A History...
I'm Michelle Volkerding, owner and artist behind Creative Maison. I fell in love with graphic design while obtaining my Interior Design degree. The beauty in watercolor, fine art sketches and perfectly crafted calligraphy and typography has captivated my heart over the years.
Creative Maison was born in 2016, when I began freelancing as a stationery designer in what little spare time we had. I began slowly building my portfolio through digital download products as a creative outlet through the evenings and as a bonus, earned a little extra income. My passion and love for the stationery world slowly grew as I dove into learning about paper goods and business skills required.
In 2017, we bought a fixer upper with a small chunk of land just outside city limits. Here, my love for hobby gardening took flight and then crept into my business when I launched our now beloved growNOTES™ - a brand of plantable favors at the end of 2019. In 2020, through one of the world's darkest times, the business grew as many of our beloved customers found such value and happiness in sharing their growNOTES™. Our customers loved our plantable products and were asking for more. I was thrilled and continued to work through the weekends, fulfilling orders and growing our products to include further plantable paper goods!
In 2021, what we had also thought as unattainable, finally happened! Early in the year, John and I were quickly coming to the realization that our daughter's childhood was soaring straight past us - with the two of us working full time + another side business on the weekend. Our busy-ness was not serving us well and we were long overdue in evaluating how we wanted to continue on or make changes.
My creative thirst had been quenched by the world of stationery and paper goods design, but I still had this wonderful full time job that I really enjoyed. I worked so hard to pass my exams and obtain my license in the ID world, but I had always dreamt of a flexible home life. The ability to drop everything and attend all the school functions without feeling guilty for leaving work or client meetings - just more time with my daughter.
As a family, we were headed into a summer with no childcare set up for the first time, so we prayed for wisdom. John encouraged me to pick between the two lives I had laid out in front of me; one in the corporate world full time without a creative side business (to save my sanity) or one at home with our daughter and a small business that was unpredictable and hard, but had potential. It was a risk, but one he supported me in taking. He would continue where he was and I could be home to juggle life there and dedicate more time to our daughter and her activities, plus more time to the business I had built over so much time. I made the choice after much prayer and hesitation. I'm always grateful for John's support and nudging. I left a great job, with great people - the corporate world of architecture and interior design for the big "what-if." I worked even harder the rest of year at home and on business growth, along with the great privilege to now be at home with our daughter.
It's a wild ride, and we try to never take it for granted, though some days, the hours are quite long as a business owner. What a blessing the last few years have been. I serve now as cheer coach for my daughter's junior high cheer squad for part of the year, a position that I could not have made time for before. It's a privilege and truly fulfilling place to be! As with anything, you can't have it all in life without hard work. We make sacrifices that many don't see, but God has provided the support of close friends and family members who are ever so eager to help out and love on us time and time again.
Working with brides and event planners has been the absolute highlight of my work. There's truly nothing I love more than planning an incredible wedding suite and bright, cheerful gifts!
