After 10 years in the florist industry, Cara Ewald has blossomed into a new business. Featuring personalized printing, POP Designs opens Saturday on State Street.

 

“Our focus is T-shirts, apparel, mugs, pillows and tote bags – things like that,” said Ewald, former owner of Blooms Florist. “We’ll do big orders, but we’re more ‘gifty.’ If you need 300 shirts for a race, we can do that, but if your child is having a birthday party and you want each girl to have a T-shirt with her name on it, we can do that too.”

 

Large orders will be completed off-site, utilizing a screen printing company with which Ewald is working. Smaller orders will be processed in-house. Most in-house work will be done with vinyl and like methods - and on a limited basis, embroidery.

 

Other items that can be personalized include coffee mugs, cell phone covers, computer mouse pads and personalized ornaments (pictured.) The store also offers custom embroidery.

 

POP Design’s most unique feature, perhaps, is the trendy bling that can be included in its design work.

 

“We’ve teamed up with a software company that works with design technology; the same software that is utilized by Victoria’s Secret Pink line,” Ewald said. “That enables us to incorporate rhinestones, glitter and really more fashionable things.”

Ewald spent time this summer in Phoenix, Ariz., where she trained with the company. She also trained in Baltimore, Md. and Charlotte, NC, revamping computer skills so she can provide a quality service to the area.

 

POP Designs will include a retail area, set up with unique gift ideas and sports apparel – which can also be personalized, by design and style.

 

“Ladies can purchase scoop-neck, fitted T-shirts and won’t have to wear that boxy style,” Ewald said.

 

Working in the florist industry was rewarding, Ewald said, but she feels her up-and-coming business is better suited for this particular area.

 

“It really wasn’t the right business model for this area. It’s not a big enough population,” she said. 

 

The Blooms business was recently sold to Bella Fiore of Morgantown, which will continue to operate out of the Morgantown area.

 

The timing for the new business venture just seemed right, said Ewald, who this past spring moved the Blooms business out of the Main Street location which presently houses The Starving Artist. She said decided to switch gears and start the new business as she awaited renovations of the building which she had planned to move into.

 

Small Business Saturday seemed to be ideal to debut her new business venture. Doors will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. After Saturday, hours of operation through Christmas Eve will be 10:30 a.m. through 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. through 2 p.m. Saturdays.

 

Ewald is sharing space with Rebecca Devono Photography, which recently relocated to State Street, on the opposite side of the street from State Street Plaza and in the lower level of the building which houses Edward Jones, pictured below. State Street intersects with Johnson Avenue.