Hello again!  I have to say this might be the busiest 4 months I have ever experienced!  Here we are, a few days from Easter, and I am feeling like it should still be February.  However, I am so glad its not - February in Indiana is not my favorite!  I will take all the spring and summer sunshine I can get!

Here is my latest project.  A friend from church brought these to me not too long ago and I was super excited to get working on it.  You have probably heard of Uppercase Living.  My friend went to a party and bought several items to put on her walls but ran into a small problem that I know several of us have, including myself.  The walls of her home are heavily textured.  So then what do you do?   Well, here you go! 

My friend showed me what she had purchased and we set out to see what her options were so we could get these on her wall.  She picked out a mat from my many samples.  This particular mat has a foliage embossed finish that you can see in a couple of the pictures.  I completely fell in love with this mat as it gave the picture a lot more depth.  She selected a grayish frame that really complimented the colors of the lettering from the 2 pieces.

I really enjoyed putting these together for her.  I've had a little experience with Uppercase Living, but haven't mounted any on glass.  I got to learn a new technique for this and had a good time doing so.  Anything crafty and hands on for me is perfect!  I hope you like what I've done here.  I love it and have one in the works for my home.  The nice thing here is that if you decide to redecorate, all you have to do is change a mat or frame and you won't have to worry about painting over it.  And, if you move, you get to take it with you!

That's all for now.  I hope you all have a fantastic Easter, celebrating the resurrection of our Savior with your family and friends.  Oh, and try not to eat too much of your kids' Easter candy!  :)  Happy Easter!

Here is a piece I just finished up.  And one that I didn't want to give back!  :)  Just kidding!  I really love this oil painting, which belongs to a woman at church.  It has a pretty neat story to it too!  Years ago, she received a photo of the Rocky Mountains and fell in love with it.  Somewhere down the road, a friend of hers wanted to do painting  for her.  Since she loved the photo so much, she had her friend paint the photo.  Not only is this painting gorgeous, it has a lot of sentimental value as well.  This lady's friend has since passed away, and I had the privilege of framing it to be displayed in my customer's new home. 
This frame is one of my newer ones.  I absolutely love it!  I wish you could see it in person.  The finish seems to change colors as it moves in the light and it really brought out so many different colors in the painting.  We tried the frame with and without the white linen liner and by choosing to add it, it brought out the highlights and gave the painting some depth.  I think it turned out amazing!

We have a special lady who lives down the street from us who loves to come down and play with our kids and give me a break every now and then.  I wanted to do a little something for her as a thank you, just to show her how much her help makes such a difference in my sanity levels!  :)
I found these 2 prints and immediately knew they would go well in her home.  This shows how a two opening mat can be cut with a double mat.  It makes each print stand out without losing the common colors and them that make them a pair.  I thought this one turned out great!  I need to make it back down to see how it looks on her wall.

When Jenny Hoke Photography took pictures of our kids in October '10, it was right before our daughter Maycen turned 2.  These were our first professional pictures of our kids so, of course, we had to give them as gifts to the grandparents for Christmas!  It was very hard not commenting on them in her blog!   I knew that if I did, my parents and Josh's parents would see them and I really wanted it to be a surprise!   So, finally (hehe), here is one that I put together for Josh's mom and dad. We wanted to frame it to go on Carolyn's wall full of pictures of her 5 grandkids.   I chose a neutral top mat and burgundy for the inner mat that matched the paint and decor in her living room.  The frame is a metal that has a matte black finish with a reddish tint underneath that shows through, giving it an aged look.  It is a gorgeous frame and the whole piece turned out amazing!

Here is a fun little project that I worked on before Christmas.  I wanted to hang the beautiful pictures of my kiddos from  Jenny Hoke Photography.  I was really excited to get them displayed on my wall and I knew I wanted something different for my living room.  I found this old farmhouse window at a barn sale several months back and had been waiting for the time to get it cleaned up.  It smelled pretty musty and the glass was pretty gross!  I decided to put a whitewash of acrylic craft paint on it to try to cover up some of the smell, while not taking away from the rustic look.  I used clear corner mounts for the pictures.  At some point I may try another window (I bought 6 more!)  that has mats around the photos that fits right into the window opening.  I also have another window in the works that will hang next to this one.  Keep checking back to see it!

An awesome lady from church asked me to frame a couple of really cool posters for a special gift for a special someone (shhh, they are a surprise!)  I was so excited to get started!

As I started the process of choosing mat colors, I knew I wanted to keep some consistency between the two and yet give them each their own 'flavor'.  I chose a neutral top mat that would be a good fit for both posters, as well be soft enough to match any paint colors that she may have in her home.  In choosing the inner mats, I wanted something that really brought out the colors in the posters.  Or made them 'pop'!  The rusty red and the navy blue work had to work well  together as well so they wouldn't clash with each other if they were hung side by side.  Finally I chose with a wood frame with a subtle blue stain on the slope of the moulding, with black around the edge.  It really seemed to pull out a little more of the blues and grays from each poster.

I have to say I was overjoyed with the end result!  They looked so good!  I dropped off the finished pieces on Tuesday and was so happy to hear she loved them as much as I did!

Happy November!

Today was the day of our big drawing with Jenny Hoke Photography for the free custom framing.  Congrats to our winner, Holly Lederer!  She will receive a free framing of one of her beautiful Jenny Hoke Photography portraits.  I am looking forward to meeting her and seeing what she chooses! 

Here is a portrait of Jenny's girls that we framed to advertise our drawing.   Now you have an idea of what we'll be doing for Holly.  She will get to customize her mats and frame for her own special portrait.

Finally, I would like to say a BIG thank you to Jenny!  It is a pleasure working with her and I look forward to framing many more Jenny Hoke Photography pictures in the future. 

Check back after the first of the year for more special coupons and promotions.  Until then, I have a couple of openings left for holiday framing jobs.  Call me anytime to set up an appointment!