Cyber Monday Sale

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday weekend. Despite an impacted wisdom tooth, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving and of course Black Friday shopping. :)

Today is the big shopping day - online at least! Lots of stores are offering free shipping or good discounts on this Cyber Monday. I am joining in on the fun with my shop The Framed Frog. Today you can purchase anything in the shop for 25% off! This includes custom and personalized items, which make unique Christmas gifts. Here's just a preview of what's on sale:

Custom name trains are fantastic gifts for children and make great keepsakes for years to come. I just had a customer take advantage of this sale and purchase two $40 trains for $60 total! I have never discounted my trains this much. :)

Lots of unique art pieces are available and ready to ship. This "I Love Portland" art piece is only $30 with the sale and doubles as a memo board. I can do a similar piece to represent any city you like.

Don't settle for a generic Welcome sign or wall plaque. You can get unique signs customized to your family's interests and color schemes. This is a custom sock monkey portrait sign in which I paint each family member as a sock monkey while showcasing each personality with their interests - only $15 with the discount!

Wall letters are fantastic for nurseries and kids rooms, but they can also be perfect in a living room or dining space when painted in elegant damask or stripe patterns. Shown are my wooden wall letters, but I also offer paper mache letters as a durable, lightweight alternative. Wood letters are just $7.50 each with the discount; and paper mache letters are $6.75 with the discount.

It couldn't be The Framed Frog without photo frames! I have done dozens of custom frames to match nurseries, kids rooms, living rooms, etc., and also offer some ready-to-ship frames in my shop. At just $11.25, these make great gifts for teachers, bosses, grandparents, etc.

When you purchase a custom memo board from The Framed Frog, you get to choose the fabric, ribbons, and fasteners so that it will perfectly match your living space. A 16x20 board is just $18 with the sale today!

Horatio the owl has gone to decorate a little girl's room, and many other custom art options are available in the shop. When custom nursery art is ordered, I do sketches for the customer until they are satisfied, and then paint the art piece or set of art pieces. A 12x12 custom painting is just $15.

Hurry and order today! Not only will you be taking advantage of a great sale, but you will be able to get these custom items well in time for Christmas!

Froggy Feature Friday #2

It's time again for a little show and tell from the creative lily pad! My art desk in the corner of the living room is covered with custom projects in progress for the Christmas season. Last week, I posted some pictures of vintage ring bearer and flower girl frames for wedding attendant gifts. This week has to do with a wedding also.

The wedding is going to be a simple nature theme - the ring bearer will be carrying a pillow made of moss, the invitations show the bride and groom's initials "carved into a tree", etc. The groom-to-be loves trains; so she wanted to showcase that with a custom name train painted to match the wedding's theme. I have never done a train for a wedding before; it was a challenge to make it simple and sophisticated at the same time.

I decided to go with patterns from nature for each train piece - the veins of a leaf, wood grain, ferns, pine cones, moss, river rocks, and a dandelion blowing in the breeze.

The edges of each train piece were painted in a creamy vanilla with scattered green leaves, and the wheels were painted to look like cut tree stumps.

Overall, I love the way it turned out. The bride-to-be hopes that someday they will have a little boy to play with the train. :)

Custom name trains make perfect Christmas gifts, and there is still time to order yours to receive it in time for the holidays. Check out all the themes and colors available at The Framed Frog.

(and don't forget, savvy shoppers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are coming! There will be a fantastic sale at The Framed Frog - buy any item and get a second item of equal or lesser value 50% off! Also, select items will have free shipping!)

Happy Friday everyone!

Froggy Feature Friday #1

As most of you know, I own an etsy shop called The Framed Frog in which I sell my customized nursery artwork, photo frames, memo boards, custom name trains, wall art, and signs. I realized that although my blog is mainly about my family and the crazy mishaps we find ourselves in on a regular basis, I need to include more about my other passion - my art.

