Hope Studiosthis Week

Here are two of my most popular frames. I completed them this week (I think I get an order for one of these quotes once a week) and I love them just as much each time. Have you thought about Valentine's Day? It's just around the corner! What about a verse from "our song" on a frame for your sweetie? There is still time for a custom order, so contact me today jsneill@zoominternet.net

Hope Studios

I forgot to mention that the deadline for Christmas delivery of custom frame orders in my Etsy shop is today. Since I didn't give my blog readers fair warning, I will extend that deadline to Sunday, November 23rd for orders received through my blog this weekend.

Here are some examples of custom orders I have completed this week. To place your own order, please email me at jsneill@zoominternet.net and I can invoice you directly.

Hope Studios This Week

Some photos of the frame orders I've completed this week. I've worked on some new color combos and a custom family plaque. If you'd like to order your own custom frame or special project, you can visit my shop here or you can email me directly at jsneill@zoominternet.net.






20x20 inch Memory frames: $95 + shipping
12x12 inch Memory Plaque: $30 + shipping
11x20 Family Name Plaque: $40 + shipping.

Have a spooky Halloween!

Hope Studios This Week

The winner this week is an old standby, and is my most popular frame: "If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." -A. A. Milne in classic Parchment. I made 4 of that exact frame this week for 4 different customers! I never get tired of that quote and I still feel a catch in my throat when I read it. Have a great weekend!







Hope Studios Heartsongs Memory Frames can be purchased for $95 + shipping by contacting me at jsneill@zoominternet.net or visiting my online shop.

Hope Studios This Week

I had all of these frames lined up to ship today and noticed that TypoUpright lettering is the clear winner of the popularity contest this week! You can see the colors warming up as I get my first fall orders completed. I predict lots of black, brown and sage in my future...





If you are interested in a custom Heartsongs Memory Frame of your own ($99 + $16 shipping) please contact me a jsneill@zoominternet.net today, or you can poke around in my online shop here. I've already begun painting some Christmas orders and can easily add you to the list. I'm turning over new orders in about 3 weeks to get on my schedule now!

What's Up With Hope Studios?

Just a short post to show you some of my completed works from this week...Hope Studios is chugging along and all of these orders were completed this week with just as many to complete next week. Thank you to all my wonderful customers, for your stories, your inspiration, and your business. You enable me to spend my days doing something I really love.







To order your own Heartsongs shadowbox style frame with a custom quote, please email me (jsneill@zoominternet.net) or visit my Etsy shop here.

Short and Sweet

I love short, to the point quotes for my frames, sometimes the jumble of many words takes away from the power and intent. I recently had an order for a lovely wedding gift with a poignant quote with few words. I think it says it all:

Something new

Look at my newest custom Heartsongs Frame! I just love the quote and my customer asked me to come up with a cohesive font for her color choice of teal and brown. I imagined the magic and mystery the world holds for a child and came up with this. I really love it.

Your own custom frame can be ordered by emailing me at jsneill@zoominternet.net or by visiting my Etsy shop

Love Letters

A few Valentine's Days ago my husband bought me an exquisite little book called 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time that I poured over for days after I received it. I couldn't believe the passion poured out on paper by lovers throughout time. I think the love letter is a lost art form, and the closest many of us get is a well chosen Hallmark card with certain sentences underlined for emphasis.

There is nothing like a well-worn page, soft with age, filled with words from the heart in your own love's hand. It's so rare and cherished. I remember my dad sitting in the kitchen one Christmas reading a poem he'd written for his wife that just got published. We were all so proud of him and asked for a reading. He read the lines, so beautifully written, and all the women were dissolved in tears by the end of the passage. My dad was shocked and asked why we were crying, after all, it wasn't even written for us. All us responded the same: "We cry because we know we will never have something so beautiful written for us!" I will have to devote a day to my dad's writing and publish some of it here. I'm trying to get him started on his own blog to share his talent and passion with all of us.

I realize I've become the conduit for love letters for couples who struggle for the words or try to make them concrete in their lives. I read the stories sent to me about love and those looking for the right way to celebrate a relationship. Take a look at the modern day love letter...




Would you like to write a love letter of your own? Email me at jsneill@zoominternet.net and we can plan it together.

Can't Bear to Cut Your Favorite Photo>

I guess you're not alone. I've had a run on my 20x16 in Heartsongs Memory Frames with Custom Quotes for the past few days.

I came up with this one for a bride a few months ago who couldn't bear to cut her precious (and expensive) professional photo for her frame. The shape is rectangular to mimic the shape of the photo and maintain the aesthetic of the frame. I think it's a nice alternative.

As usual, my customers come to me with the best quotes, and I think I'm going to recreate "Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly" for my own home. I'm sure my husband would agree when he remembers back to the many times he's tried to be "passionate" and I'd break into a fit of giggles!

If you have a special photo or a gift giving occasion coming up, you can order your own custom frame by emailing me at jsneill@zoominternet.net

Check it out!

