Meet your Advisors
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Donna Bargas
Donna is a CM Advisor who lives in Culpeper, VA with her husband Scott, dog Owen, and all the wildlife that passes through their 6 acres including the pond. She has been an advisor since the new CM opened in 2014 but has been using CM products since 1999 and worked at a local scrapbook store before CM came back. Donna has always had a passion for photography and preserving family memories and now has two granddaughters to create even more memories!
Ellen Evanoff
Ellen has been scrapbooking all my life. She goes on to say, my grandfather was a lifelong hobbyist photographer who had everything from a Brownie box to a Leica SLR. My father shot high school sports action pictures for the local paper so it was natural to have a camera everywhere and to document the pictures in albums. I was introduced to Creative Memories in 1999 while pregnant with my second son, 22 years ago. I went to a class, bought all the basic tools, and then signed up to get the discount. When I signed, I was still an active Duty Naval Officer, wife to Tom and mom of two boys, Alex and Zack. I never intended to have a business … I just fell in love with the products. I started scrapbooking with a few besties over the kitchen table and a bottle of wine. Since then Creative Memories and the people I have met as a result have endured three moves, a tour in Afghanistan, eight different military assignments, a retirement, a transition to civilian life and the growth of online connections. In the military, you have the folks you are born with and the military family you grow. I have been blessed with a third family from Creative Memories which is just as kind, fiery, loyal and loving. I love sharing my photos and stories and hearing those of others. COVID has been hard because I have had to learn new ways to connect but the CM family is strong. I look forward for every event to learn a little more about you until we can get back together again. I scrap everything. My boys know not to argue on some things cuz there is a good chance I can prove them wrong with a picture. After all, I have a whole wall of memories in albums with journaled stories. As I said, I never intended to have a business, I just wanted to continue a lifelong love of scrapbooking but I set it up as one from the beginning, the products sold themselves and the rest is history.
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Fran Ruppen
Fran lives in South Park, PA Fran is a newbie in the CM world. Fran learned of Creative Memories in 2004, only a few months after she discovered a scrapbooking store while on vacation - I was fortunate to only have a few non CM albums. I dove right in and was one of my consultant's best customers until May 2009 when some scrapbooking friends asked if I was joining because they wanted to buy supplies from me. Well, gosh- of course I said yes! I had a launch party and did really good, and started doing vendor shows and craft fairs. My clientele grew and I held my first home crop in 2010. I became digitally endorsed (and still love the digital) as that spoke of our team.
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I am still going strong 12 years later with a Merry Band of 5 on my team, hold monthly crops, zoomed during the COVID lock down and still zoom during my home crops. One on one private viewing zooms were very popular, showed my inventory and let them pick, then delivered with porch pickups, and mailed to those out of town. (With zoom, you can sell to anyone anywhere!) I love scrapbooking, preserving the memories and sharing them when my nieces/nephews and neighbors come over. My little beagle Oliver has 2 of his own albums with all his crew past and present. Teaching my girls new techniques that many of you create and share is so enjoyable. My girls are my besties - we know each others families and lives. We go through life together- our friendships are priceless!
I retired almost 2 years ago from banking and now I do what I love and love what I do. Scrapbooking is a god given talent and I can't wait to share my pop-up cards with you. They are #giftsfromgod.
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