw her portfolio I was thrilled and knew immediately that we would make a great team. Everything clicked. She lived in Eugene like I did and we arranged to begin after the holidays.

How we came up with the idea of creating and selling stencils neither one of us can remember, but she designed, I cut, we fine-tuned our materials and began selling on eBay. They sold! The manifestation of our creative ideas had begun. We'd both watched The Secret and began clarifying our goals and expanding one stencil at a time. The categories grew and filled out.

The website was next and I faced the challenge of building something I had in the past deferred entirely to my son's expertise. But that, too, was perfect and every challenge found a solution. Late nights, overcoming self-doubts, and persistance got us where we are today -- a mere 10 months later.

It feels good. Sometimes Joni has more energy and time than me, and sometimes that's reversed, but we still persist because every step forward is a creation that will last forever. The journey does not have time constraints.

Our goal is to spread love through beauty. Every design is carefully developed with the intention of helping you create a satisfying end result. It's difficult to convey the spiritual aspects of what appears to be just another online business, but that truly is our foundation. We intention only good and enriching experiences for our customers and are grateful for every single sale. Whether you're stenciling a gift, brightening a hallway, or making a child's room feel special, facilitating your creative journey is our goal.

I'd love to hear your story.

-Kathy

Sept. 9, 2007