Daft Crafts: meet the maker - Cheri from Altered Iris

Today, we're meeting Cheri from Altered Iris. Cheri was born and raised in the Kansas City area and her full-time job is as a wife, mother of two, mixed media artist and the smooth operator of the Johnson Household.

It’s had always been a long-time dream of Cheri's to have a handmade business. She always enjoyed hands-on creative hobbies and have gotten such fulfillment out of making things for other people. In college Cheri made photo calendars from scratch (before Shutterfly was around) for her parents and grandparents and also enjoyed dabbling in scrapbooking.

When her daughter was born in 2006, the dabbling turned into a passion for mixing paper, photos, embellishments and usually her own handwriting to record memories and milestones of new daughter. Over time, her hobby evolved and her art style became more mixed media, using paint on her layouts and adding new mediums to her projects.

In early 2011, she was formally introduced to mixed media art through a tutorial from Christy Tomlinson and learned about new ways to use the supplies already had on hand. Cheri says she instantly fell in love with combining various elements in a more artistic way and began playing around with different products and techniques. Before long, Cheri realized she had more canvases than wall space, and with that, Altered Iris was born in November of that year.

Over the last two years Cheri has moved three times which has been a bit challenging with a growing art business. Being preoccupied with packing, unpacking, settling, re-settling, changing schools, meeting new neighbors, saying goodbye to old and everything else that goes along with moving distracted Cheri from her art. Cheri is thankful she and her family have now settled for the long term in Johnson County and growing her art business seems more attainable.

Cheri's passion is creating items a person can have in their home or give to someone else that inspires or encourages them, and that shines through in her beautiful artwork. Cheri looks forward to growing Altered Iris to one day also make a difference in others lives through supporting worthy causes and giving back to the community.