So every Friday, I am going to feature something that either I made for a customer or something new for the shop. Every artist likes to show off a little, right? :)

So here's a set of custom frames I did for a bride to give as gifts to her ring bearers and flower girls. These have actually been quite popular this fall - I guess brides are attracted to the vintage children silhouettes and the custom wedding color matching.

This bride's evening wedding is featuring bold red, black, and white as the color scheme. With two ring bearers and two flower girls, she wanted to make sure that each child had a unique frame.

This was the first time I have done frames for flower girls; so I came up with the silhouettes of a dancing little girl, a toy tea set, a girl chasing balloons, and a rocking horse for the frames.

On the other hand, I have done many ring bearer frames, and the drummer boy, sailboat, tricycle, and boy chasing a ball are pretty popular.

It's nice to think that each child now has a special keepsake from the wedding that will last for a long time.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

After a 2-hour-long appointment with the ESD folks yesterday and a pile of confusing and sobering paperwork to attend to, I am completely overwhelmed. Perhaps the emotions and seriousness of David's diagnosis are starting to sink in. I have a post written up all about it, but I guess I'm just not ready to put it out there yet.

So instead, you can see what lovely things have been traveling from my place to Canada, California, Mississippi, and Ohio lately.

A fun race car themed name train - I had full control over the design and colors. This customer is fantastic - it's the third time she has ordered a train from me! :)

another name train - this one in a construction theme, specifically to match the Little Dozer nursery bedding set. I love doing stripes, and these blue/brown/white ones are so sweet!

a custom memo board done in a tiffany-blue floral fabric with black ribbon and sparkly silver fasteners. It's going in a dorm room where the mom has already made bedspread and bed skirts to match. Lucky girl!

Pink ladybug letters - these will be standing on the table at Kayla's first birthday party, so the design is actually continued on both sides of the letters. I think pink ladybugs is a super cute theme for a first birthday party, don't you?

14 more custom orders to go so I can catch up! Yikes!

Mom Who Works at Home

So a lot of cute photos of my kiddos sneak their way into my blog. It's my way of cheering myself up when I realize that I have chosen this path of temporary insanity. :) One might think that those darling rascals occupy all of my time.

It's true. Luckily, I have mad multitasking skills; while donning the hats of Chaos Prevention Director and Sibling Peace Chairwoman, I can also claim the title of Mom Who Works at Home. Beyond laundry, vacuuming, and dishes, I also paint and create things that I sell through my (mostly) on-line shop The Framed Frog. Most of my work is custom - I spend a lot of time working with a customer to make sure the design, colors, fabric choice, everything is exactly what they want.

Lately I've been a little swamped with these custom orders but am slogging my way determinedly through them. So, without further ado, here are some of the completed orders:

This was a local order for a dear friend. Her sweet baby girl has been through a lot - most recently a surgery to put in a feeding tube. I hope these wall letters add some cheer and happiness to her room!

Okay, so this wasn't technically an order. It's just that when my best friend has a birthday, I'm inclined to pull out all the stops and make her a dramatic zebra print memo board. I tried some new techniques on this board - making the black and white damask star fasteners and adding tiny rhinestones.

This particular piece was ordered as "a frame that includes some blue and green and has some cute monkeys on it." I do love it when I get a little artistic freedom in a custom piece!

This memo board makes me think of my grandmother's kitchen. That, or the brown, yellow, and orange blocked linoleum in my childhood kitchen. So fun and bright!

Another memo board - this one was actually for a funeral. People wrote little notes to the family of the deceased and stuck them under the ribbons on this board.

Some more custom name trains - sports-themed trains for twin boys turning two!

Frame in polka dots and stripes. Simple, colorful, and of course personalized.

Another memo board - in Amy Butler Star Paisley in Lime fabric. I think pink and green are a delicious combination!

Can you guess what holiday this was a gift for?

Custom sign for a customer currently in love with the color scheme of teal, brown, and ivory.

This memo board was created for a customer who has a cabin in the Adirondacks.

Custom orders in the works include a race car-themed name train; a construction theme for another name train, a few more memo boards, four orders for wall letters, etc.

Busy, busy.

