BEHIND THE BRAND
Meet KRISTEN.
Wedding planner turned craft-maven, Kristen Johnson got her start coming up with unique ways to let every bride have their dream wedding - regardless of budget. From hand-painted dance floors to luxury installs, Kristen was always creating exciting new ideas for her clients. After moving on from the wedding industry, she found her love for crafting and started a crafting influencer career with clients like NBC, BravoTV, Bluprint, HSN, Home Depot, Fiskers and many more.
But then, paper flowers were born…
THE STORY OF ROO B. CO
Paper FLOWERS.
Everything started with a bride who wanted her wedding to be unique. This particular bride wanted to have the backdrop of her cake to be completely made of flowers. Unfortunately her budget would not allow for this to happen. As her wedding planner, Kristen knew she could figure out how to get her flowers, make it all unique and be within her budget. With oversized paper, hot glue, and scissors in hand, Rubiko paper flowers were born that night on the floor of Kristen's dining room.
The backdrop to the cake was a show stopper. The bride and everyone at her event absolutely loved the oversized dream of paper blooms. With many requests for these larger-than-life flowers, Kristen thought everyone should have the opportunity to have their own oversized dream.
THE ORIGINAL
BACHAN RUBIKO.
It has been said that Kristen's artistic mind comes from her grandmother. Born in le Shima, Okinawa Japan in 1925, Rubiko/Rose worked and attended college in Tokyo, but returned to Okinawa after the war. She was employed as an interpreter/translator at Camp Kuwae in Okinawa when she attended a USO dance and met her future husband, Fred, who was stationed at Kadena AFB. They were married in 1951 and the following year Rose immigrated to the United States and they settled in the Des Moines area.
Growing up, her grandmother always encouraged her to be creative and use her hands to create art. In loving memory of this personal cheerleader, Kristen decided to dedicate her product line to her to have others try new things and most of all create something that will inspire them the way that Rubiko inspired her.