Before We Get Into It

"We" is me. Just me — Diana — running DREAMLIKEDIANA and the shop, which I call Dreamlike Innovations, out of approximately a 92 square foot bedroom in my family home. One woman, one bedroom, one very full desk. There is no team yet. No warehouse. No fulfillment center. Just a person who cares deeply about what she makes and who she makes it with.

I'm telling you that upfront because everything on this page makes more sense with that context. The choices I've made about manufacturing, materials, and how products are built aren't corporate policy — they're personal decisions made one at a time, in a small space, with a clear standard in mind.

This is where it starts. It won't always look like this.

Our Mission

Dreamlike Innovations was built on one belief: that the things you surround yourself with should be worth keeping.

That means original art — not AI-generated, not clip art recycled through a bundle pack, not mass-produced and shipped from halfway across the world. It means products made with intention, by someone who cares about what she's making. It means being honest about where we fall short, what we're working toward, and why the standard we hold ourselves to is non-negotiable — even when it would be easier or cheaper to do otherwise.

We're not a perfect brand. We're an honest one. And we believe that counts for something.

How Our Products Are Made

✿ Phone Cases

Every Dreamlike Innovations phone case is made to order — which means nothing is produced until you place your order. No overstock sitting in a warehouse. No excess inventory headed to a landfill. Your case is made specifically for you, after you buy it.

We partner with a U.S.-based manufacturer located in Upstate New York — 444 miles from home, and just down the road from Royal Mountain, my favorite place to snowboard. It's a small, mom and pop mountain that doesn't try to be anything it's not — and that feels like exactly the right neighborhood for a manufacturer I chose for the same reasons. They know about the connection. We both love it.

Every component of every case is made entirely in the USA from start to finish:

  • Dual-layer polycarbonate outer shell

  • Shock-absorbing TPU inner lining

  • Hidden embedded MagSafe-compatible magnets

  • Inks and printing process

  • Manufacturing technology

Nothing is sourced overseas. When you buy a phone case from Dreamlike Innovations, you're supporting American manufacturing and a small operation that was chosen deliberately, not by default.

Our Environmental Partner — Veritree

Effective April 1, our manufacturer transitioned their environmental partnership from One Tree Planted to Veritree, shifting toward a more measurable, transparent model of environmental impact.

Here's what that means in practice:

  • 1 tree planted for every 25 cases sold

  • Every 50 orders translates to two trees planted

  • Trees are planted in a tracked, verified location with documented environmental impact

We will soon have access to a company hub displaying the exact area our trees are being planted and what that translates to in real environmental terms — and we plan to display that live on our website so you can see it too.

Our initial project focuses on mangrove planting along the East African coast — one of the most urgent reforestation priorities in the world right now. Here's why that matters:

  • Coastal Protection: Mangroves act as natural barriers that reduce wave energy and help prevent coastal erosion — especially critical in East Africa, where rising sea levels and stronger storms are increasingly threatening coastal communities.

  • Carbon Capture: Mangroves are among the most effective carbon sinks on the planet, storing significantly more carbon per acre than traditional forests, making them a high-impact tool in reducing global greenhouse gas levels.

  • Support for Local Economies: Mangrove ecosystems serve as breeding grounds for fish, crabs, and other marine life — directly supporting local fishing industries and food security for coastal populations.

  • Biodiversity: These ecosystems are home to a wide range of species and play a critical role in maintaining ecological balance.

Mangrove restoration is one of the few environmental actions that simultaneously fights climate change, protects coastlines, supports global food systems, and preserves biodiversity — making it one of the highest-impact sustainability investments available.

For more on Veritree's approach to measurable environmental impact, visit veritree.com.

Domestic orders ship within 1–3 business days and typically arrive within 2–7 business days after that. International orders take considerably longer — please refer to the shop for current international shipping timelines.

Phone cases ship directly from the manufacturer and will arrive separately from any stickers in your order. Both shipments include tracking.

✿ Stickers

Here's the honest version: there is nothing particularly sustainable about making stickers in-house as a one-person operation out of 92 square feet. Raw materials, tools, time, the occasional failed batch — it's not a green process and I'm not going to dress it up as one.

What I can tell you is this: every sticker is made by hand, to order, and held to a standard that most manufacturers wouldn't bother with at this scale. Our stickers are waterproof and UV-resistant for 5+ years — built to last, not to be replaced every few months.

Durability is its own form of sustainability. A sticker that survives your water bottle, your bumper, your snowboard, your laptop, and your entire personality for years doesn't end up in the trash after a season.

