We are so thrilled to introduce Karen as our October Guest Designer.  Karen joined Scrapbook Heaven in March of 2009.  She is a constant source of happy chatting, and always has something kind to say to everyone.  Karen gets us thinking with her questions about creativity and process.  And of course we never tire of stories of her new granddaughter!  You can view some of Karen's work 
here.
And here's what Karen has to say about herself:
 
I live in the Northern California Bay area and have been crafting pretty  much most of my adult life. Have dabbled in cross-stitch, quilting,  sewing, fabric crafts, soap-making, needle-point and finally settled  into stamping and scrapbooking about 10 years ago. I love paper-crafts  of all types and have 25 years worth of photos that I've been slowly  scrapping. My favorite subjects are my family and pets but am trying to  start photographing nature and everyday life. My husband and I ran a  business for 20 years but now I work part-time as a reader and grader  for his psychology classes, which gives me a nice flexible schedule.  Scrapping and stamping give me a wonderful creative outlet and allow me  to express myself with color and design, something that I miss if I  can't hole up in my craft room on a regular basis. My scrapping style  tends to be simple and I use a lot of cardstock, but my goal is to learn  to mix patterned papers and loosen up a bit. This forum has been my  biggest inspiration in terms of learning to use texture and new  techniques on my layouts but I am always in the process of finding a  style that suits me. 
 
We are thrilled to have you as part of the team this month, Karen!