Andrea Grossman is a graphic designer who became a legend for pioneering a brand-new product called decorative stickers. That was in 1979. Today she is a very successful business woman who is as well-known for her humanitarian efforts and faith-based philosophy as she is for the thriving industry she created.

Andrea was born Andrea Clausen, in Santa Monica, California. Her father was the head of Associated Press in Los Angeles and a widely respected newsman. Her mother, who was an accomplished singer and painter, worked happily at home raising her three children.

For as long as she can remember, Andrea loved art. She knew her colors before she knew the alphabet and could spend hours working on a drawing or cutting intricate shapes out of paper. One of her biggest childhood thrills was when her father came home with a big paper bag filled with every single color of Coats & Clarke thread he could buy - and gave all of them to four-year-old Andrea.

After graduating from University High School in West Los Angeles, Andrea attended UCLA and majored in art. For the next three years she attended the prestigious Art Center School of Design in L.A. where she studied everything from advertising illustration to graphic design.

Andrea moved to San Francisco and became a graphic designer, working with some of the top designers in the city. She produced illustrations for Sunset Magazine and Paul Masson Winery and designed album covers for Capitol Records, including one for Frank Sinatra. She created brochures and corporate logos for some of the most prominent companies on the West Coast.

In 1975, Andrea, married with one son and living in a small, woodsy town just north of San Francisco, decided to venture out on her own. She launched Mrs. Grossman’s Paper Company designing stationery based on illustrations from vintage seed catalogues. She had a small but steady following of discriminating retail customers and enjoyed a close relationship with her clientele.

In 1979, a favorite customer asked Andrea to design a red heart with a sticky backing for a Valentine’s Day promotion. Andrea cut the heart out of black paper, sent it to a printer in Los Angeles and forgot all about it.

When the bright red hearts arrived weeks later they weren’t on flat sheets like she expected but wound up on rolls, like ribbon. What a lovely surprise.

Andrea remembers, “when I opened that carton I was dazzled. I knew immediately, this could be more than just a one-sticker promotion, it could be a product, something brand-new that people could have a lot of fun with.”

And so it was! Those hearts inadvertently, unexpectedly and unbelievably sparked a new industry called stickers and turned Mrs. Grossman’s into a household word. As the woman who created this wildly-popular, colorful little product, Andrea was featured on the pages of People Magazine, became a full-page story in the New York Times and was considered the leader in the industry.

She had started her business from her dining room table with one employee, her son. Today she oversees a company of 125 in a 110,000 square foot corporate headquarters in Petaluma, California (40 miles north of San Francisco). The company is as famous for the wide variety of colorful stickers that they design and print in their own printing plant as it is for the dogs who come to work with their owners and their popular sticker factory tours.

Andrea continues to serve as president of the company that she founded more than twenty-seven years ago. Her artistic vision inspires the team of talented artists who work with her and the love she has for her employees makes company turnover rare. Never far from Andrea’s side is Beau, her Australian Shepherd, who comes to work with her everyday.

Her son Jason is company vice president and president of Paragon Label, a high-quality label printing company and a subsidiary of Mrs. Grossman’s.

For many years Andrea has been actively involved in making lives better for those in need. She is very committed and involved with Prison Fellowship and has a heart for ministering to incarcerated women. Andrea is also on the board of Joni & Friends, a faith-base organization whose mission is reaching out and helping families affected by severe disabilities.

Every year Mrs. Grossman’s sends more than 6,000,000 stickers to more than 300 pediatric hospitals and cancer camps for children. The artwork and stories that are sent back to the company are exhibited in the company’s Gallery of Love. And love is the operative word at this company.

Andrea’s philosophy of life might be summed up in what she often responds when asked about her priorities, “I ask God to come with me every day when I walk through the doors of Mrs. Grossman’s. He’s in charge. He blesses us so that we can bless others.”