Each sticker is made in small batches, which means slight variations can occur between prints. I sort carefully and only ship what meets the bar. Future B-grade and oops bundles are coming for anything that doesn't — because even the imperfect ones deserve a home.

Stickers ship separately from phone cases. Both shipments include tracking.

✿ The Planner — Plan With Purpose

Let's talk about print-on-demand — because there's a lot of bad information out there, and you deserve the honest version.

Print-on-demand has developed a reputation problem, and it's not entirely undeserved. The model gets abused by dropshippers who slap a generic design onto a product, call it a brand, and collect a margin for doing nothing original. That practice is everywhere, it's lazy, and it's given POD a name it doesn't fully deserve.

Here's what print-on-demand actually is: a printing technology. The same technology that allows independent authors to self-publish books without signing with a traditional publisher. Nobody calls a self-published author a fraud for using a print partner. The work is still theirs.

So is this.

The Plan With Purpose planner was written, designed, and built from scratch — every page, every prompt, every system, every word — drawing from 20+ years of personal planning experience. Lulu is the printer. That's it. They touch the paper. Everything inside came from me. That is the entire difference between what I'm doing and what a dropshipper does. A dropshipper sources someone else's product and resells it. I created the product. Lulu prints it. You buy the original work of an independent creator — not a reseller with a logo slapped on top.

Why Lulu specifically:

Lulu is a U.S.-based print-on-demand publisher — the same platform independent authors, educators, and creators have used for years to bring original work to market without a traditional publisher or a minimum print run of thousands of units. Choosing Lulu meant the planner could exist at all, at a price that doesn't make it inaccessible, without requiring overseas manufacturing or a production budget that doesn't exist yet.

Speaking of overseas manufacturing — tariffs and the current cost of overseas production aren't a viable option for this brand right now. That's not a workaround. That's a values decision dressed up in economics. USA-based printing, even through a POD model, keeps production domestic, keeps the cost honest, and keeps creative control exactly where it belongs — here.

Printing on demand also means nothing is produced until you order it. No excess inventory. No waste. No boxes of unsold planners sitting in a storage unit because someone overestimated demand. Your copy is printed because you wanted it — not because it was sitting on a shelf waiting.

A note on trade-offs:

A note on trade-offs: the paper is 60lb text weight — lightweight and portable, but not ghosting-free with heavier pens. The cover has a soft-touch laminate finish — premium feeling, but not linen-wrapped. There's no ribbon bookmark, no lay-flat binding, no gold foil. This is a first edition built for function, intention, and accessibility — not for luxury features that would price out the exact person it was made for. Every page earns its place.

This is a first edition — which means it's the worst version it will ever be. And it's still good. Future editions will have better materials, refined features, and improvements built directly from real feedback. Every iteration gets better. That's already the plan. If this is what it looks like now, imagine it five to ten years from now.

What We Refuse to Compromise On

  • USA-made manufacturing.

    • Most shops in this space source overseas to cut costs. We don't. It costs more. It's worth it.

  • Original hand-drawn designs.

    • Every product starts as art made by hand — not generated, not templated, not borrowed. The time that takes is part of the point.

  • Made-to-order where possible.

    • We would rather make you wait a few extra days than produce inventory that exists before you do.

  • Honest communication.

    • If something has ghosting, we'll tell you. If something ships separately, we'll tell you. If there's a variation in your sticker, we'll tell you. You deserve to know what you're getting before you buy it.

Where We're Going

Right now, Dreamlike Innovations operates out of a bedroom that's 92 square feet — smaller than a single dorm room. That has real limitations on speed, volume, and what's possible at any given time.

The goal has always been to grow beyond that: into a dedicated studio, eventually a warehouse, with a team that handles production, fulfillment, and operations while the design work stays exactly where it belongs — at the center of everything. That growth means more jobs, more capacity, more products, and eventually the possibility of bringing manufacturing fully in-house. It means working with brick-and-mortar retailers, stocking products locally, and building something that can do this right at scale.

Every step of that journey is being documented publicly — because if we're going to talk about building something ethical and sustainable, the least we can do is show you what that actually looks like in practice. Including the parts that aren't there yet. Including the 92 square feet.

This is the starting point. It won't always look like this.

The Standard

Every product that leaves Dreamlike Innovations should feel like it was made for you — because it was. That's not a marketing line. It's the whole model.

Your story is worth telling. These are the products that prove it.

With Love & Gratitude,

Diana

April 2026