Since Creative Memories re-launched back in 2014, we’ve celebrated the fact that our Advisor Join Offer has great benefits (the joy of a hobby you love, access to exclusive products, no minimum order requirements, and an idea-rich, supportive community, just to name a few)! What people don’t talk much about? The fact that your hobby can create income that can be a game-changer for your family!Have you thought about becoming an Advisor, but aren’t sure if it’s right for you? Well, look no further than these three amazing Advisor stories to see the impact a meaningful home-based business has made on their lives.
Who is Debby MacLean?
Debby is a Creative Memories Advisor who joined the community in 2019!
Name: Debby MacLean
Join Date: December 2019
2020 Achievement: Debby reached Level 5 in September 2020!
Debby’s Story: Debby has been scrapbooking off and on for about 25 years, but the real meaning of why she scrapbooks began at 21 years old when her mom passed away. She began to think about preserving her family story and started gathering pictures around the house and took even more pictures of family, friends and the world around her.
As her two sons got older and she was working full-time at the University of New Brunswick, she put scrapbooking aside and only dabbled here and there. She was still passionate about buying scrapbooking goodies, saving cards and memorabilia and snapping pictures, so her stash was certainly growing, but not being used. Once her sons left home, she decided to really get back into scrapbooking and show off the thousands of pictures she had taken over the years of her sons, husband, extended family members, celebrations, travel and their hockey and football families.
One day at a crop, she reacquainted with a high school classmate who used nothing but Creative Memories products. Debby quickly found out how well-made the products are and how everything coordinates beautifully together. Her friend encouraged her to become an Advisor, and she did in December 2019. By September 2020, she hit Level 5 while still also working full-time. On her Facebook page, she offers page challenges, prizes, demo techniques and anything to make people feel like they belong to something special, and more importantly, have somewhere to go during this time of COVID.
Her journey with Creative Memories has only just begun, but already it is a love story with each completed page — a happy ending.
“As I’ve learned, at the end of the day, all we have is the love found between the covers of our family albums. So please snap those pictures, write your memories down, take time to celebrate all of life’s precious moments in keepsake albums.”
Debby’s CM earnings allow her to: Invest her profits back into her business and savings. “I currently work full time at a local university, and I signed up with CM as an Advisor as part of my retirement plan, which in turn, generates sales and is an easy way for me to add income to use toward buying scrapbooking supplies without going into my family’s income. The extra money also helps fund my crops to help buy prizes, table gifts, etc.”
Debby’s tip to grow a CM business: “I just started building my customer base and had two in-person crops when COVID hit. How was I going to keep my new venture alive? I decided to create a Facebook page called ‘Scrap Happy’ to keep us all more connected. I posted regularly about new products, did live videos (which I love doing) and reached out to my customers who I knew were feeling so isolated and lonely. My customers told me so many times last year how they were turning to my page to give them comfort and hope, to see what’s new and to feel that they were not alone in all of this.”
Who is Samm Campbell?
Samm is a Creative Memories Advisor who joined the community in 2016!
Name: Samm Campbell
Advisor Join Date: Aug. 3, 2016
2020 Achievement: Samm maintained Level 5 Advisor status due to her creative marketing ideas that generated new business during the challenging year of 2020!
Samm’s Story: Samm grew up with a mother who scrapbooked and was a CM Advisor many years ago. Samm found her passion for scrapbooking by watching her mother, but it really strengthened in having her own family. With so many wonderful albums her mother created, she knew her story was on the pages, and now it is her responsibility to share and capture those memories for her own daughter to enjoy.
Samm’s CM earnings allow her to: Support herself and her daughter. She is a chef by trade, and with hospitality closed down for so long in Victoria, she has used that time to do passion-driven things that are supportive of her customers, which has come back to her in being able to sustain an income to support herself and her daughter.
Samm’s tip to grow a CM business: She was involved in a series of trade expos over the year that were held in rural towns in Victoria and established a customer base in a few of these areas. She was able to use that experience in dealing with remoteness from customers to quickly change her plans to virtual. She does online workshops, makes kits and continues to grow her customer base (and to share the Advisor opportunity).
Samm thought outside the box to go virtual and created a thriving new part of her business that she will continue even after in-person events are allowed again. Samm started offering COVID kits and also created boxes of “at-home mum bundles,” which included wine and chocolate that she sold for $125 to $175. (She sold 15 of these!) She also had $100 bundles with product she had on hand and went through 40 packs of cardstock, 38 designer paper packs, plus stickers, mats and more.
“The kits were awesome. They provided everything customers needed to complete a full project, which gave them something to work on not just for the workshop, but in the lockdown days afterward.”
Who is Sara Moss?
Sara is a Creative Memories Advisor who joined the community in 2020!
