Shopping in Shakopee

The whimsical rhymes and quirky cartoons coloring most greeting cards are occasionally amusing, but their stock sentiments and broad jokes engender little intimacy. Pear Tree Greetings curates a deeper connection by stocking an online store with hundreds of customizable greeting-card designs, nearly all of which are constructed from 100% post-consumer materials. Uploaded photos personalize traditional cards or unconventional booklets shaped like strings of holiday lights, which landed Pear Tree in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Cards come printed on a 100-pound matte card stock that can be coupled with magnets, napkins, and address labels celebrating birthdays, graduations, and weddings. Since there’s no charge for double-side printing, graduation announcements can easily detail party logistics and wedding invitations can list the funniest things to shout when the officiant asks if anyone has objections.

For more than 75 years, The Foursome Fine Apparel and Shoes has outfitted feet with dressy and casual footwear in everyday and hard-to-find sizes. Staffers pride themselves on impeccably attentive service and their ability to perfectly fit shoes to each foot, ensuring that customers won’t have to put up with painful pinching or constant harassment from recruiters at the local clown college. Their selection spans the style spectrum from the structured silhouette of high-end oxfords to the beachy look of flip-flops, and it includes kicks from popular brands such as New Balance and Cole Haan.

Ceramist and BonTon Designs owner Mary Anderson has adorned jean pockets with tiny mosaic tiles, transformed a bowling ball into a shimmering orb, and enhanced dozens of homes with her handmade tile installations. At BonTon Designs, she encourages her students to approach their own creations with the same sense of playful experimentation. She welcomes students of all ages and experience levels and equips them with mosaic tips and techniques along with all supplies. Then, she sets them loose to create their own projects, from painted tiles to glowing wine-bottle lanterns to mosaics of their favorite ceramics teacher.

The storefront of Artworks Art & Frame, Inc. qualifies as a work of art in and of itself: its side wall is covered with an intricate mural of a Victorian home, and its front face features large reproductions of the most famous works of Seurat and Van Gogh. Within the store, every surface is covered with supplies for all disciplines, including reams of paper, paints in every hue, and temperamental watercolor paints that will only mix with Perrier. In custom framing services, you can enhance pictures, posters, and artwork with creative matting and hand-finished molding, as well as frames with gold- and metal-leaf finishes.

Within his private studio, Professional Picture Framing Association member Joe Weinbeck handcrafts elegant frames to protect oil paintings and prints. Equipped with conservation framing know-how and hundreds of frames from six different suppliers, Joe introduces artwork to new habitats that shelter the pieces from harmful UV rays and hostile eye contact. Archival-quality mats from Peterboro and Crescent give diplomas or photographs the space they need, and four grades of glass or acrylic glazing protect wandering fingers from sticky globs of paint. Joe can also showcase his talents with large-format framing for epic Led Zeppelin posters or blown-up versions of Robert Plant's braces-laden middle school photo.