About Me
I’m Karley
If we haven’t met yet, let me tell you a little bit about myself… maybe it’ll give me a little craft cred! As of 2019, I am doing this blogger thing full time. But before being a full time craft blogger and YouTuber, I worked in “corporate crafting” at two of the most popular craft companies.
I moved from Orange County, California to Utah in 2015 with my husband, Ryan, to work for my dream company, Silhouette America. Yep, you read that right… before Cricut, I was 1000% team Silhouette. I have nothing but love for Silhouette and still use Silhouette Studio with my Cricut! I spent a year at Silhouette and honestly, I can’t believe how much was accomplished in one, short year.
While at Silhouette, I was introduced to so many amazing people in the craft industry. I was an on air host at the Home Shopping Network, taught at craft conferences all over the US, and made lifelong friends. It was a year I will never forget. I think I would have stayed there forever, but I was presented with an offer from Cricut that I just could not turn down… and the Cricut offices are down the street from my house so that was an added bonus too.
In 2016, I sat down with Ashish, the CEO of Cricut, and after I promised him I was not a spy from Silhouette, he shared that he had been a fan of mine since he saw me on one of Silhouette’s live broadcasts. He asked if I would consider switching to team Cricut and I shared my concerns I had with the current products and software. He assured me that there were several things coming out and he knew I would be impressed with them all. Of course he could not share what those products were, but I took his word and went through the rest of the interview process. After several interviews (with what felt like the entire company), I accepted a job as a Senior Project Designer. I had the best time working on the project design team crafting projects that still live on Cricut Design Space. It is always fun seeing people make the projects I designed. You’ll have to let me know if you come across a project that I made- we signed our names at the end of the project description! Below are a few of my favorites.
I quickly realized that there was a lack of education at Cricut and I wanted to help improve the learning resources. I joined the Education Team in 2018 and was so excited to be a part of the team producing Facebook Lives and YouTube videos! For a year I lived and breathed all things Cricut education. I loved it so much and knew I wanted to figure out a way to continue educating on Cricut products, but without all of the meetings and rounds of approvals. And Ryan and I want to start a family… to be 100% honest with you, I didn’t think I would be able to be the mom I wanted to be with the amount of hours I was putting in at Cricut. On my last day I sobbed like a baby because I was leaving a really good job and a lot of amazing co-workers. But at the end of the day, I knew this was the best decision for me and Ryan. Ryan has been my biggest cheerleader through it all. Heck, we moved from California to Utah so I could follow my dreams of being a professional crafter. But as much as I love crafting, I love my husband more and will always put our marriage before a job. We decided together that starting this blog would give me the ability to do what I love when it works best for us and it has done just that.Â
I started crafting as a child. I don’t remember a time in my childhood when I wasn’t crafting. But as life got busier and the responsibilities piled on, I felt crafting kind of take the back seat in my life. It wasn’t until 2012 that I realized it was completely missing and I desperately needed it back. I have struggled with anxiety and depression my entire life. More specifically I struggle with a disorder called trichotillomania. It’s a long word to say, “I pull my hair out and I physically cannot control it.” I have tried several therapies, drugs, and remedies… as much as you want me to stop pulling my hair out, I want to more! It is one of those things that I would love to “fix” but am finally realizing that I am not broken. To manage my hair pulling, I shave my hair every week or so and I craft! Without trich, I’m not sure I would have ever started crafting… so maybe I should be thankful for where it has steered me. Crafting keeps my mind and hands busy. When I am bored or feeling unproductive, I want to pull my hair out, so really crafting has been my saving grace.
