Willkommen (Welcome), plus a tip aboout framing

I finished this piece in 1988, but didn't frame it until today. It's from a pattern I purchased at a shop in Germany, with a typical German house. I bought the frame for $2.97 at JoAnn - it was a piece of Oriental Art on some wood, and I used a hammer to knock it out of the frame. I then had to use pliers to pull out the old glue. Next, I cut a piece of adhesive mounting board to fit, and centered the design over it - then stuck it in the frame and used a bit of hot glue to hold it in place.

After paying $205 to frame three pieces at Michael's this weekend (and they were having a half off sale!!!!!), I will start framing my own work as much as possible. It'll be easy to do the square and standard-sized pieces, but the long skinny ones (like samplers) will have to be done some other way.

Here's a great tip: Visit thrift shops, garage sales, Ross, and Marshalls, and purchase old framed art. I found four frames with mats at the Deseret Industries thrift shop for $1 each. I just have to remove the piece of art and replace it with my own pieces. Like the piece above, you can sometimes find the odd sizes and squares.