Buy Local With Help From Local Mother-Daughter Artist Duo

Stephanie (left) and Theresa (right) display their art.

“Pretty {much} Art” Creates Custom Prints Perfect for Gifts

Though good practice any time of year, buying local is especially important to embrace during the holiday season. For about eight years, local mother-daughter duo Theresa and Stephanie Schauer have been creating unique home decor prints that are sold both online and in several local shops. Their business, called “Pretty {much} Art, is a prime example of how shopping local can be a great source for the perfect gift.

Combining digital and handmade art, Stephanie creates graphic design art from favorite quotes while Theresa creates burlap prints (along with coasters, magnets, and notecards) from the art.

pma_5The idea began after Stephanie graduated from college in 2008. While at the computer job-searching, her mom asked her to design a couple of pictures for the family’s newly-remodeled bathroom wall. Putting her graphic design degree to use, she created a few prints and sparked inspiration for a business.

“My mom loved the prints and we decided that I should try and sell them to earn a little extra cash while I was still looking for a job,” Stephanie explained. “Etsy was just becoming popular so I designed a bunch of prints that day, my mom printed them, and we opened our Etsy shop.”

After Stephanie creates the designs, Theresa “the crafter” transforms them into something tangible. Stephanie’s dad is also involved, creating barn-wood frames and helping with booth displays as needed.

While early in the business Stephanie was making digital art by creating nature-inspired drawings and scanning them into the computer, today their focus is on quote prints.

“They’re much more fun for us,” said Stephanie, who said that after switching to the burlap quotes, sales skyrocketed. Inspiration for the quotes comes from favorite books, movies, and songs.

pma_3“We pride ourselves on choosing quotes for our artwork that we feel a personal connection with,” said Stephanie. “When we launched this line, we didn’t want to necessarily use quotes that you could buy at any home decor store. My favorite quotes come from the songs that have gotten me through hard times, the books that have taken me on life-changing journeys, the musicals that have embarrassingly made me cry happy tears as the lights come up, and the movies that I can watch over and over again.”

Now with a full-time job as a graphic designer at a print shop while her mom works as a full-time receptionist at a dental office, the business has become more of a side project. However, they have no plans to quit any time soon.

“We’ve both always been very creative people. It’s a fun hobby for both of us,” said Stephanie. “Around the holidays, our Etsy sales go up and we get a bit busier and we start to think, ‘maybe someday this could be full-time.’ But I think that’s a far-off dream. I think we’d love to open a little gift shop someday where we can sell our work and be working on new things all the time, but for now we’re just having fun.”

Stephanie’s favorite part of the job is knowing that her items are going to people who are going to love them.

“That’s what’s fun about our quotes. I really think we have somethingpma_2 for everyone. People get a kick out of finding a quote from their favorite song or movie,” she said. “We like the little inside joke that comes from a person knowing where a more off-the-wall quote comes from. If you know where the quote ‘Homeboy wore combat boots to the beach’ comes from, we can be best friends.”

She added that another favorite part about having the business is working so closely with her mom.

“Believe it or not, we really don’t get sick of each other!” she said. “I never thought we’d be doing this for so many years, but each sale we make keeps us going. When you buy handmade you really are making an artist’s day. As a small business, we love our customers and we couldn’t do it without the support of the people who like what we do.”