About Us - Todd and Lisa
We are paper crafters at heart but also have a severe antique bug!
Paper Crafting: Lisa and I started making paper crafts in January 2009 with the first one being our wedding reception party invitation. Lisa was very excited to finally find a sand castle die cut for our beach theme; it had only taken a few months to find it. We used all the normal sorts of card making material like vellum, vellum tape, a couple of sea shell stamps and real sand We created the invitations in the unfinished basement of our house in Dublin, Ohio. I remember Lisa saying something about "We could sell this stuff." No windows were in this dungeon - just unfinished cinder blocks, cement floor and all of our storage stuff (Christmas decorations, luggage, Easter eggs, etc). Lisa complained about the light. So I made her a window out of 11x17 paper and taped it up on the cinder blocks! She was amused - NOT! A few months later we moved the craft area up to a spare bedroom on the second floor of the house. She finally had her window. But it became quite apparent to Lisa that there was not enough room in the new "craft room". There wasn't enough storage, not enough table space, and the sink was in the bathroom (which was only 15 feet away). In July 2011, we had the opportunity to move up to the Cleveland area. Lisa was going back to the basement. But this time, I told her that we would build her a craft/design room. Now she doesn't complain about table/counter space, paper storage space, stamp space, windows (she has 2 half windows), or bad lighting. She even has a sink in the room! It's finished, but as I have learned from Lisa, nothing is done yet. The original stamp storage for wood mounts took to much space, so we remounted them in foam, put them in CD cases and Todd built new storage units for over 1500 CD's. One ink stamp rack wasn't enough, we need three. The ribbon storage needed more shelves. More shelves were needed for paper punches. Now finally, all is well - enough has been made and we have extra storage. Uh oh....Lisa just entered the room....she has that look on her face....she needs more storage somewhere! Help!
In 2014, TLC expanded into vinyl applications and repurposing old windows and picture frames. In just a few months time, our vinyl has been literally flying out the windows!! So if you have old frames, old windows, or other old things that you need re-purposed, let us know because we can do it for you! If you just want to get rid of them...we will take them too! We are always looking for wood framed windows.
In 2019, Lisa expanded into machine embroidery and decided that was her passion (for this time being!). in 2020, with Covid-19 hitting the country, she started volunteering to make masks. Very soon, we decided to put a basket of masks for donation outside of our shop. Soon thereafter, our mask empire was born! Over 7,000 masks have now been made! During this period, a number of embroidery machines have been purchased and traded. Lisa's concentration has moved on making all sorts of embroidery items to sell.. Oh, the craft room has also been transformed into the "new" embroidery room. July 2021 brought us a new venture on the craft/handmade side; we opened Cleveland Craft Nook. The Nook is a 3,200 square foot retail spot across from the antique shop, has over 100 local vendors in it selling all sorts of great quality handmade crafts and arts. The Nook is a great family place to find all sorts of home decor and special gifts for all ages. March 2023 brought a long awaited change at Generations. The other side of our building was leased by State Farm and the agent finally retired...so Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is no longer there!!! We obtained the lease, constructed 3 wall openings to make a unified first floor and Generations nearly doubled in size!
Antiques: So when we moved into a local antique store to sell greeting cards, we got ourselves into seeing all sorts of antiques getting sold in the shop. Lisa had no prior experience with antiques, but soon got up to speed on what customers were looking for. Todd had been around a massive amount of antiques growing up since his father was an avid collector and the entire house was decorated via antique furnishings. Todd and his father spent many Saturdays for years at estate auctions in the mornings and at the Seville Auction barn at night. Once Todd went to college, he stayed away from any antiques...for 25 years! Now, with working around antiques again...he's picked up the habit. Currently, we have no real preference of what kind of antiques we look for or like to collect - except we like to pick up only things our customers want to buy! For a few years we did antiques in a local shop, but the significant portion of our selling was online until we opened our store April 2016.
