In 1985, Carolee was just 23 years old and a new mom when she started her first business promoting decorative or “tole” painting. She taught classes and created patterns for tole painting books published by Provo Craft. When a set of twins arrived, Carolee started self-publishing her own books. As her family grew, Carolee was a stay-at-home mom who kept her small business going by continuing to write books. She tried to attend two conventions a year to meet her customers and outreach with her products.
When her last child was born in 1995, Carolee became a pioneer in the new trend of scrapbooking. She noticed that there wasn’t any clip art available to embellish photographs of special events in a person’s life. So, using her folk art background, she created a CD-Rom of scrapbooking clip art. This led to starting her own scrapbook paper line, Carolee’s Creations. Her designs and concepts revolutionized the scrapbook industry and eventually included stationary products as well.
In 2004, Carolee wanted to get back in to the soft market with her art and began licensing fabrics along with her paper products. Incorporating words onto both paper and fabric has been very popular. Says Carolee, “People want the inspiration that words give.”
Today, Carolee employs three of her daughters in the ADORNit business. Georganna serves as president overseeing sales; Alison is a designer; and Jackie works part time making samples. They continue to show how young women can add to their family’s income while pursuing a creative outlet.
ADORNit uses trade shows to outreach to the public, letting them know who they are, what they represent and that they have good ideas. ADORNit’s future plans include expanding their fabric line while staying hip, relevant, and trendy in the design world. 
To learn more about ADORNit, please visit their website.
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Tags: ADORNit, Decorative Painting, Licensing fabrics, Scrapbook Paper, Tole Painting, Women in business, Word Fabric, Word Paper
