Hi, it's me, Christine. I’m not sure where squirrels are on the list of trendy animals, but I thought I’d share this bit of squirrel art that I made for my mom. She’s a quilter who favors bright colors and bold prints (see my blog post about her sewing room and creations here), so I wanted to use those same fabrics in this gift—in fact, I even snuck a few pieces from her scrap basket to use. The squirrel design is one that my sister drew, and I then embroidered. I sewed the pieces together in a freeform kind of way, then put it in a shadowbox frame that I had painted to match.

When I make special works like this, especially as a gift, I do like to include some sort of frame so that the recipient needs only to pound a nail and place it on the wall. For some very cool framing ideas for your next project, check out Frame It by Tonia Davenport (if you're in the UK, click here for book info). In addition to traditional framing (like shadowboxes), she includes step-by-step projects for all sorts of unusual options, like suspended Plexiglas frames and much more.

What sorts of framing techniques do you use for the art you create? I’d love to see what you’ve done!

Until next time,
Christine