Don’t tell Rebecca Ramos she can’t do something, because she’ll start learning it right away. She has taught herself how to build Web sites, design graphics and make jewelry. Now she’s learning to weld.“I just never thought there was anything I couldn’t do,” Ramos said.

Such spirit has propelled her through five start-ups.

Ramos, 39, has mixed her passion for art with business. Her design flair is most visible at ChickeeBoom, a company she started in June to sell jewelry online and at home parties.

Last year, she bought some jewelry while on vacation in Florida. Back home, friends fell in love with the rings, buying them right off her hand.

Ramos first thought she could sell jewelry she found; then she realized she could make some of it. Within a month, ChickeeBoom was up and running. It’s already profitable.

“She doesn’t sit on decisions,” said Glenn Baldwin, who has provided virtual chief financial officer services to Ramos’ companies for seven years. “She is a textbook entrepreneur: She loves developing things and seeing them grow.”

ChickeeBoom is the creative outlet Ramos craved while running other businesses.

She got the entrepreneurial urge when leaders at the company where she worked didn’t listen to her ideas. She left and started Expressive Arts in 2000 with two partners, Steven Lindsey and Joel Galloway. The marketing firm grew to eight employees, generated annual sales in the mid-seven figures and counted giant Wal-Mart as a customer.

In 2003, the trio formed Group 518 to provide shipping and warehouse services, mainly to Wal-Mart. In 2005, they shuttered the unprofitable company after the retailer took that work in-house, and they launched BrandTenders to market promotional products.

By 2008, everything changed. The partners had a falling out and closed Expressive Arts and BrandTenders. Debts piled up, Expressive Arts’ building hadn’t sold and Ramos, who was ready to have her second child, had personally guaranteed most of the business assets and debt.

Ramos filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, with liabilities nearly four times her assets.

“It was my decision to get that behind me and start fresh,” she said. “I still want to find the best in everyone. I still approach business like that – it’s just my nature.”

That same year, Ramos and Lindsey formed Crain & Craig (their middle names). The marketing and promotional products firm billed more than $1 million in the first two years.

Ramos spends most of her time on Crain & Craig and works on ChickeeBoom in her North Dallas garage after sons Ridge, 5, and Rhett, 2, go to sleep.

“ChickeeBoom is fun, but right now Crain & Craig is the No. 1 priority,” said Ramos, who always sports a signature ring and charm bracelet.The Ramos file

Born: Chillicothe, Mo.

Education: Associate degree in industrial design, Art Institute of Colorado

Business philosophy: Stick by your word.

Biggest challenge: Time. I have four jobs – running two companies and being a mom and a wife (to husband Marc).

Biggest mistake: Trusting people too soon

Best asset: Integrity

Worst habit: I don’t take time for myself.

Wheels: Hummer H3

Reading: Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing by Tim McCreight

Last meal request: Shinsei’s oatmeal cookies

Nobody knows: I can name all of the U.S. presidents in order.

Advice for a 20-year-old entrepreneur wannabe: Failure is OK. It’s what you learn and how you rebound that’s important.