Fund Gwen's Paper Arts Store
Donation protected
Kindergarten was a good year for me. I loved to cut and paste. My senior year, not so much. My mom and I were involved in a single car roll over accident. She had a few broken ribs and I had a broken neck, instant paralysis, and a scratch on my nose. After some surgeries and rehab, I finished high school and college, got a job. Basically, I just got on with life.
Fast forward to 2004, something threw a wrench in my life plan. I developed a decubitus ulcer (bedsore) on my bum. It put me flat on my back for 9 months to heal it and I lost my job, my income, and my wonderful family of coworkers.
The last ten years of my life have been spent in bed. I can get up once a week, twice if I'm lucky, for 4 to 5 hours. After thirty years or more of getting up and going every day of my life, this is like prison! All of my savings and all of my retirement funds have been depleted paying for caregivers that I must have every day. Within the next year, all of my funds will be gone. I will have no money to pay my caregivers and it scares me to death.
My wish, my goal, is to gather enough funding to start a scrapbook/paper arts business. I want to work. I want to be creative. I want to make small scrapbooks for people who don't have time or are not 'crafty' themselves. My scrapbooks have very humble beginnings - they start out as brown paper lunch bags and end up as super cute scrapbooks with places to put 30 to 40 photos and/or journaling entries and pockets to put memorabilia like ticket stubs, maps, brochures, etc. I am thinking of calling them 'Bags of Memories' or 'Memories in a Bag'.
The funds I receive will be used to buy a computerized paper cutting machine, the tools, paper, glue, ink, punches, stamps, and all the wonderful embellishments that personalize each scrapbook.
I WANT to work. I need to be creative. I just need a hand up, not a 'handout', to get things started.
Fast forward to 2004, something threw a wrench in my life plan. I developed a decubitus ulcer (bedsore) on my bum. It put me flat on my back for 9 months to heal it and I lost my job, my income, and my wonderful family of coworkers.
The last ten years of my life have been spent in bed. I can get up once a week, twice if I'm lucky, for 4 to 5 hours. After thirty years or more of getting up and going every day of my life, this is like prison! All of my savings and all of my retirement funds have been depleted paying for caregivers that I must have every day. Within the next year, all of my funds will be gone. I will have no money to pay my caregivers and it scares me to death.
My wish, my goal, is to gather enough funding to start a scrapbook/paper arts business. I want to work. I want to be creative. I want to make small scrapbooks for people who don't have time or are not 'crafty' themselves. My scrapbooks have very humble beginnings - they start out as brown paper lunch bags and end up as super cute scrapbooks with places to put 30 to 40 photos and/or journaling entries and pockets to put memorabilia like ticket stubs, maps, brochures, etc. I am thinking of calling them 'Bags of Memories' or 'Memories in a Bag'.
The funds I receive will be used to buy a computerized paper cutting machine, the tools, paper, glue, ink, punches, stamps, and all the wonderful embellishments that personalize each scrapbook.
I WANT to work. I need to be creative. I just need a hand up, not a 'handout', to get things started.
Organizer
Gwen M Templeman
Organizer
Skiatook, OK