Please don't forget about Found It Friday tomorrow! The inspiration is daisies, and I am hoping to have some more link up this week! (pretty please)

Cotton Candy Clouds

I saw them today! It wasn't for very long, but I definitely took the time to stop and admire their white puffy fullness. They looked gorgeous against the brilliant blue sky! And they have been long overdue - for weeks now we have been staring at their dreary gray cousins as the rain has poured down. And poured down.
But finally! Some white cotton candy clouds, some long-awaited sunshine, and even a pink sky or two!

(Cotton Candy Clouds: The Gossips)

(Cotton Candy Clouds: The Birdwatchers)

(Cotton Candy Clouds: The Hitchhiker)

And I am hoping for some of those pretty skies today, as we are planning on an adventure at the Oregon Zoo on $2 Tuesday. :)

A View into the Gallery

It's been difficult to find time to blog lately. Sick kiddies certainly don't help in that arena. And custom orders for The Framed Frog have been taking up a huge chunk of my time. Not that I'm complaining! I started The Framed Frog with the premise that customers would be able to order exactly what they were envisioning in their minds. I wanted them to be able to find the items at The Framed Frog that they would not be able to get anywhere else. There is a certain joy and satisfaction in making something that completely matches the customer's wishes.

So, would you like a peek into my gallery of "What I've Been Up to Lately"?

This is Apple Blossom Cluster in Sepia, custom-made to match a customer's entryway. She actually got two of these paintings as a set. The Apple Blossom Cluster painting is now available in my shop - and can be custom painted in any color palette.

Another customer has this beautiful bench on her front porch decorated with sunflower pillows. She wanted a sign to match her decor that gently reminded guests to remove their shoes before entering the house. I am currently working on another version of this sign that reads "Welcome" for another customer.

This is my favorite fall project so far. Earlier in August, a customer requested their family initial done in an autumn theme to hang in their living room for the fall season. Since then, I've done two more of these letters for other customers and am planning on making one for our home as well. The brightly-colored pumpkins, gourds, and leaves are a lot of fun to paint!

And here is the 2009 Christmas ornament collection from The Framed Frog. These keepsakes are made of paper mache and hand-painted to exactly match your custom needs.

The I'm Dreaming of a Pink Christmas ornament features whimsical green and pink Christmas trees and the year. The flip side is decorated with retro stars and whatever personalization you want.

This is Baby's First Christmas ornament. Custom match the baby's skin color and hair color to your little one's, and personalize the flip side with the baby's name and sweet polka dots.

The Paisley Fields ornament comes in your color choices and personalization.

TJ and Robbie made their Framed Frog debut on this whimsical blue frame, perfect for a little boy's room.

And the orders for my custom keepsake name trains keep chugging in! The airplanes and stars theme seems to be a popular one. Currently I am working on a set of trains for two sisters in a pink ribbon and roses theme.

And here is my latest wall letter order. The yellow damask pattern was custom-painted on the letters to match the nursing chair in Marlowe's nursery. I absolutely love the aqua and yellow in this nursery - totally unexpected for a girl and totally beautiful.

So I'm just a little busy. Meanwhile, have you entered the Fantastic Froggy Fall Craft Contest over at The Scrappy Frog? You could win some of the things you just saw in that contest!

Or you could do a little Christmas shopping at The Framed Frog...

In Case You Were Wondering...

In yesterday's post, I mentioned a very sad little incident in which the Beast decided to decorate one of my paintings with black permanent marker.  And in case you were wondering the outcome, I was able to save the painting by using one of the greatest inventions in the world - baby wipes!  I scrubbed until all the black (and much of the paint) came off and then redid that portion of the painting.  And here are the three paintings, ready to be shipped:

They turned out great, and I personally love the color scheme of this little girl's room!  The damaged painting was actually the owl one (of course, the one with the most background detail!)  This is probably the most fun project I've done in a while for The Framed Frog.

And speaking of fun projects, head on over to The Scrappy Frog to learn how to make this super easy dry erase board and some other ones as well!