The company roots began in the early 70' in Cleveland, Ohio. It served as a service oriented company. The McCallums converted the upper floor of their home to accommodate an art studio that provided artwork for several smaller and medium sized publishers of Greeting Cards, Gift Wrap and Stationery items.

The company quickly outgrew its humble quarters, so we acquired a floor of an office building in Cleveland. The company grew into a larger group of artists, writers, photographers and line planners. The company was offered a contract to produce a line of 2,000 "everyday" and seasonal captions, for a Greeting Card company based in New York City. The parent company was Weyerhaeuser, the tree people. They wanted to diversify by forming a "Consumer Group" to their growing company. They felt that our Cleveland based company had the knowledge and talent to compete with the main stream "Social Expression Companies".

In the early 80's the McCallums moved their operations to a community south of Cleveland. They merged with a company that was involved in licensing. Sesame Street wall hangings and The Wuzzles, (a property that was initiated by Hasbro and Disney), were also secured as a license; another property developed by the McCallums was The Ark Angels. This property was produced and licensed to a publisher that distributed a line of children's books, with a line of plush toys also developed to coordinate with the characters featured in each book. In the late 80's the company decided to again redirect its emphasis to developing children's books for publishers throughout the country. They were also commissioned by a distributor of greeting cards in Nashville, TN, to develop a line of Greeting Cards for the then 1,800-store chain of Dollar General stores. Dollar General was requesting a line of cards that would retail at 2 for $1.00. MDC Publishers, once again, produced this line; it was so successful that millions have been produced and are still being distributed to this day.

In 2001 Jodie and Grant decided to "downsize." They relocated their company and residence to a quaint historic little village on the shores of Lake Erie. Marblehead has a few hundred "year round" residents but in the spring through fall the numbers swell to hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic tourists. The McCallums decided to produce some products for this large influx of tourists such as limited edition prints by Jodie, based on the numerous family attractions, and also a line of prints by nationally-acclaimed artist, Robert Fobear, featuring the area’s natural wetlands and the wildlife that inhabits it. A "Vacationland" Coloring & Activity Book is also produced and distributed annually among many other products.

We would like to thank you for visiting our web site. For more information please visit our "Lake Erie Islands Regional Welcome Center" www.lake-erie.com.

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Blue Cottage Art Gallery
Put-in-Bay, Ohio 43456
216-409-9799
Framed and Matted Limited Edition Prints