Enter: the girl in plaid

My grandfather... where I found inspiration for my store name.

Coming up with your brand name is a long-term thought that you pretty much start evolving in the beginning stages. It's like picking out the perfect name for your new puppy who isn't grown, and I've never had a dog before, so crap!... I didn't even have pet-naming experience.

Knowing where to start is always the hardest part, so here are some ideas to hopefully get your brain juices flowing:

• Keep a notepad beside your bed.. just in case for those spontaneous ah-ha! thoughts
• Write down anything and everything
• It may not be solid, but could always lead to something else
• Make note of words that describe your product, and how you want your customer to feel about your product
• Play with acronyms, random, and conjoined words
• Do any words, or symbols have significant meaning to you?

What worked for me, was being playful and random. I was sitting at my computer in my grandfather's old plaid shirt, when I miraculously happened to write it down 'girl in plaid' on my notepad, which unexpectedly stuck! That's how 'the girl in plaid' was born. It's really random, but at the same time it made sense to me, plus it had a nice little ring to it.

Next up.. packaging! I decided to keep it clean and basic. I've been wrapping presents in brown paper grocery bags for years, and my eyes have never gotten tired of the way it looks, so earthy brown boxes this was right up my alley. I found a decent price from usbox.com, and ended up paying roughly 30-40 cents per box. I found another Etsy seller to make a stamp for me, which cost me only $16. I really enjoyed working with JLMould, and she made the process really easy for me. I also tied some tweed I found from Target for an extra splash of cute.

Wa-lah! My finished product! I sent my packaging to JLMould to tell her that I loved how my stamp turned out, and she posted it to her Facebook wall.. nothing like some extra traffic to your site! http://www.etsy.com/shop/thegirlinplaid