Angela Allen, Owner
What a wonderful journey this life has been thus far! I can only imagine the joys to come... I am the proud co-owner of Memories Galore and relish the opportunity to interact with our valued customers when teaching. I am blessed to be the mother of a beautiful daughter and teenage stepson with a promising future. Happily married to my high school sweetheart, I have been blessed by his unconditional love (how many husbands support their wives in buying and owning a pair of scrapbook stores?!?). I have been scrapbooking for more than six years and the time I spend creating makes me feel relaxed and renewed. My scrapbooking style is clean and rich with a focus on photographs and journaling (yes, in my own handwriting)! I'll be the first to admit that I'm a paper-holic and have to have the latest tools and gadgets. I primarily create 12x12 pages and do not scrapbook in chronological order... I know, what a maverick I am! Join me as we learn and grow in our creative journey together!

Bonnie Cuddihy
Born into a military family with a career Air Force fighter pilot father, my travels and experiences have been many. If I could change just one thing in life, it would have been to have had my trusty Nikon D70 with me from my first home in Nagoya, Japan, through the years of family's travels and recorded life events that have whizzed by. Moving to Richmond in the early 70’s, I graduated with honors from VCU in Interior Design (including a year in Photography), worked for 20 years as a commercial interior designer and managed my own business, Corporate Design. In the 90’s I joined my husband, Jimmy, as a partner specializing in marketing our real estate and development businesses. Being a grandmother is perhaps my favorite claim to fame. “What better way is there to share with everyone but by taking photos and documenting holidays, events, places you’ve visited and kid’s birthday parties; and emailing those layouts to family and friends--close and far.” My latest joy is in creating mini-albums. As soon as my front door opens, my grandchildren look for new digital layouts and chocolate chip cookies. Keeping both plentiful makes everyone happy.

Charlotte Reed

At a very young age I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. Whether it was at the elementary school that I currently teach at or at Memories Galore, it has been my dream for as long as I can remember. I desire to teach others something new and challenging. Accompanying that passion comes the desire to craft. I have been scrapbooking since 1997. My mom and I began when I was in high school and I still enjoy heading home to scrap with her on the weekends. I scrapbook so that I can look back and remember all the wonderful people and moments in my life. I began working at Memories Galore as a sales associate after I graduated from college in 2003. I became a teacher for the Education Program in September of 2007. My scrapbooking style has evolved from 12x12 layouts to mini albums and other small projects. I find that these are more conducive to the numerous pictures my boyfriend takes. My hope as an educator at Memories Galore is to continuously expand the students thought process to new possibilities that the scrapbooking world has to offer.

Christin Crute
I am a mom to a delightful girl and I am married to my husband and friend for 12 years. I have worked in retail for nearly two decades, and been scrapbooking for 7 years. One year ago I joined the teaching team at Memories Galore and was able to combine my career and hobby--MY DREAM JOB! I love to learn and teach new techniques and draw inspiration from those around me. My style is fun, bright, girly and filled with patterns and texture. I teach instructional classes and Intro to Scrapbooking at both locations. I teach Layout Design at the West End location. I teach a variety of creative technique classes. While teaching, my goal is to take the pressure off my students. This hobby is fun, and relaxing, it doesn’t have to be about quantity or meeting a deadline. Just smile and be creative--what could be better?

Dawn Hobbs
Being a mom of three very busy children and a wife to a husband that does not work locally can be challenging, but I can always fit time to scrapbook! Graduating from Penn State with a BFA in photography and attending graphic design classes in New York, made scrapbooking a perfect fit for me! I started scrapbooking in 1996 when my first daughter was born and really got involved in the industry when my son was born in 2002. I scrap from the inspiration I receive from my photography and the desire to capture our everyday life as it quickly passes us by. My scrap style is sometimes very graphic and I love to mix and match colors, patterns and embellishments. I am always looking for new, cutting edge techniques and ideas to share with my students. I love to encourage them to scrap outside of their comfort zone. Scrapbooking is a creative outlet that I enjoy having in my daily life. After moving to Virginia in 2004, I discovered Memories Galore and shortly after that was fortunate enough to begin teaching classes there. I teach a variety of classes which include: Kit Club and lots of mini albums. I hope to inspire others to capture their everyday memories, as well as enable them to learn and use new techniques on their projects and pages. I like to teach students the “rules” of Scrapbooking, only to encourage them to break the “rules” in effort to develop their own style!

Melissa Samuels
I am a mother to three beautiful girls and married to the most wonderful man on the planet, who is also my high school sweetheart! I have worked as an office manager and bookkeeper, and have a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. I recently opened an Etsy shop to deal with my surplus of mini albums. My favorite, and most challenging, job is being a stay-at-home mom. I was introduced to scrapbooking almost 10 years ago when my husband gave me a black spiral bound scrapbook for Christmas. I was immediately addicted! I find documenting special occasions and holidays with my loved ones to be very satisfying, relaxing and even therapeutic. I also have a passion for card making and paper crafting. My style is greatly influenced by my love of mixed media art; I love layers and texture. I view every layout and card I make as a small work of art. Sometimes my designs are structured with clean lines, and sometimes they are messy and playful. My favorite things to work with are chipboard, acrylic paint, distress ink, buttons, brads, flowers and anything sparkly. I strive to create new and unique projects using cutting edge papers, products and tools!

Michele Deane, Owner
Mommy, wife, career-woman, family manager and scrapbook addict are just some of the roles that describe me in this all too crazy life! As the mother of two young children, it all started when I attended a home party. Out of peer pressure and guilt, I began documenting the life of my new baby daughter in my spare time. As I discovered new tools, papers, embellishments, and learned techniques, my creativity blossomed and my "duty" turned into a passion. With "family preservationist" as the rationale, my new found hobby turned to addiction when I devoted space in my home to a "studio" and sanctuary just for me! I am a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde scrapbooker--sometimes focused on efficiency and sometimes focused on high creativity. (That means sometimes I have a plan for my pages, sometimes they just evolve from the pictures and stories.) One of my favorite classes to teach is Samurai Scrapper, which balances the principle of efficiency with the satisfaction of creativity, providing value to my students. As an adoptive mom, I also teach lifebook classes to enable adoptive families to preserve and share their child's unique and personal story. I live in Chester, Virginia, with my handyman husband Russell. Our happy family is composed of two scrapbook model children, Olivia and Sarah, who pose whenever they see the camera, an assortment of four shelter cats and one very messy, highly vocal African Grey Parrot named Toots, who drives us all crazy!