Today we’d like to introduce you to CaraMia Cipriani.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My Story & How Carazy Paint Began
I worked as an Oral Surgical Assistant for many years. After suffering a late-term pregnancy loss, I had a very difficult time coping. I began painting simply because I needed somewhere to put my emotions. I wasn’t very good at it, but I loved it, and it helped me through one of the hardest times of my life.
One of my closest friends, Margie, believed in me before I really believed in myself. She encouraged me to share my artwork and suggested that maybe I could even teach others. I was never a strong public speaker, and I lacked confidence in my work, so the idea was terrifying.
But with $55 in my pocket and a dream, I booked my first Paint & Sip for seven people. Almost immediately afterward, I booked an event for 42. Margie loaned me $400 to help get the business started and became my emotional support and photographer at my traveling events.
Carazy Paint was born.
At the time, I had a toddler at home and a seven-year-old stepdaughter. My son, Phoenix, had recently been diagnosed with autism and ADHD. I knew there would be challenges ahead, and I needed a career that would allow me the flexibility to be there for him. That was when I realized I wasn’t going back to the dental field.
When my stepdaughter’s Girl Scout troop disbanded, I started a small craft group for kids in my basement. We called ourselves Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Five girls quickly became 12, and eventually a local church allowed me to use its recreation room. Before I knew it, our little group had grown to 20 kids.
And here’s the part of my story I’m especially proud of: I taught myself how to paint.
I wasn’t born an artist. I worked really hard to become one. I was learning and improving as an artist at the same time I was teaching others, and I was incredibly nervous every single time I stood in front of a class.
But something unexpected started happening.
The more people I met, the more stories I heard. People would come to a Paint & Sip carrying whatever was happening in their lives. For a few hours, they could laugh, create and forget about everything waiting for them outside.
I understood that because painting had done the same thing for me.
That’s when I decided I wanted to open an art studio. I wanted to create a place where people could come to unwind and belong. A place where everyday stress didn’t exist for a little while, where you could walk through the door carrying something heavy and simply have somewhere to put it.
I also wanted children to have a place where their imaginations weren’t limited by whether they were already “good” at art. I wanted them to be able to take an idea in their heads and watch it become something beautiful in their hands.
In 2015, I opened my first art studio.
Now, in 2026, Carazy Paint hosts more than 50 children in our Art Clubs, along with adult Paint Nights, workshops and traveling events. I lead my classes with humor and a laid-back, welcoming atmosphere because I’ve never wanted art to feel intimidating or stuffy. Art should be fun. It should be messy. Sometimes you need to laugh at yourself, paint over something and try again.
That original children’s club has grown too. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun has playfully evolved into Kids Just Wanna Have Fun, with multiple clubs for different ages, including our Creative Connections Club for children who thrive in a smaller-group setting. We even have a play area because sometimes kids just need to be kids.
Some of the girls from my very first club still come back to visit me. That means more to me than I can put into words.
Everyone who walks through our studio doors or joins us at a traveling event becomes part of what I call the Carazy Paint Family, or, lovingly, the Carazies.
Over the years, Carazy Paint has grown far beyond those first Paint & Sips. Today we offer canvas, glass and wood painting, resin workshops, face painting, henna tattoos, sand art and more. But underneath all of it, the reason I do this hasn’t really changed.
Art gave me somewhere to put my emotions when I desperately needed it. It brought me peace during one of the hardest periods of my life, and somehow that little outlet grew into a place where I could share that feeling with other people.
My son Phoenix and my stepdaughter Kadie have always been powerful reminders to me to believe in who you are and never give up.
I started with $55, a friend who believed in me, very little confidence, and absolutely no idea where any of this would lead.
Eleven years later, I’m still learning, still creating, still laughing, and still incredibly grateful that this is what I get to do.
LET’S GET CARAZY & PAINT! 🎨
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. In the beginning, I was learning everything as I went. My first studio was in a very small town, and social media was really just beginning to become the way small businesses advertised and marketed events. I remember starting my business page and getting 56 followers. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world! Fifty-six people actually wanted to follow what I was doing. Today, that little page has grown to nearly 6,000 followers, which still amazes me when I think about where it started.
In those early days, though, I didn’t have a huge social circle or following, so getting the word out was difficult. Some of my first events happened because friends believed in me enough to host painting parties in their homes.
When I opened my first studio, classes initially filled because I was new and it was something different and exciting in town. Eventually, that novelty wore off, and there were months when simply getting enough people through the door to cover the overhead was a struggle. I was incredibly fortunate to have a landlord who believed in my vision. There were times when I came up short and he allowed me some breathing room. I will always be grateful to him for that.
