Some makers know they are meant to be makers from a very young age - they have always been crafting, creating, and dreaming. For others, like Melissa of Print Therapy, the dream of being an entrepreneurial maker became clear after working hard for what she thought she wanted, only to find out she didn’t want that at all! After three business related degrees and nine years climbing the corporate ladder, it took nine months of handcrafting numerous wedding details, several very long business trips, and her supportive husband to make Melissa trust her gut, listen to her heart, and start Print Therapy, a stationery company devoted to sending happiness, one card at a time.
Print Therapy is run by Melissa and her husband Nick, and is focused on greeting cards, invitations, and love notes. Their name took a few tries to get right - Yellow Dog Creations, Two Hearts Stationery, and Blue & Grey were all on the idea list (which they still keep in their home studio today!) before they settled on Print Therapy. To them, it spoke to what stationery is all about - that feeling of love, happiness, and excitement that comes with opening a card, finding a love letter in your mailbox, and putting your emotions down on paper. Melissa and Nick run Print Therapy from their home studio in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, with their rescue pup Sawyer by their side, who often sneaks his nose into photo shoots and has been caught eating a card sample or two!
Melissa and Nick started Print Therapy in April 2013, just a year after Melissa graduated with her Master’s Degree in Communication and Information Management, while she was a Project Manager for a large company. She admits that at first, it felt counterintuitive - she had finally finished years of schooling only to realize that Corporate America wasn’t for her, like she once thought it was. Now, however, she knows that her educational and professional background gives her an edge as a small business owner. Not only does she love the creative side, but she loves the non-creative side of running the business as well. It’s been a good lesson for her, and for some of her close friends and families, that just beacaue you’re doing something, have been doing something, and think you should be doing something, doesn’t mean that you can’t be brave enough to
While Melissa handles the design work and client communication aspects of Print Therapy, you can find Nick behind the scenes building (and rebuilding!) their website, fulfilling orders, and monitoring their inventory. While they feel blessed to be able to add “business partners” to their relationship titles, they’re open about the fact that finding their flow of how they work best together wasn’t always easy at first, as they both wanted to be involved in every single decision, action, and plan. Over time, and after very open communication, they learned how to play to each other’s strengths and settled into roles that compliment each other, and the business. Today, they work in separate offices out of their home, and have delegated most duties to one of them or the other, but make all of their big decisions together and are always running ideas by each other.
While there are a lot of stationery companies out there, Melissa thinks Print Therapy is set apart by their overwhelming drive to connect people. It’s not just about pretty paper and thick envelopes - they revel in the fact that every day they get to help people connect, say I’m sorry, tell someone they love them, or just say hello, in a way that is meaningful and permanent, and in a way that cannot be achieved through an email or a text message. This year they also started their Send Love . Share Love campaign, which links a specially released card with a specific charity each month, and 50% of the profits from each card sale are donated to that charity. It’s their way of connecting and giving back to organizations that matter most to them and to the ones they love - which to them, is what stationery is all about.
Print Therapy is run by Melissa and her husband Nick, and is focused on greeting cards, invitations, and love notes. Their name took a few tries to get right - Yellow Dog Creations, Two Hearts Stationery, and Blue & Grey were all on the idea list (which they still keep in their home studio today!) before they settled on Print Therapy. To them, it spoke to what stationery is all about - that feeling of love, happiness, and excitement that comes with opening a card, finding a love letter in your mailbox, and putting your emotions down on paper. Melissa and Nick run Print Therapy from their home studio in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, with their rescue pup Sawyer by their side, who often sneaks his nose into photo shoots and has been caught eating a card sample or two!
Melissa and Nick started Print Therapy in April 2013, just a year after Melissa graduated with her Master’s Degree in Communication and Information Management, while she was a Project Manager for a large company. She admits that at first, it felt counterintuitive - she had finally finished years of schooling only to realize that Corporate America wasn’t for her, like she once thought it was. Now, however, she knows that her educational and professional background gives her an edge as a small business owner. Not only does she love the creative side, but she loves the non-creative side of running the business as well. It’s been a good lesson for her, and for some of her close friends and families, that just beacaue you’re doing something, have been doing something, and think you should be doing something, doesn’t mean that you can’t be brave enough to
While Melissa handles the design work and client communication aspects of Print Therapy, you can find Nick behind the scenes building (and rebuilding!) their website, fulfilling orders, and monitoring their inventory. While they feel blessed to be able to add “business partners” to their relationship titles, they’re open about the fact that finding their flow of how they work best together wasn’t always easy at first, as they both wanted to be involved in every single decision, action, and plan. Over time, and after very open communication, they learned how to play to each other’s strengths and settled into roles that compliment each other, and the business. Today, they work in separate offices out of their home, and have delegated most duties to one of them or the other, but make all of their big decisions together and are always running ideas by each other.
While there are a lot of stationery companies out there, Melissa thinks Print Therapy is set apart by their overwhelming drive to connect people. It’s not just about pretty paper and thick envelopes - they revel in the fact that every day they get to help people connect, say I’m sorry, tell someone they love them, or just say hello, in a way that is meaningful and permanent, and in a way that cannot be achieved through an email or a text message. This year they also started their Send Love . Share Love campaign, which links a specially released card with a specific charity each month, and 50% of the profits from each card sale are donated to that charity. It’s their way of connecting and giving back to organizations that matter most to them and to the ones they love - which to them, is what stationery is all about.
What a fantastic spotlight on this business! I love how much fun they're having and it shows in their work :) AWESOME!!! :) xoxo
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