Hi, YNS Friends! It’s Karen Dedman, the proud owner of Your Next Stamp! I’m excited to share a little bit about myself with you today. Let’s get started shall we?!

Q: Tell us about your family and where you live.

I live in Ontario, Canada with my super amazing and supportive husband Chris. We have 2 kids, Brandon who is our energetic 6 year old boy and Jessica who is our sweet little 15 month old girl. Let’s not forget about Olive, our furry hamster friend who keeps us up half the night with her squeaking exercise wheel! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, I wouldn’t be able to do everything I do if it wasn’t for all their love and support.

Q: When and why did you start YNS?

I’ll try to keep this short and sweet…I started YNS in 2008, after our son Brandon was born. I really wanted to stay home with him and still have a career so the only way I could do that was to start a business that I could run from our home. I’ve always loved creating art and crafting so when my sister introduced me to stamping I knew I had found my ‘calling’. I instantly fell in love with stamping and card making and just knew I had to do something with this passion! My mission was to bring happiness to craft rooms all over the world :o) I’m so lucky to have a supportive family who has been there with me since day one, my father helped me name YNS and everyone has been there to help whenever needed…sound board for ideas, packing product, shipping orders, bookkeeping, working ScrapFest etc… I look back at these past 6 years and I feel so blessed, I would like to say ‘thanks’ to all of YOU for loving YNS products and for being apart of my journey. I look forward to many more years of SMILES and FUN, from my craft room to yours!

Q: What are your favorite YNS images?

Seriously? Do I really need to answer this one? To be honest, I can’t pick a favorite image as I truly LOVE them all. I personally hand pick each and every image that you find here at YNS. My main focus when working with our designers is that the images must make me HAPPY and I always ask myself “will this stamp make my customers smile and is it FUN to create with?” If you’re having FUN while creating with our YNS products than I know I’ve completed my mission! The cherry on top is when you share your projects with us, I LOVE seeing what you make with YNS products!

Q: What are your favorite color combos?

Bright cheerful colors (especially purple and green with black as an accent) tend to be my go to colors but I do find myself picking out colors that match the person I’m creating for. Our son Brandon is turning 7 this month so for my project today I decided to make him a birthday card! He LOVES ice cream, the Waddles character and YNS Gumdrops soooooo I used the super sweet Waddles – Happy Brrr-thday stamp and die set to create his birthday card. I also used our Stitched Rectangle die set and Fishtail Banner Two die set.

I LOVE adding dimension to my projects so here’s a close-up of my pop up dot and YNS Gumdrop addiction:

I used our current challenge sketch as inspiration for my card, why not join in the FUN! You never know, you could be a lucky winner of some YNS bucks or our next Top Pick!

For more inspiration using YNS products, visit our Pinterest page, FB page, YouTube Channel and YNS is on Instagram too!

I hope you’ve enjoyed our Design Team Q & A Series! We’ll be starting a new series really soon but first we have a New Release for you!!! Be sure to stop by for some sneak peeks on May 9th!

Happy Stamping!

Karen