About Us

Hi, my name is Darlene Kopta; wife, mom, gramma, designer and manufacturer
of the EZ Snap™ Frame, owner of DarStar Enterprises, Inc. DarStar Enterprises, Inc. began operations in the summer of 2005 under the direction of Darlene Kopta, it's founder. It is run as a "family" business including all employees under the heading. Everyone here has a love of scrapbooking and believes in preserving and displaying important memories for our families. By promoting our innovative and easy to use frame, we hope to inspire other scrapbookers to do the same. Now... Let me tell you our story...

A Born Scrapper!
I have been “collecting scraps” since I was about 10 or 11 years old. My first scrapbook included souvenirs and memories from a family train trip from Chicago to California and all the sightseeing we did with my cousins. That was the beginning of my passion for keeping mementos from places I’ve been and things I’ve seen and done.

Through grammar school and high school I added school newspapers, programs, pressed corsages and other memorabilia. When our children were born, I took lots of pictures of all the celebrations and vacations and made photo albums for them from birth, through childhood, and into their late teens. I’ve always loved archiving our family events and still do today.

While visiting a Rubber Stamp store in 1998, I met a CM Consultant, and was introduced to the wonderful world of colored and printed paper, die cuts, stickers, and decorative scissors etc., the infancy of what we now call “Scrapbooking.” I put together my “first page” and I WAS HOOKED! I became involved in Creative Memories for a time, and my love of this hobby kept growing.

A Labor of Love
The idea for the EZ Snap™ Frame came to me after my husband's family all moved to Florida. I wanted to keep in touch as the grandchildren grew and keep our relatives in Florida up on what we were all doing back in Chicago, so I made a “LOVE” scrapbook page showing our family at a Valentine's day dinner. I wanted to frame it and send it as a Mother’s Day gift to my mother-in-law. This was back in 2001, and 12“ x 12” frames were almost non-existent. I did, after much searching, finally find a black metal record album frame, which opened from the back, and then I had a frustrating time getting the page in straight and had to take it apart several times before finally centering it. I wanted to be able to send other pages periodically to update her and the family, but it would require dexterity and maybe even tools for my mom-in-law to be changing the pages for display. I thought... there has to be a BETTER and EASIER way to do this! And so, the idea was born!

I started to design the frame in my basement using foam core board, sticky-tak, and plastic molding strips from Menards. After numerous prototypes, designing and re-designing, engineering and tooling, patent searches and finally a Patent Pending, I think that I have produced the frame that I always wanted to buy. It was important to me that it would contain all of the improvements and features I was looking for and that I thought others were looking for too! It turned out to be the “EZ Snap™ Frame.“

• FRONT-LOADING - for easy change and centering
• NO METAL TABS, no tools required and no more broken finger-nails
• LIGHTWEIGHT - even able to display on fridge (after all, where does everyone
  congregate when they visit your home?)
• 3-D to accommodate keepsakes and embellishments
• MANY DISPLAY OPTIONS - Legs INCLUDED, Magnetic Strips & Suction Cups available separately
• PAINTABLE (using the Standard White Frame as a base) - to enhance a
  special page, co-ordinate with a certain décor, or create a two-tone combination
• ALL MADE IN THE U.S.A!

It’s All About Family!
My husband Hal has chauffeured me on endless trips to Scrapbook Stores in more states than I can name and attended several trade shows, where he was assigned to check out “ALL frame booths,” lighting of exhibits, do’s and don’ts of product display, good booth location and of course, best dressed exhibitors. He designed the legs for the frame, added the suction cup option, as well as did all of the spray-painting of the sample frames for our first booth at CHA Summer 2005 in Chicago. Also, he became an exhibit builder on very short notice, with minimal complaining. My daughters and sons-in-law all took turns manning the booth with me and helping at that first trade show. They kept me going with enthusiasm, love and support.

Preserving Our Heritage
My love of scrapbooking has carried over to our two daughters, Ginger and Brandee, and they are now making wonderful keepsake albums of their families for their children, Daniella, Julia, and Fender Hank. I can't think of a better, more rewarding hobby than preserving your family story through pictures, mementos, and journaling. We want our grandchildren to know about their heritage, and remember the wonderful people who came before us. By displaying our family memories it helps keep them alive for us as well as future generations.

Spend more time on your craft, now that framing's a SNAP!
DarStar Enterprises, Inc. is now working hard to spread the word about EZ Snap™ Frames and to introduce them to all scrapbookers and crafters. Try this NEW and EASY way to display your beautiful work and decorate your home with handcrafted wall art. Make memorable gifts and framed scrapbook pages to give to friends and loved ones.

Future plans include more sizes, colors and styles using our New Framing Concept, and we welcome your ideas and suggestions. Please be sure to check out the rest of our website and e-mail comments and questions to frame@darstarent.com. Thank you for reading our story and for being one of the special people devoted to “keeping memories.”

Sincerely,

EZ Snap™ Frame PATENT PENDING

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