About Whimsy Prints

Hi. I'm Johanna. My friends close to me call me Jo. I have loved making things since childhood. Anything that resulted in a beautiful end product, that's what I wanted to do.

One thing my friends and family know about me is that I have to have ALL the things. Not one or two colors or items to see if I like something. Nope I have to have the whole set and then some. I guess you can call me a craft whore....der.

When you see the word "our" regarding Whimsy Prints, it is usually "me". My husband, Tracy, does most of the work with Our Gray Barn, but Whimsy Prints is mostly all me. He is very supportive...I mean he very willingly agreed to buying a UV DTF printer (and I know a lot of husbands don't support their partners with things like this). But he has said this is "MY" gig. I am thankful he allows me to "fly high" but at the same time this is scary. So many new things to learn besides making beautiful things. But that's another subject for another time.

For now, I work full time. I am excited to be starting a business that lets me make and share beautiful things, but also will keep me busy when retirement comes... which is hopefully very soon.

 

How Whimsy Prints Started

I started a journey into Copic Sketch markers back in 2013. The thing with Copics is that there are several hundred different colors and each one has a code to symbolize hue and saturation. I could never find the color I wanted. So I asked my husband, Tracy, to make an organizer for my markers. When he handed it to me, I told him people would buy them. He didn't believe me, but I started a shop on Etsy. We tried a shop name that didn't sound right to use and landed on the name Our Gray Barn because the barn we built was gray (pretty original, huh?). We are still selling marker grids 10 years later.

We both work full time, and Tracy spends his evenings and weekends in the shop making grids for wonderful artists and crafters in general.

I've been wanting to retire, but let's face it, I love buying craft supplies, and as already established, I want all the supplies. So I decided that I needed a way to earn additional money on top of my retirement income. Our Gray Barn marker grids have been a nice product for us, but it's not exactly a "fun" product to market and sell. While looking for something that I could be passionate about selling and introduce new ideas, UV DTF stickers caught my eye. I.AM.OBSESSED and have fallen down a rabbit hole. I think these prints are magical and whimsical which is how I created Whimsy Prints Shop by Our Gray Barn. And it's the reason there is a picture of the barn as my main focal point in our brand. Keeping to our roots.