Paper Crafting: Lisa and I started making paper crafts in January 2009 with the first one being our wedding reception party invitation. Lisa was very excited to finally find a sand castle die cut for our beach theme; it had only taken a few months to find it. We used all the normal sorts of card making material like vellum, vellum tape, a couple of sea shell stamps and real sand We created the invitations in the unfinished basement of our house in Dublin, Ohio. I remember Lisa saying something about "We could sell this stuff." No windows were in this dungeon - just unfinished cinder blocks, cement floor and all of our storage stuff (Christmas decorations, luggage, Easter eggs, etc). Lisa complained about the light. So I made her a window out of 11x17 paper and taped it up on the cinder blocks! She was amused - NOT! A few months later we moved the craft area up to a spare bedroom on the second floor of the house. She finally had her window. But it became quite apparent to Lisa that there was not enough room in the new "craft room". There wasn't enough storage, not enough table space, and the sink was in the bathroom (which was only 15 feet away). In July 2011, we had the opportunity to move up to the Cleveland area. Lisa was going back to the basement. But this time, I told her that we would build her a craft/design room. Now she doesn't complain about table/counter space, paper storage space, stamp space, windows (she has 2 half windows), or bad lighting. She even has a sink in the room! It's finished, but as I have learned from Lisa, nothing is done yet. The original stamp storage for wood mounts took to much space, so we remounted them in foam, put them in CD cases and Todd built new storage units for over 1500 CD's. One ink stamp rack wasn't enough, we need three. The ribbon storage needed more shelves. More shelves were needed for paper punches. Now finally, all is well - enough has been made and we have extra storage. Uh oh....Lisa just entered the room....she has that look on her face....she needs more storage somewhere! Help!
In 2014, TLC expanded into vinyl applications and repurposing old windows and picture frames. In just a few months time, our vinyl has been literally flying out the windows!! So if you have old frames, old windows, or other old things that you need re-purposed, let us know because we can do it for you! If you just want to get rid of them...we will take them too! We are always looking for wood framed windows.
In 2019, Lisa expanded into machine embroidery and decided that was her passion (for this time being!). in 2020, with Covid-19 hitting the country, she started volunteering to make masks. Very soon, we decided to put a basket of masks for donation outside of our shop. Soon thereafter, our mask empire was born! Over 7,000 masks have now been made! During this period, a number of embroidery machines have been purchased and traded. Lisa's concentration has moved on making all sorts of embroidery items to sell.. Oh, the craft room has also been transformed into the "new" embroidery room. July 2021 brought us a new venture on the craft/handmade side; we opened Cleveland Craft Nook. The Nook is a 3,200 square foot retail spot across from the antique shop, has over 100 local vendors in it selling all sorts of great quality handmade crafts and arts. The Nook is a great family place to find all sorts of home decor and special gifts for all ages. March 2023 brought a long awaited change at Generations. The other side of our building was leased by State Farm and the agent finally retired...so Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is no longer there!!! We obtained the lease, constructed 3 wall openings to make a unified first floor and Generations nearly doubled in size!
Antiques: So when we moved into a local antique store to sell greeting cards, we got ourselves into seeing all sorts of antiques getting sold in the shop. Lisa had no prior experience with antiques, but soon got up to speed on what customers were looking for. Todd had been around a massive amount of antiques growing up since his father was an avid collector and the entire house was decorated via antique furnishings. Todd and his father spent many Saturdays for years at estate auctions in the mornings and at the Seville Auction barn at night. Once Todd went to college, he stayed away from any antiques...for 25 years! Now, with working around antiques again...he's picked up the habit. Currently, we have no real preference of what kind of antiques we look for or like to collect - except we like to pick up only things our customers want to buy! For a few years we did antiques in a local shop, but the significant portion of our selling was online until we opened our store April 2016.
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Yes, this is Todd!
His dad was involved in historical reenactments, particularly near the time of the French and Indian War period and prior (pre 1763). This 1979 picture was of Todd, dressed and painted in Shawnee Indian period attire (including an authentic loincloth and real owl feathers). The flintlock musket was handmade by his father. As Todd got older, he also helped with making a few guns.
During his childhood, he spent a great deal of the summer and winter months, camping and participating in long primitive reenactments including muzzleloading and competitive shooting. |