I came across one of those rare, wonderful customers who let me have free reign over her custom frame order this week. She requested a Bible quote and when it was finished she wished it looked more "joyful". I offered to re-do it and she offered a suggestion of a multi-font design to emphasize certain key words.

Once I started, it just took off and this is what we ended up with:


I do think it looks joyful but I would have never thought of creating such a frame from a Bible quote! Maybe it's the Catholic upbringing, but I always think of anything related to religion as serious, somber, quiet...lots of tradition. Does it have to be that way?

One of the last times I attended service (it isn't often now that we are outnumbered by kids...shhh...) there was some occasion for us to clap. Well, you would've thought he asked us all to stand on our heads or something. We all kind of looked around and moved our hands like they weren't part of our bodies. Quiet pats of hands were heard here and there while we all had an expression like, "is this okay?" The visiting priest said "Come on!" and slowly the applause grew a bit louder, and the smiles were bashful.

I like the idea of being "joyful" about religion, but I don't know if I have it in me, not while in a church anyway. For the meantime, I have this photo of my newest frame as a reminder that life doesn't have to be so serious. And maybe I can open my kids up to something that wasn't common when I was growing up. Can we have "fun" in church? Time will tell.

To view this frame and other Heartsongs Memory Frames visit my etsy shop
at www.HopeStudios.etsy.com

My Paper Making Project

I know a few weeks ago I wrote about my to-do list for the week and on it was to learn how to make seed paper. Well, it took some time to get to it, but I tried it this week and it turned out pretty cool!

First, I gathered my supplies. In this case, that was a blender, some leftover tulle, scissors, 2-3 homework pages from my kids' folders, some newspaper, some dryer lint, wildflower seeds, and an old towel.

Then, I ripped up the paper into about 2 inch pieces and added it to the blender along with the dryer lint and warm water. I blended it for a bit then poured the whole mess onto the tulle I had lining the sink. After that, I sprinkled seeds and forget-me-nots into the top and transferred the whole thing to a towel. I folded the towel over the top and stood on top of it to really squeeze out the extra water and flatten it out.

Here is the finished paper! A friend of mine mentioned getting a flower die cut and making them into little tags or decorations. They will really sprout if placed into soil and watered!


Well, that's my "Martha" moment for the week. In other news, the frame business is taking off like wildfire in the past month. I'm very busy, but really loving making something of this little business of mine. I got my Etsy statement this week and I made 22 sales in April and May seems to be following suit with 5 sales already. I'm feeling a little Mary Tyler Moore right now..."You're going to make it after aaaaaaaaaalllllll!" Check me out: http://www.HopeStudios.Etsy.com

It's That Time of the Year

Well, the June brides are out en masse and ordering many many frames! This is what I've finished in the last week and I think all of them are meant for wedding gifts! I remember my wedding and it really was the best day of my life. I listened to all the advice and really enjoyed my day. Really, that is the only advice I have for all the brides out there. Plan, plan, plan...but once the big day comes assign a trouble-shooter and let it all go. Even when things go wrong, it is a day to remember. Now, that we're all warm and fuzzy, let's take a walk down memory lane...Shall we?

Okay, it's the day of my wedding and I'm at the reception after a beautiful ceremony, at which I couldn't stop playing with my new pearl necklace and my nose wouldn't stop running. Fortunately, my videographer, our friend's dad, caught me on tape pulling a tissue out of my bra and wiping my nose then replacing it. Good times.

Anyway, after many drinks and dances and no food to speak of, I decide it's time for a potty break. If only it were that easy. I came back out and gathered a posse because I realized this was going to take some acrobatics. We all head back into the world's smallest bathroom stall and I cannot gain access to the vital area! It's buried under yards of silk and lace, a crinoline (for God's sake!), pantyhose (Gasp!), and fancy underpants... So, I just stood there digging under all of that to try to reach the bottom layer. I dug around (and found birdseed in weird places) and finally someone else pulled down my underwear since my hands were trapped with in the folds. My mom might have done that, who knows?

I had girls surrounding me each holding part of my dress and assorted other clothing, while I stood there helplessly trying to get my hands in there to reach the pantyhose and new underpants. I would have been embarrassed but we were all squeezed in there so tight with so much fabric filling the space that I just finally squatted with my arms over my head and got it over with. And thank God we were in the bathroom because laughing that hard really made me have to pee! So, all modesty aside I did my business in a small 3x3 foot space with 3 of my closest friends and vowed to drink nothing for the rest of the night!

If you have an upcoming wedding and are short on the gift end, check out my etsy shop at http://www.hopestudios.etsy.com/ . Oh, and Mother's Day is just around the corner and we mom love a handmade gift! (no one said it had to be made by YOU)

Some Good Advice

I love this frame I just finished! One of my customers just ordered 4 different frames for everyone in her family, and I think this one strikes a chord. I chose a handwriting style of lettering to make it feel more personal. I wanted people to feel like they were reading a letter written for her children of all the life lessons a mom wants to pass on.

To order a frame from my studio, check me out in my shop at http://www.hopestudios.etsy.com/