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Good morning SCT friends! If you have an extra few minutes spend it with me as it’s your very happy Publisher here today. Why so happy you ask? Well as I write this I am on a plane to Utah to kick off a very special week. On October 28th SCT will mark its official 10th birthday.  TEN YEARS! Take a walk back in time with me. 

October 28, 2005 started as a regular day of getting kids off to school, our daughter was in grade 3 and our son had just started grade 1 (and man was I missing him!)  I volunteered weekly, I had a small business and usually contemplated what would be on the dinner table that evening.  October 28, 2005 was just a regular day in the Tachdjian house. However, 12 hours later that would change. After putting the kids to bed my husband and I shared a late dinner. I was excitedly telling him about a card class I wanted to take at my local scrapbook store, Cherished Scrapbook that weekend. My husband asked a few questions about the printed piece the store information was printed on (he is in the print industry and notices everything!) and suggested ways the piece could be improved. We talked back and forth about the challenges of the local scrapbook store to carry on the day-to-day business in a retail setting, educate the customer and stay on top of industry trends. What I didn’t know was that it was a conversation that would change many things. What started out with him suggesting that evening that I consider designing a “newsletter template” to help retailers deliver their store/class/product information with their customers resulted in the launch of the first issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today five months later. It was 64 pages.  Four days after that dinner conversation a business plan was prepared, the SCT website was up and nine days after that an incorporated company was founded.  Were there challenges, uphill climbs, fear, lost sleep and tears? Oh yes there were yet every time I turned a corner and the fear crept in there was a helping hand. And my business mentor’s words “be guided by your own internal measures” rang in my ears. With the help of so many we released the first issue to a regional audience in Ontario, Canada in March, 2006. What we did not expect was to be internationally read two days later.  The power of the web and the connectivity it provides still astounds me.

Many have asked how SCT came to be. Did we expect 10 years later to be thriving in a publishing world that is diverse, challenging and full of changes? Did we know 10 years later we would be read in over 120 countries? No, we didn’t know to set goals that high. What a wonderful time it’s been discovering how high we can reach. Through the kindness of many, including all of YOU, our industry partners and the amazingly talented designers in this industry we are blessed to work with, SCT has become a favourite to many and to that we say the best is yet to come. We also say thank you with a very grateful heart.

I have contemplated for some time on how to celebrate this milestone and I knew in my heart I wanted to head to Utah to visit with several of our wonderful industry partners that believed in the vision we had for SCT so many years ago. These companies invested in us when they had so many other choices and I am very grateful to them and for them  This next week I will visit with American Crafts, Pink Paislee, WeR Memory Keepers, Doodlebug Design, Simple Stories, BoBunny, Echo Park, My Mind’s Eye, Fancy Pants, Stampin’ Up!, and Close to My Heart. I will visit with our Editor-in-Chief Megan Hoeppener and meet many friends I’ve made through these years.  What else will I do? Well, what all memory keepers do…take pictures! I want to take you on a behind the scenes tour and share with you the great people behind these companies, share some photos of what their day-to-day looks like and share some of the stories from the week. Is there something specific you might like to know? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll try to find out!  Of course, I’m also going to pack a few things in my suitcase to bring back for you so if you would like the opportunity to have a little happy mail, leave a comment below too!

Our role as media in the papercrafting industry is to deliver quality content at the right time on multiple platforms. Through print, digital and social media we strive to provide that for you and always hope we hit the mark.  Over this next year we are going to celebrate all that is great in our industry – our designers, our advertising partners, the stores that carry our magazine, our event attendees and YOU, our reader.  We have many things up our sleeve to do just that so be sure to watch over the next year as we sprinkle the year with a whole lot of fun here on the blog, in the magazine, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Pinterest and on YouTube.

Thanks for reading today. Thanks for your continued support for all that we do. The blog is always a place I get to connect with you in a special way. And I love that.  Have a wonderful weekend!

~  Catherine Tachdjian, Publisher, Scrapbook & Cards Today Inc.