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Meet Arlene Dolin

I thought it might be fun to introduce each member of The Art Shop staff by letting them tell you what they love to do (as related to The Art Shop).  Since I’m the one writing most of the blogs, I guess I’ll start with me.

I am Arlene Dolin, Vice-President.  My husband, Lenny, and I have owned The Art Shop since 1989, which is difficult to believe since I don’t feel that old!  I’m pictured on The Art Shop sofa after a staff meeting with Molly & Emma – our two rescued babies. Rescuing dogs is another thing I’m passionate about, but this is a blog about The Art Shop, so I digress.

While I love picking out framing in general, I especially love framing invitations and announcements – wedding, bar & bat mitzvah invitations, birth announcements, etc. To me, they are like blank canvases that allow your creative juices to run wild. They make treasured gifts for brides and parents. Babies and 13-year-olds don’t usually care so much, although they’ll appreciate them when they are older.

Some invitations lend themselves to wild & crazy mat combinations.  For others, a “less is more” approach is sometimes best.  Here are some of my favorites – maybe they will stir your creative juices as well:

Wild & Crazy:

My nephew had a destination wedding in Las Vegas and his invitation was appropriately glitzy.  We pulled out all the stops with a gold foil inner mat and glittery rick-rack we purchased from a fabric store to line the top mat.  We won a PPFA framing award for this one. Click on the photo to see a larger image.


  • For these two, I picked out the matting and told Chris to go crazy with the mat cutter.  He did a fabulous job.  I also love using marbleized papers to add some zing to a simple invitation while keeping it elegant.

Simple & Elegant

    • I loved the green swirls in this wedding invitation, so I had the framer carry the design over into the matting.  The bride had designed the invitations herself with special attention to earth-friendly inks and she loved that her design was enhanced by the framing.
    • This white-on-white is one of my favorites.  A cousin sent me a thick, white, hand-made paper invitation that was incredibly elegant.  I tipped it onto a beautifully patterned white mat and used a spacer to create the illusion of it floating.  I think this illustrates the “less is more” approach I mentioned earlier.

I hope these give you some ideas.  The next time you receive an invitation or announcement, think about what a lovely and treasured gift it could make….and bring it to The Art Shop so we can do what we love to do!

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