When a Hobby Becomes a Global Community
A few weeks ago, I sat down with Lyric on the Creatives on Camera podcast from The Academy for Virtual Teaching to talk about the real story behind ColorWay Arts. The unexpected and beautiful journey that began with my lack of English, some chipboard and a simple wish to buy more fabric.
🎧 Watch the episode:
Here are a few highlights from the podcast:
From Brazil to Indiana (and a whole new life)
Back in 2012, I arrived in the U.S. with two kids, almost no English, and a soul that felt tired after years working as a food engineer in Brazil. Two years later, somehow I found myself in front of five women teaching my very first cartonnage class: hands shaking, accent strong, but heart full.
They smiled. Their eyes sparkled. They asked, “What are we making next month?”
And that was the beginning.
Everything shifted in my second class when a student told me she was already making her Christmas gifts, in February. That simple idea stayed with me. Today thousands of students around the world, especially grandmas and moms, create meaningful handmade gifts filled with memory and love. That was the moment I understood I wasn’t teaching only boxes. I was helping people make stories.
One of my first video, when I was starting the online school (click the image to watch :)
Recording my first videos “Hello, I am Claudia”
When my husband lost his job and we moved to Michigan, I had no local students left. So I started recording online lessons: shaky videos, not the best lighting, scared to speak English, but determined to keep going. And just like that, ColorWay Arts was no longer “a hobby that pays for fabric.”
It became something real and I started growing.
By 2019, I was doing everything alone, designing, cutting, shipping and teaching. After my first big show in Paducah, I came home to a house overflowing with boxes and burnout. A therapist helped me slow down, breathe, meditate and finally see what I had been ignoring for so long. I needed help, both in my business and inside myself. From there, I hired someone to help and found a place to move my business out of my basement. Still took me a couple of years and more stress to understand that I needed even more help, and little by little I added more people to the team. Today our team has seven amazing women supporting me with finance, administration, marketing, design and logistics.
Cartonnage Club is born
Early in 2020, during a quiet moment of meditation, I felt a clear message. Create a community!
I launched the Cartonnage Club imagining that four hundred people would join. Fewer than forty did. But then the pandemic arrived and people were home, searching for joy, connection and something to make with their hands. The Club grew. People connected. Today we have members in nearly twenty countries and a community that feels like extended family. Every Zoom meeting is filled with real stories, real tears and real love.
Then last year, right after finishing a major online event, I received the phone call no one wants to hear. Breast cancer. It was caught early thanks to a mammogram, and I had surgery and radiation. But the emotional healing changed me even more deeply. I learned to ask for help. To rest. To trust my intuition. To let my business support my life instead of swallowing it. That journey became the book I am finishing now.
Today life feels different. I walk. I meditate. I do Pilates. I listen to my feelings before I commit to anything. I no longer chase trends or force myself into strategies that don’t feel like me. What truly works in my business is connection. Writing honest emails. Caring for my community. Creating with joy.
My conversation with Lyric on Creatives on Camera reminded me of how far this path has taken me and how creativity has a way of guiding us back home to ourselves. Sometimes the bravest move is listening when something inside whispers not this, not now.
Thank you for being part of this journey, for gluing with me, learning with me, and growing with me.
Wherever this path goes next, I’m grateful we get to walk it together. 💛✨
Happy gluing,
Claudia
