It’s hard not to fall in love with a tea towel that displays lyrics from your favorite 90s hip hop ballads. We first ran into Cara Volle Schaarschmidt of Grape Street Greetings at a Firefly Handmade show many moons ago. Wit and talent run deep with this Denver mama. We were grateful for the chance to learn more about her craft.
What were you up to before you started creating mildly offensive, highly entertaining handmade goods, and how did you come up with the name Grape Street Greetings?
I am a writer by training and by nature and spent 20 years as a corporate copywriter, editor, and creative communications professional, in addition to writing humor essays and columns on the side.
I think the years spent in the fast pace of corporate marketing, plus my younger years waiting tables and working retail have really given me the discipline and customer service chops to succeed as a small business owner. The rest just comes from the sheer determination to never have a boss again.
The name Grape Street Greeting Co. comes directly from my Park Hill home address where I have a basement studio; it’s a tribute to Denver, really. We bought our hundred-year old bungalow on Grape Street more than 12 years ago and love calling Denver home. That house is the place I typed up my first greeting card and packaged up my first order, and after renting a workspace in Globeville for a couple of years, I’m so glad to be back working from home in my newly-built studio.
Where do you find inspiration for your pieces?
Oh man, I think just living a working mom-life gives me a lot of fodder for the snarky cards and gifts I create. There are a lot of these Calgon-take-me-away moments (if I may completely date myself) in marriage and parenting, especially pandemic parenting, where the only thing you can do is just laugh at the crazy, and a lot of my ideas are derived directly from those times where you’re like, “is this really my life?”
In addition, I’m lucky to have a group of hilarious, smart women friends who always inspire me and share ideas. It’s almost like a corporate brainstorm session, except there’s wine and chocolate and leggings involved. And sometimes, stuff just comes to me the old-fashioned way: while I’m in the shower or when I’m half asleep. Nothing like trying to turn your brain off to really get it firing on all cylinders, you know?
Do you welcome custom orders?
I don’t do as many custom orders as I used to now that I’m making merchandise for almost 75 shops across the country, but if someone wants something custom, the first quarter of the year is the best time to ask. I’m still dazed from the holidays at that point and am more likely to just say “yes” to everything. I do love to create custom items, like gift bags for girls’ trips and weddings, and I always welcome requests.
We are big proponents of supporting local and shopping small. Where can we find your creations? Who are some of your favorite local brick-and-mortar businesses?
Silk Road right in the heart of Wash Park always carries a bunch of my line, and you can also find my products at Jolly Goods in the Berkeley neighborhood, Trunk Noveau in the Stanley Marketplace, and Show of Hands in Cherry Creek North, plus a bunch more! I love shopping for gifts at all of those places, as well as Wish Gifts and Kismet.
You can also usually find me working out several times a week at the locally-owned Fly Kickbox, in the Stanley Marketplace, and I’ve just recently started doing some weight-training at Bodies By Perseverance in Five Points, which is an awesome old-school gym. I think the Denver workout scene is one of the best in the country, even for someone like me who is not even remotely close to being an athlete.
My favorite thing is probably to frequent as many independent bookstores as my husband will allow me (I mean, he couldn’t really stop me, right?). My favorites are The Bookies in Glendale and Book Bar in Berkeley, two local shops that have recently joined under the same owner. I then take those books to Wash Park Grille or Neighbor’s Wine Bar in Park Hill and settle in for a couple hours of quiet me-time as often as I can. I’m also a proud member of the local non-profit Lighthouse Writers Workshop, where I am getting to work on some bookish projects of my own.
When you’re not creating, how do you spend your free time?
I think once you’re a creative, you’re kind of stuck always creating. I don’t think I ever really turn that part off. I AM desperate to get back to my writing roots, for sure though. Writing greeting cards and tea towels will continue to happen, obviously, but I’ve had a book in me for many years and have decided that 2022 is the year that I get it out. That will be my main side project in the coming months. I think it’s going to be a subject matter that really resonates with the Grape Street Greetings audience, too, and I’m excited to make it happen.
I’m also a mom to an awesome almost-ten year old, so naturally my husband and our dogs and I spend a lot of time doing all the Colorado outdoors stuff with him. I also love to kickbox, hang with my amazing friends, and take part in local activism for civil and reproductive rights. And, as previously mentioned, I will likely read any book I can get my hands on, so I spend a lot of my free time geeking out that way.
What can we expect from Grape Street in the future?
The future looks pretty bright around here! When I started writing greeting cards several years ago, it was literally just for fun, just something to make my pals laugh. Turning it into a full-time job with distribution across the country is one of the things I’m most proud of, and I hope to continue that trajectory. I think the future will bring some new lines, (people have been begging me for coffee mugs, and I’m looking into it, I swear!) more snark, and having as much fun as a person is allowed while doing actual work. I hope people will continue to follow along with me on this journey, because I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a blast.
To see the entire Grape Street Greetings collection, visit her at etsy.com/shop/grapestreetgreetings or on instagram @grapestreetgreetings.