Domermuth making
“Creative Memories” for life

By Sherrie Norris

Her enthusiasm and ability to transform memorable occasions into lifetime keepsakes is just one of the many things that draw people to Paula Domermuth.

This wife and homeschooling mother of three helped bring the scrapbooking trend to Boone several years ago, giving the once “cool pastime” an entirely new identity in the area.

Paula Domermuth could easily be dubbed as the scrapbooking queen of the High Country. Photo by Marie Freeman

As one of the world’s 80,000 Creative Memories independent sales consultants, Domermuth helped many of her friends and associates around the High Country learn to tell their stories and share their memories in a “new” old-fashioned way.

People suddenly forgot how to simply paste photographs into a book – they learned how to “create” and bring life to otherwise dull and boring albums. They learned how to showcase their family vacations and special events by using decorative supplies and techniques though Domermuth’s guidance ,during crop parties and get-togethers in her home office/workshop.

For many, scrapbooking has become another way to relax in an almost stress-free environment – as long as one doesn’t crop the wrong face from the picture.

Domermuth and her family came to Boone 14 years ago, just 10 days before their third child and only daughter was born. It was a stressful first year, she recalls, as husband, David, settled into work at ASU, both learning to manage three small children and enduring the harsh winters of 1993-94.

They soon adapted, realizing that with their love for outdoor activity — hiking, gardening, biking and — Boone would be a great place to live year round.

A native of West Virginia, Paula graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in chemical engineering, in the meantime completing a cooperative education program at Tennessee Eastman Kodak in Kingsport, Tenn.

While at school, she met her future husband. After marriage, the couple moved south, where they both held positions in East Tennessee before returning to the University of Ohio in Dayton where David completed his Ph.D.

While looking for a job, he responded to an ad for a position at ASU. “We had been here before and really liked the area and decided that’s where we would like to live,” Paula said.

Domermuth has always homeschooled her children, starting kindergarten with son, Luke, now a junior at N.C. State majoring in mechanical engineering.

Son Mark is currently a senior in the dual enrollment program at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute and involved in the Civil Air Patrol; and daughter, Debra, is an energetic high school freshman.

The family is active at Alliance Bible Fellowship, where Paula is involved in the meals and cleaning ministry for the homebound, and recently completed the six-month Stephen Ministry training that enables members to “come alongside people who need help walking though hard time in their lives.”

The family is actively involved in the High Country Christian Homeschool group, approximately 200 families strong.

Paula has also worked with High Country MOPS (Mother of Preschoolers) for four years as a mentor. Last spring, she and Dr. Tammy Middlebrook organized the first High Country Kids Triathlon, with proceeds going toward the new Tot Lot Playground.

Domermuth, a triathlete herself, just competed in the 2007 N.C. Triathlon Series, finishing up fifth in her age group for the year.

The family loves to travel and spent one year living in China, “an awesome cultural experience,” Domermuth said, arranged through the ASU Professor Exchange Program.

“The people there were so nice and friendly to us. It was a wonderful opportunity,” she said.

Their most recent jaunt was to Washington, D.C., for a historical tour of the nation’s capitol. They also love to camp and backpack, hiking through the picturesque mountains at every opportunity.

“In my free time I cook and clean for my family,” she said.

Homeschooling was the impetus that propelled her to think of starting a home-based business, she said, “Something that would allow me to stay home with my children, earn extra income, but also provide an avenue to teach the kids about running a business.”

She and David thought about opening a bed and breakfast; Paula took steps toward a baking business and her kids tried their hands at magic shows and selling scrunchies.

“It wasn’t until David told me that I could start a Creative Memories business, that a viable option became a reality,” she said.

The Creative Memories Company began in 1987 as a way to help people display their pictures in scrapbook-style albums that could hold not only pictures, but also memorabilia and journaling, she said.

Creative Memories invented the scrapbooking industry, with Domermuth joining “only as a customer” when Mark was a baby in 1990. Now, she is the expert, teaching others how to preserve their memories, since “signing up” in 1997 and buying the consultant kit, which she recalls was “an inexpensive way to start a business.”

She has taught hundreds of people about preserving, displaying and organizing their pictures through home events, workshops, and retreats.

She also holds events that “give back to the community” and has supported the Alzheimer’s Association, local schools, individuals who needed help and couldn’t make their own albums, the Tot Lot playground, Cherokee Cove family camp, Boone Service League and others.

In the last 10 years, Domermuth has seen the company branch out into many different avenues. “It is now a ‘memory celebration’ company, rather than just a ‘scrapbooking’ company,” she said, “with a mission still to preserve the past, enrich the present, and provide hope for the future.”

New options include organization for boxes of pictures or digital images, custom framing, digital storybooks, and picfolio-style slide-in albums

She says she enjoys the personal contacts she makes with others and believes getting people together to work on their memories is a ministry in itself.

“We have lost the personal touch that women used to share together. Some people have likened memory celebration to a modern day quilting bee. However, with the advent of digital storybooks, this industry is in no way limited to just females; many men also enjoy celebrating their memories,” she said.

Anyone interested in learning more about Creative Memories, contact Domermuth at 828-262-3788 or through her Web site at www.mycmsite.com/pauladomermuth.