Along the way, I also went through a divorce. I was trying to run a business, raise my children, move, and navigate everything that comes with ending a marriage. There were plenty of times when giving up probably would have been easier, but I didn’t. I just worked harder.
And then the pandemic hit.
Suddenly, everything shut down, and Carazy Paint was my only source of income. I couldn’t bring people into the studio, so I decided I would bring the studio to them.
I started offering free live painting and art classes online. If families didn’t have paint, I showed them how to make it. If they didn’t have canvases, we’d cut up cereal boxes. We experimented with different textures and whatever materials people could find around the house. We got creative with being creative.
I would livestream the classes, make jokes and paint, and my son Phoenix became part of the show. While I was setting everything up, he would take over for what we jokingly called “Five Minutes of Phinn.” He’d talk about his day, tell jokes, or simply provide some much-needed comic relief. People began leaving tips during our livestreams, and those tips helped us get by during a time when I had no idea what was going to happen to my business.
But something much bigger came out of it.
Parents started sending me photographs of their kids painting along with us and showing me everything they had created that day. During a time when children were stuck at home and everyone was isolated and uncertain, for a little while they could log onto Facebook, watch these two silly people paint, laugh, and make something.
In return, they helped me too.
That’s probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned through all of the challenges I’ve faced with Carazy Paint. The business was founded on the idea that art can give you somewhere to put the difficult things in life for a little while. Even when my studio doors were physically closed, we were still doing exactly that.
We all kind of held hands together, from a distance, and got through it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Carazy Paint is much more than a traditional art studio. We offer art experiences for children, teens and adults in a fun, relaxed environment where you don’t have to consider yourself an artist to belong.
I specialize in step-by-step instruction designed to make art approachable for everyone. One of my favorite things to hear at the beginning of a class is, “I can’t even draw a stick figure,” because those are often the same people staring at their finished painting a few hours later saying, “I can’t believe I did that!” I teach with a lot of humor and very little pressure. There are no mistakes that can’t become part of the painting.
Our children’s Art Clubs are a huge part of Carazy Paint and something I’m incredibly proud of. We have multiple clubs for different ages and abilities, where kids get to experiment with different mediums and techniques while developing their own creativity rather than simply being told exactly what art is supposed to look like. We also offer Creative Connections, a smaller-group art club for children who thrive with a little more patience, individualized guidance and a less overwhelming environment.
Beyond our Art Clubs, Carazy Paint offers adult Paint Nights, canvas, wood, ceramics, and glass painting, resin workshops, face painting, henna, sand art, private parties, traveling events and more. I love experimenting with different mediums, so there is usually something new finding its way into the studio.
What I’m most proud of, though, isn’t a particular painting or project. It’s the community that has grown around the art.
I know my students. I know their personalities, their senses of humor and the things they’re proud of. I have watched children grow up in my studio. Some of the girls from my very first children’s art group still come back to visit me today. Families return year after year, and somewhere along the way, customers stopped feeling like customers. They became the Carazies, our Carazy Paint family.
I think what sets Carazy Paint apart is that I don’t believe art should be intimidating, perfect or exclusive. You don’t need natural talent. You don’t need expensive supplies. You don’t even need to know what you’re doing when you walk through the door.
You just need to be willing to create.
If you leave with a painting you’re proud of, that’s wonderful. But if you leave having laughed, relaxed, tried something you didn’t think you could do, made a friend, or simply forgot about the rest of the world for a couple of hours, then I’ve done what I set out to do.
How do you think about happiness?
What makes me happiest is knowing that something I started with $55 and very little confidence in myself has grown into something that makes a difference in other people’s lives.
I love the hugs from my painters, the smiles when someone steps back and realizes, “I actually did that,” and especially the handmade drawings my art students make for Miss Cara. Those are some of the most meaningful pieces of art I own.
I wasn’t born an artist, and I certainly didn’t have everything figured out. I’ve experienced loss, divorce, financial struggles, raising children while running a business, a pandemic, and plenty of reasons I could have given up. But I kept going.
I’m incredibly proud of what Carazy Paint has become, but what makes me happiest is knowing my story might inspire someone else to believe in themselves. You don’t have to start out being great at something. You just have to be willing to start.
I did it, and maybe seeing that I did will help someone else believe they can too. ❤️🎨
Pricing:
- $35 per person includes instruction, use of all art supplies and a promised good time!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Carazypaint.com
- Instagram: Carazy_Paint
- Facebook: Carazy Paint, LLC
