Mackey Stanley

Mackey Stanley

I have a love of all things artistic, from paper, colors and photography to music and nature itself. It is this love affair with the arts that nourishes my desire to scrapbook. I have always collected snippets of paper, crayons, and newspaper clippings so I say that I have always been a scrapbooker at heart. Officially, and correctly, I have been scrapping since 2000/2001 when a dear friend “forced” me to create an album for my, then, graduating daughter. At the time I collected supplies more than I used them. Oh wait, I still hoard supplies!! In addition to paper scrapping, this past year I ventured on to designs for altered arts. This has expanded my artistic abilities and has shown me that many of those same techniques can easily be utilized on my pages as well. It also opened up the world of “scramping” for me, since stamping had never been a strong suit of mine! I am a free-lance writer for my local newspaper, a former politician, having served as an aide for a US Senator, now retired, and I was elected to serve on the local city council. While both were rewarding, I now enjoy marketing the candidate better than being one! I am always very quick to share that I am a medically diagnosed bi-polar personality who has been properly treated for over two years. Because of it, and my awareness of this illness, scrapbooking has become an artistic therapy for me; a catharsis through which I deal with my emotional pain and disorder. Most importantly, I am a wife and mother of three amazing kids ranging in age from 13 to 22. They are my life, my joy and my muses. I could not be more thrilled to be a part of the new venture at Claire’s Cottage and this wonderful team of creative designers!