Name: Sara Moss
Join Date: May 2020
2020 Achievement: Sara reached Level 5 in 2020!
Sara’s Story: Sara has a number of fond scrapbooking memories. Her earliest memory is from a very young age — creating with her mother. When Sara got married, she visited her mother-in-law and noted that she always had such fun scrapbooks that brought the family together — even now after her mother-in-law has passed away. Now as a mother of four, Sara has committed to doing the same thing for her family and enjoy spending time with her two daughters to create and save their own special memories.
Early in 2020, as she started to get back into creating memories, Sara reached out to her experienced scrapbooking sister and asked her the best way to create a perfect circle — her sister recommended the Creative Memories Custom Cutting System. While unfamiliar with CM at the time, Sara quickly went to the website, loved what she saw and immediately signed up as an Advisor that night!
From there, Sara had goals to spend more time with her daughters and sisters. She had her daughters pick out their favorite items in the CM catalog and helped them with their own starter kits. One of her sisters is not very familiar with scrapbooking, but after seeing the products, she got really excited with the possibilities and Sara helped her to start her own family scrapbook. Her more experienced scrapbooking sister has her own scrapbooking store in her state, and Sara is always amazed to see what she puts together. They’ve even set up scrapbooking tables in Sara’s home in recent visits to spend time together. With Sara being active with CM and learning about the new products, the experienced sister now comes to her for a few ideas.
Sara’s CM earnings allow her to: Start a small in-home business. “With such a great experience with the CM products, I’ve wanted to share this same experience with others. Using the CM bundles, and even creating a few of my own custom bundles, has helped others get started.”
Sara’s tip to grow a CM business: “With many of us staying home currently, now is the time to build those memories to last a lifetime!”
Is this for me?
Would you enjoy being part of a supportive community of scrapbookers? Do you enjoy getting a first look at new products? Did you read the stories and think… could this be me?
If you said yes to any of those questions, then it’s time to become a Creative Memories Advisor! Join our community — there are no monthly order minimums or hidden costs. Once you become an Advisor, you’ll get access to our exclusive Advisor Facebook Group, Advisor-only products and earn 10% back on all of your orders. Now that’s a win-win-WIN!
Visit the Join page to learn more about becoming an Advisor or talk to your current CM Advisor, who would love to chat with you about all the benefits of being an Advisor! US | CA | AU
I would love to know how to contact Sara’s sister’s scrapbooking store. I sometimes need to buy supplies CM doesn’t carry.
Would love to hear how other people have started an album about themselves. Like Debby my Mum passed away at just 65 years and I realise just how little I know about her. So I would love to do an album about my life. Appreciate any help.
CM Advisor Melissa Ullman has a virtual course entitled “All About Me!” I completed the course in 2019, ended up making two albums full (Vol. I and Vol. II since I have a large extended family) and I proudly show it off to my grandchildren, and anyone else who cares to look at it. Melissa’s course is great, as she has questions to be answered to prompt stories and memories.
Thanks Karen, I have contacted Melissa to see if she can give me some ideas. Appreciate your help
Jenny, I’m currently working on The (Scrap)Book of Ruth, an album about my life. I previously completed an album about my late husband’s life for the benefit of our children and grandchildren. I have chosen to keep each of our life stories to one album. I began mine with a family tree – back to my great-grandparents – and I briefly documented the origin stories of both sides of the family before starting in with photos and memorabilia from my birth and infancy. I’m doing a mix of chronological and thematic pages. For instance, I’ve done a two-page spread of school photos from grade school through high school, with separate spreads devoted to Jr. High and H.S. photos and memorabilia. That’s where I am working now. I’ve used the Power Pages layout system to plan the photos I’ll use in the remaining spreads, although I make up the layouts as I go along. The hardest part of doing any album is starting. If you spread out ALL of your photos and scraps of memory-joggers (mine are on Post-It Notes) and plan roughly what you will document on each page, you will be off to a great start. Good luck!
Thanks Ruth for your tips…I agree the hard part is starting
Hi Jenny, I have made 3 albums about myself centred around milestone birthdays or events; birthday 60, 65 and my recent separation . I included cards and photos of my children of course and wrote thank you notes to each which I included. I included stories from my past, maybe in 10 year increments. I did a couple of spreads where I showed 1 birthday picture from each year birth up to present day ( I didn’t have a lot of those pictures because as a child there was not a lot of picture taking going on or parties for that matter) however the progression was there. I included business cards, and core beliefs and goals for the future. I am using the Happy Album for the my Starting Over album and I am just putting in everyday events or pictures of things that speak to a new beginning, or just doing pages about things that make me happy or even sad but the bottom line is I am showing who I am and what I believe…..if you want to reach out I could send you some photos . Hope this helps. Interspersed are pictures of me with each child when they were born or graduated…milestones . I kept it quite simple. I have been scrapbooking for over 20 years and am an advisor.
Thanks Mary, I like your idea about your core beliefs and goals.
My name is Junaitha from Montreal Canada. how to become an adviser