In addition to her other specially designed products, Battle Ground’s Juli Dillard, owner of online business GlamGalz Boutique, started making wood ornaments this season to add to her wide array of custom, homemade goods.
Dillard adds custom designs using a variety of art mediums to Stanley tumblers, blankets, shirts and other products for gifts that she sells on Etsy and posts to her GlamGalz Boutique Facebook page.
Dillard initially started making decorated wood ornaments as a nice gesture for her neighbors before deciding to sell them for her Etsy shop, as well.
“Every year I would give them something, and so I started giving them ornaments, and … I would stamp the year on them and everything,” Dillard said.
She used to decorate the ornaments with water slides, which she described as being a pain. Now Dillard uses a sublimation machine to make the process easier.
Dillard found sublimation to be a much easier process as it is a printing method that transfers a design onto a material or fabric utilizing a special ink, paper, and heat.
She starts by printing out designs with sublimation ink and paper. Dillard then tapes them with the design-side down on the ornaments and puts them on the 320-degree sublimation press for 90 seconds. Sometimes the wood has sap leak out, which can disrupt the image, she said.
She has many designs available already for the wood ornaments but will also do custom images, as well.
Dillard said creating custom-designed gifts makes her feel good.
“I’m going to sound like a sap that I’m a sentimental person, but it’s like that snugly, comforting feeling at home where the fire is going and I’m just crocheting,” Dillard said.
Dillard’s GlamGalz Boutique venture is something she does in her off-time, after working 10-hour days during her regular job.
“My work is stressful. I’m in finance … so [with GlamGalz] I can shut my mind off and I get to come down and do something,” Dillard said. “It’s satisfying when something works. You have to deal with the ups and downs [in crafting].”
She has always liked crafting, she said, especially now with her granddaughters, who inspired Dillard to make a kid’s packet of wood ornaments with markers for them to color the designs.
“The thrill of a lot of this, as well, is to see if you find something that somebody likes,” Dillard said. “When somebody’s buying something, that means you’ve done something that somebody likes. And so that is a thrill.”
Aside from the newest item of Christmas ornaments, Dillard does sublimation printing, etching, painting and adding rhinestones to Stanley tumblers.
“I am a part of several Facebook groups that sell Stanleys,” Dillard said. “... Some of them decorate, and they do different things, but I’m one of the only ones again that does the sublimation on them, and they are selling like hotcakes.”
Dillard makes various designs for the Stanley tumblers, but Highland cows are currently most popular.
“When you find something that everybody is wanting to buy, then that means not only are you making money, of course, but you’ve actually done something that somebody likes,” Dillard said.
Dillard also makes sublimated blankets, pillows, shirts and more. Along with the wood ornaments, she also makes ceramic and acrylic ones, as well.
Dillard can be contacted by emailing jdillard@glamgalzbou tique.com, or visit her Facebook page. Dillard also sells her products on Etsy, which can be found by searching for glamgalzbou tiqueshop.etsy.com.
