Mom reinvents career, teaches others through digital scrapbooking service
TIKI ISLAND, TX (KTRK) -- A woman in her '50s gave up her job as a pharmacist and started a digital scrapbooking company.
Jan McCallum has always loved scrapbooking, but when she learned she could be just as creative without all of the boxes of supplies she traded page flips for clicks.
"The minute digital scrapbooking came out, I thought, 'yay!' I can get rid of all of this stuff and just carry around my laptop,'" McCallum said.
She saw digital scrapbooking as a hobby but when she developed breast cancer and her father died, her priorities changed.
"When somebody leaves your life unexpectedly and when you're not even sure about your own mortality, it becomes important to think about what you're leaving for your kids," McCallum said.
She left her job as a pharmacist and devoted her time to teaching others how to preserve precious memories. She started a company called Pixels to Pages, a training service for people learning to design their own digital scrapbooks.
In April, a company called Forever bought Pixels to Pages. With Forever, customers pay for permanent online storage.
"The Forever account is guaranteed for your lifetime plus one hundred years," McCallum said. "So that's good enough for me."
The digital scrapbook design software, Artisan, costs $59.95. To store digital scrapbooks (photos, documents and soon videos permanently) online with Forever.com, customers can pay a monthly fee (as low as $5) or a one-time fee of $349, $699 or $999, depending on how much storage they want.
Customers new to digital design can also add a Pixels to Pages training subscription for $144 per year or $15 dollars per month.
Customers can also opt to have their digital scrapbooks printed or turned into a book for additional costs.
McCallum is on a mission to help others preserve their memories digitally.
"We all have stories to tell," McCallum added. "This is what I was meant to do."
Examples of digital scrapbooks:
* Jan McCallum's Forever album
