We were lucky to catch up with Kimberly Hyde recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kimberly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

For years, our slogan here at Keller’s is “Simple. Meaningful. So Dang Cute!”…so making meaningful projects is at the core of what we do. We focus our products to make them SIMPLE and of course, CUTE, so that anyone and everyone can take their photos and showcase them in a personal, meaningful way.

When I had a retail scrapbook store around 2000, a woman opened the door to my store, said “I need your help” and the collapsed, falling into a chair near the door. That woman was dying of cancer, and came to me to help record her life into a scrapbook for her family! It was quite a daunting task…from helping choose just the right products from my store full of various product lines…making the process easy enough so that her frail hands could use the tools to complete the pages…and to not cry every minute as I helped her tell the stories of her life.

That experience changed my life in so many ways. It gave a deeper meaning to my scrapbooking hobby turned job. It led to a beautiful friendship, as we met once a week to work on her scrapbook…first at my store, then the last few months at her home. She became family to me. In fact, I bought her house after learning of the amazing life she had in that little home! I also cried at her funeral as her family talked of her mission with her scrapbooks adding months to her life!!

But, it also changed my business plan. From then on, I focused on easier scrapbooking methods. Until then, the industry focused on buying as many gadgets and colors of papers & inks & flowers as was humanly possible…then forcing them into a design that left room for just a single photo. I pivoted. I began to focus on the photos and using them all to tell a story…adding words to bring them to life even more…and using products to enhance the beauty or theme of the story.

In a few short years, my own product line began and I no longer resold other product lines. We have improved and evolved through the years, but the mission of ’10 minutes a day’ to scrapbook and tell your story is what we stand by…in large part to meeting Mrs. Applewhite that day in my shop!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

For those who don’t know me, I’m a single mom to my amazing son, Keller. When we ventured out after my retail store, I had the idea to name my company after him…and since he was 6 at the time, he thought it was an awesome idea! Although he didn’t love it during his teenage years, as an adult now, he works for the company full time and takes pride in the name!

Raising Keller alone and being self-employed meant long work hours and struggling to make ends meet. We faced the world as a team, having him by my side for work, but always believing that our products make the world a better place. We have had Keller’s Creations for almost 21 years now, and it gets better and better each day! We design, print, and package all our products in house or at a local print shop. We even source local cardstock, to ensure everything is made in America.

We teach classes for free on Facebook…we offer class kits and thousands of our other products for sale on our website…and we have a small team of employees that is simply the best. We all scrapbook. We all understand the importance of creative time in our lives. And we all know that in just 10 minutes a day, with the right products, we can all tell our stories with our words & pictures!

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

Through our entire journey, we have stayed true to our mission to make the world a better place with paper. We have fine tuned that mission more and more each day, since the day I met Mrs. Applewhite. Now, we even sell Products with a Purpose to take that mission to a new level. We donate products to various cancer foundations, schools, etc. to promote creativity and story telling. Through those products, we show how even just a handmade card can make the world a better place.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Being a self-employed single mom for my son’s entire life, things have never been easy. But our focus & grit & determination have given us the foundation for our lives. We walk by faith each day, knowing God will provide. And, in 2016, we had to dig deep to see just how steady that foundation and faith really were, as I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I had months of daily tests and over 11 neurologists treat me…and then finally surgery to remove it. I’m blessed to say that my yearly scans still say “no disease progression”! But, that experience made us know that we could trust our team…that our customers would do anything to keep us in business…and I learned that I could in fact delegate more of the work than I ever wanted to before. We learned how strong we are together, and that life can change in a moment…and that gave us even more reason to help people record their stories…because if we don’t use our own words and photos, who will know? or who will tell our story? We need to do it, 10 minutes a day!

Contact Info:

• Website: acidfree.com
• Instagram: @kellerscreations
• Facebook: Keller’s Creations & Keller’s Cottage
• Youtube: Keller’s Creations