I have been dabbling in arts and crafts ever since I can remember.  I became hooked on stamping and stamping-related activities as a result of searching through my craft closet for a simple, fun activity for a disabled person in my care.  This person (who I will call Allison) had many disabilities and I wanted a craft that would keep her busy and happy.

I found a box of stamping supplies. I had experimented with stamping about 8 years before, but I couldn't figure out how embossing powder worked so I gave up.  This was about three and half years ago.  Allison got hooked.  She came from wealthy family and she had me take her on a shopping spree and even take her to a stamping convention in Georgia.  Needless to say, Allison got me hooked royally.

It has been a little more than 3 years of non-stop stamping and collaging since then.  The only break I took was when I moved from Illinois to Arizona.

During all that time, I was always dabbling with my computers as well.  I am self-taught starting with Mac and then eventually moving on to PCs and building my own computers.  I find that it helps me to understand the workings of computers inside and out.

I have always been on one e-mail list or another until I discovered Rubberstamping List and, well, the rest is history!

My style has changed dramatically from when I first started.  I moved from cute/country to odd and weird to just my own style.  I believe some of this change is due to changing living locations.  Currently, I prefer single image stamps, oil pastels and collaging.  I am trying to move away from exotic papers to making my own backgrounds but I have not been too successful with that because I keep finding more and more beautiful papers that are just too scrumptious to pass up.

Selling was not what I was interested in.  I found my niche in teaching on-line because there are no communication barriers.  Because I am deaf, this is very important to me.

With my storefront came a need to get into website design.  I wanted to showcase my work attractively.  I think I did pretty well considering that I am self taught at website design.

I have many dreams and plans and I can't wait to get going on them.

I also enjoy participating in swaps - the more unusual the better. I am excited to be in the Tag Art Swap, Collage Clock Swap, Goddess Shrine Swap, Fall Leave Swap, and Doll-Goddess Swap as well as few smaller and private swaps.

Email: valobra@home.com

Website: www.odd-goddess.com