Our Story

CLARDS® is the  brainchild of Carla Scholz, a seasoned art director, passionate Minnesota entrepreneur, and mom. She first made waves with 'Soak it Up Cloths,' an eco-friendly assortment of Swedish dishcloths celebrated for their practicality, eco-conscious design, and sheer FUNctionality.

Fueled by her unwavering commitment to waste reduction and an understanding of consumer behavior, Carla identified a troubling trend: the excessive use of single-use paper products, especially paper towels and greeting cards. Through research, she discovered a staggering reality: in 2017, the world spent an incredible $12 billion on household paper towels, with American consumers contributing $5.7 billion—over half as much as the rest of the world combined. The demand for disposable greeting cards only exacerbates this unsustainable use of millions of trees and billions of gallons of water each year.
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Determined to reshape the landscape of single-use products, Carla embarked on a transformative journey to rethink the potential of European sponge cloth. Her 'eureka' moment came when she realized this versatile material could also function as a greeting card. After more than five years of research and development, CLARDS was born, ready to revolutionize how we celebrate special occasions and tackle wasteful paper consumption.
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But the journey wasn’t easy. With the help of LegalCORPS, Carla secured a patent for CLARDS and proudly registered the trademark. However, after years of testing, her initial printer decided to stop working with the material. Undeterred, Carla spent over a year searching for a better print technique—and found it! Now, with the right partners in place, she’s ready to scale CLARDS to disrupt the industry and bring her vision of sustainable greetings to life.