Our story
About Us
Two people, a workshop, and nine years of making personal pieces for the moments that matter.
We’re John and Jamie, and this all started with a cup.
Around Christmas of 2016, our nephew received a powder-coated YETI tumbler decorated with the Dallas Cowboys. We had never seen anything quite like it. We were amazed by what someone had managed to do with an ordinary cup, and the idea stayed in the back of John’s mind for months.
By July 2017, John had discovered CO₂ lasers. He did not completely understand what they could do, what they could not do, or exactly where this was all heading.
Naturally, he bought one.
How it began
The first products were not cups.
The laser arrived in August 2017, and JP Custom Creations was born. Once the machine arrived, we began discovering its abilities, limitations, and occasional refusal to cooperate with the plans humans had made for it.
We started by making wooden votive candle holders. Later, we moved into powder-coated and laser-engraved tumblers, then leaned more heavily into woodworking and personalized home décor.
About a year into the business, John realized that nearly every maker seemed to have “Custom Creations” somewhere in the company name. We wanted something that felt more like us.
One day, while John was dealing with warped boards in the shop, the answer appeared.
The Warped Board was born.
The plan changed
The business needed to grow up faster than expected.
At the time, John was managing a repair facility and hoping to grow The Warped Board into something that could eventually replace his job. Jamie had already left her job to focus on the business and take better care of herself during a difficult season after losing her mother.
Then the company John worked for shut down.
Suddenly, the business we hoped might support us someday needed to support us much sooner. John decided to give it a real try while looking for another job.
Instead, The Warped Board began taking off.
Nine years later, we are still here. That matters deeply to us.
Two people, different jobs
Jamie sees the details. John makes the machinery behave.
Jamie is the designer and the guardian of details. If something is off-center, misaligned, uneven, or just not quite right, she will notice it. It does not matter whether anyone else would ever see it. She sees it, and therefore it must be fixed. The universe may contain shades of gray, but Jamie generally prefers things properly aligned in black and white.
John is the nuts-and-bolts side of the operation. He runs the machines, handles production, solves problems, fixes what breaks, manages the website, tackles the SEO, and deals with taxes because apparently someone has to.
Jamie enjoys designing. John enjoys making the machines do what they were purchased to do. Together, we turn ideas into finished products.
We have also been together for 30 years. That does not mean every day has been perfect. It means we have built a life, a family, and a business together through all the imperfect parts. Thirty years deserves to be celebrated.
More than an order number
Small business should still feel personal.
Recently, a customer contacted John about a sign that had broken. She had ordered it six years earlier, and he remembered her without searching through old orders. To a large company, she might have been an order number. To us, she was a customer whose sign we remembered making.
Every order passes through John’s hands in one way or another, and every design carries Jamie’s attention to detail. We care about how the finished product looks because we know it may be displayed in someone’s home or business for years.
You chose something we made, spent your hard-earned money on it, and gave it a place in your life. We never take that lightly.
The shop crew
Supervision is mostly canine.
The original shop dog was Nala, who supervised operations until crossing the rainbow bridge. Before she left, she trained Jaxon and Koda well. They continue carrying out the essential responsibilities of watching, following, napping, and appearing whenever food packaging makes a noise.
Our daughter Tristan and our family friend Anna occasionally lend a hand as well, but most days The Warped Board is simply the two of us.
No boardroom. No giant staff. No mysterious department where customer emails disappear.
Just John and Jamie.
Why we make it
The details on the order form are parts of someone’s life.
Over the years, we have created personalized signs, GPS coordinate gifts, cutting boards, slate décor, canvas prints, layered wood signs, Texas flags, and pieces made to celebrate homes, weddings, anniversaries, families, businesses, and meaningful places.
One of John’s proudest moments was walking through Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and seeing one of our Texas flags displayed at Shake Shack. But the truth is, we are proud of every piece someone chooses to display.
Our mission is simple: to help people commemorate the places, people, and moments that matter to them.
A first home. A wedding. An anniversary. A family name. A favorite gathering place. The coordinates where a story began.
Those are not merely personalization fields. They are parts of people’s lives.
Take a look around