St. Louis mother Emma Hand always had a knack for design, but at the beginning of her career she was working in the bio-tech industry. She says, “[She] felt the lack of “connection” between people that can sometimes happen in a large company,” and began moonlighting making removable stickers featuring thoughtful messages. She called it “Acts of Kindness,” and while showing her stickers at NYC stationary shows she received repeated requests for a whole product line. Soon her stickers turned into an art licensing deal with stationary companies, and she was off on her own as an entrepreneur.

Emma says, “Since I started out on my own six years ago with Acts of Kindness, it feels that EVERYTHING in the business has morphed (because it has).  The biggest single reason is that I had kids”

When she had her first child she found herself taking piles and piles of pictures, and since she wasn’t much for scrapbooking herself she was in need of a creative way to store and share all of these pictures. Searching for something special to do with them, she began making what would become the genesis of Snap Stories by cutting photos of her family out and pasting them into storybooks to give as presents. Her sister-in-law, who has worked in the gift industry for 15 years, was over the moon for these cute, personalized creations and encouraged her to develop the idea.

From there her business took flight. After pitching the idea to a scrapbooking company, she began creating and printing Snap Stories, a line of practical keepsakes that, unlike that silver cup and spoon, were made to be well-loved by kids. Well-loved is the key phrase here. The product is meant to be handled by children, and Emma has even had parents come back and order a second book to put in a do-not-touch-until-your-twenty-box, because the original book has accompanied their child on so many adventures.

Emma explained, “I feel that the more we have inspiring things around us to make us smile and remind us that we are loved and matter to other people, the better our lives and the world will be.  In our day-and-age of efficiency and connecting through the other with texts, FB, and i- and e- everything, I whole-heartedly believe that my simple photo storybooks make the real world a (snap-)happier place for babies, grandparents, and everyone in between.  That kernel of passion turns out to be fuel that can get me going at the earliest of hours and late at night after I’ve tucked my kids into bed.”

The basic concept of her books is scrapbooking without the hundreds of dollars invested in stamps and crazy-cutting scissors, but with all the creativity and personalization a scrapbook page would have. We’ve all seen the personalized, print your name in a book stories. Well, Snap Stories is a quick, and easy DIY version of those personalized books, but instead of simply inserting your child’s name, parents place their 10 favorite pictures in between the books pages and tell a story featuring their child.

I had a chance to play around with one of her books, and after sending my photos to print it literally only took me 30 minutes to create a completely personalized board book for my daughter, using her My Baby Face book. Her Snap Story now ranks right up there with Olivia and Dr Seuss books in my baby’s favorite book rotation. In fact it was so easy to pull together just about any scissor-ready kid would have a blast making their own, and Emma has a a whole line of stories that are appropriate for kids of all ages.

Emma’s dedication to her idea that is paying off. In just a few short years, her books have landed in boutiques and gift stores around the St. Louis area such as City Sprouts, and they are even available at Left Bank Books. Emma has also launched an online store to sell her Snap Stories, and is dabbling in social media to help get the word out about her products. As her business grows, Emma’s goal is to be able to start focusing on creating new products and less on the sales and operations side of the business.

Owning her own business allows Emma to spend more time with her two children, but she knows that being a mompreneur definitely has it’s challenges. “The biggest challenge is who gets your time.  As a mom, what your kids need is you.  As an entrepreneur, all your business has is you.”

As a special offer to you, our favorite readers, Emma is offering free shipping when you purchase Snap Stories online! Use the code “FAMILY” during check out to get your Snap Story shipped to you for free!

Image Credit: SnapStories.com

Melody Meiners is the Lifestyles Editor for STLFamilyLife.com, and she blogs about all manners of domesticity on her personal blog MrsSmartyPants.com. You can email her at melody [dot] meiners [at] gmail [dot] com, or follow her on Twitter, @cosmosgirl.

Disclosure: The FTC requires that I disclose that I received the products mentioned in this post complimentary. As part of the review agreement with the business owner, receipt of products has in no way swayed the views and opinions contained herein.