About Us
My name is Terri and I’m the creator of MakingFriends.com. As a child, I was a strange combination of overachieving first-born and creative rebel. I was hard working and industrious but hated structure and control.
Not only did I color inside the lines but all my strokes went in the same direction with uniform pressure and perfect coverage. Yep, I filled my Disney coloring book with beautifully colored purple-faced Cinderella’s and lime green Dumbos.
As I got older, I spent a lot of time in Mom’s kitchen — but not cooking. Salt dough, candle making and batik projects littered and stained her counter tops. (Good thing Mom didn’t like to cook either.)
The more time I spent on craft projects, the less time I spent on school projects. As an overachiever, I continued getting “A”s but hated every minute of it. Nothing we learned in school was interesting. Of course, this was “back-in-day”. We had no computer graphics or web design classes.
After graduating, I ignored an academic scholarship (Mom and Dad are still mad at me) and I accepted a trainee art position in a print shop; then later went into advertising art.
I began MakingFriends.com in 1997 as a learning experience when my clients started asking for website. It has been a meandering journey that mirrors the last 20 years of my life. The web site just evolved based on what I felt like doing at the time. I guess it has been more of a frolic than a journey. Fortunately, my overachieving side came along for the ride and a dabble with new skills became a successful business.
These days, I’m not coloring any more (and still not cooking) but I continue to make things including web sites, kits, patches and our famous Badge in a Bag® products.
Visit my personal blog MakingEnemies.com if you would like to find out more about me personally.
No one likes to frolic alone and these are some of the wonderful people who have joined me along the way. Without their help and support this would have been a very boring adventure.
My husband, Jim, is not only my partner in life but also in business.
He is very good at managing the day-to-day details of our house and our business. Under his watchful eye, no receipt goes unposted, no invoice goes unpaid and no bed goes unmade. As a child, Jim didn’t color much but he always, always colored inside the lines. Black is his favorite color.
Lauren’s Two-Step makes her faster than a speeding credit card processor, more powerful than a rotary cutter, and able to leap tall fed-ex boxes in a single bound. Lauren keeps the place running and there’s nothing she can’t accomplish!
She retired from her career as an administrative assistant to care for now deceased husband. Even though she’s in her 80s! Betty still manages to to grow the web site, tweet and post on Facebook from her home office. Mom taught me how to “silly color”. She would point to a spot on the page, close her eyes, and pick a color. That’s how it all began. I have Mom to thank for lime green Bambies.
Amrin is our Queen of the Kits. She got four kids at home so she knows how to get to a lot done in a little bit time. And she gets it done right!
She has a talent for designing patches and helping with new craft ideas. In case you were ever wondering where “Making Friends” came from, you have Jamie to thank for that! She was two years old when she would ask to “make friends” when referring to the paper dolls. That eventually led to the spark for developing this website.
You have Thane to thank for our cool new look! He worked for months problem solving and tweaking until everything was perfect. Not only can he code, Thane can also bake, braid hair and paint fingernails – important skills he has mastered as a stay-at-home dad.