The Story

    As a young girl, I remember sitting at my Granny’s living room table surrounded by her enormous stash of crafting supplies. The majority of her collection consisted of stamping materials. The first time she showed me how embossing worked, by holding a small piece of stamped cardstock with her bare fingers over an open flame on the stove top, I knew two things. One, she was the bravest lady I knew; her fingers had to have been touching that flame. Two, I wanted to be just like her.

Now that I'm grown, I am finally grasping hold of my creative potential.

  • I am a drawer
  • I am a baker
  • I am a musician
  • I am a seamstress
  • I am a photographer
  • I am a paper crafter

  • I am an artist

My name is Courtney Zavala, and I pride myself in my ability to multitask. My husband and I live north of Houston, where we work for two separate school districts. We own our own photography company, CoGo Photography, and work part-time at the local high school football stadium on the Digital Broadcasting Crew. I also sell Mary Kay cosmetics.


That being said, I normally do my crafting late at night. It’s not unusual, at 3am, for me to be melting UTEE in the toaster oven, or asking my husband where I can find his pliers. I have a special place in my heart for inking and stamping, but I enjoy all sorts of creation. Going to bed with ink on my hands, that just wouldn't wash off, means that it was another awesome crafting night. You would think that being a photographer, I would be pulled towards traditional scrapbooking, but that isn’t so. Perhaps, when we have children, I will create awesome scrapbooks of his or her daily life, but for now, I settle for other things. I wouldn’t say that I have my own special style, but I can tell you that, clean, crisp and neat is NOT my style. My biggest crafting influence is Tim Holtz, and I hope, one day, to take classes at Ranger U.