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2017 marks the 20th anniversary for Willows boutique in Vancouver, Wa. The independent women's apparel, accessory and gift store has changed through the years, evolving to serve its clients and customers. Embellishments studio has been there from the beginning bringing their brands style to life.
Willows and Embellishments studio celebrateHundreds of partygoers helped Willows celebrate its 20th anniversary, with florals by Stem Floral Design and treats by Rosycakes to coordinate with my summer display. What may not be known to many in attendance is the origins of the boutique they love.  It was 1997 when I first met the first time shop owners Sandy McCloud and her business partner and daughter Janna Moats. Bright eyed and ambitious to realize their concept for a bedding, furniture and gift store we hit it off. Our task was to transform a rather plain and unassuming space tucked into a refurbished car dealership into something alluring and vibrant. It wasn't too long and their success lead to their expanding into an empty retail space next door. The new area allowed them to expand their offerings to include some apparel, baby bedding and more gift merchandise. It is with the addition of this space that glimpses of the Willows style appeared. Committed to having the, mostly service oriented, marketplace provide a shopping experience to the downtown Vancouver scene, Sandy and Janna, in addition, opened Fresh Willow, a garden and gift store. I began my exploration of their interiors being modern with industrial and vintage accents. This would include creating elements and faux finishing them for both the interior and facade. Ingredients such as concrete, "rusted" metal and wood finishes will serve them well into their 20th year. Despite their retailing success, the two Marketplace locations challenged the two owners with heavy schedules, separate merchandise buying trips and two vastly different goals within. The decision was made to merge the two and define "Willows" with a new location, street side in the newly revitalized Ester Short Park area. Here the merchandise assortment began the flip from home dec and gift, with some light apparel to apparel with some gift. Here's where the categories of garden, bedding and furniture were shed, a precursor to the boutique of today. The response from downtown Vancouver's apparel store starved women was amazing. Willows became the guiding light and a stellar example of a revitalized Vancouver success story. That forward momentum could not be sustained too long. With the onset of the economic recession bringing about a reversal of downtown Vancouver's revitalization and growth, Sandy and Janna made the tough, but exciting, decision to close their Ester Shore Park location and relocate to their current one in the Grand Central Marketplace. As a team, we decided to take the largest space yet further in expressing Willow's style and distill their offerings to be revolved around apparel, accessories and gifts. It is their Grand Central location that would challenge me to create the Willows experience from scratch. This will be the first time I was given the freedom to develop a completly empty retail space. No more were there going to be stairs, low ceilings and a lack of storage. My first decision was to design them an actual working back room. This marks the first time in Willow's 15 years that they can process new merchandise off the sales floor. And I, as their merchandiser, display builder was eager to have a storage area for fixtures, tools and display goods. To further build the brands reputation for eye catching eye candy and high end department store like treatment of visual display, I carved a niche out for a window display and purchased a ton of mannequins. The tradition of rearranging the store, adding new fixtures and displays with each season was born. As if the planets aligned just for the ladies of Willows, the two spaces adjacent to the store became available. So without hesitation, the designing of the current, expanded Willows began. The additional space allowed us to accommodate more dressing rooms, increase the selling space, add a sale area and further indulge in the textures and elements that define Willows visually. And of course I got my wish of another window, an expanded back room and a central wrap desk that could hold four checkout stations! I'm proud to play part in this 20 year love affair with the Willows brand. The owners, Sandy and Janna are like family. We've watched each others families grow. We've watched our separate businesses grow. And, we will continue watching Willows grow further with our collaborative ways and unrelenting love for the store. I'm including some additional photos from my Willows displays below. Enjoy!- Aaron
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Okay Lax lovers, here we go... I proudly present my lacrosse wall art series collage. Available as a one piece, nine image design or you can pick and choose any of the nine as individual prints in canvas and on archival paper. According to Thomas Vennum Jr., author of American Indian Lacrosse: Little Brother of War "Apart from its recreational function, lacrosse traditionally played a more serious role in Indian culture. Its origins are rooted in legend, and the game continues to be used for curative purposes and surrounded with ceremony. Game equipment and players are still ritually prepared by conjurers, and team selection and victory are often considered supernaturally controlled. In the past, lacrosse also served to vent aggression, and territorial disputes between tribes were sometimes settled with a game, although not always amicably." With it's rich history and evolution into one of the fastest growing sports here in the States, it's time to be wall proud and art up! I hope you enjoy them, I'd love to hear your feedback.
Need some inspiration for your lax loving walls? Here are three style mood boards to give you ideas and inspire. Feel free to pin, post and print!  Lacrosse wall art and decor ideas for a sophisticated boys or teen room. Reproducing and selling my own artwork direct and no longer licensing it out was the greatest of decisions. One of the biggest rewards is the direct communication line to my customers. Never before have I had so many ways to meet and discuss my art with those who enjoy it. Within these live, phone, email and social media interactions I've heard a lot of feedback, requests and ideas that inspire.
Here's what I currently offer I've been painting sports art for 15 years. While many pieces are in private collections or are commissions, I enjoy selling my canvas and paper reproductions to the public. I've touched on many of the popular sports and decor themes. Some are more vintage some are more modern. Many of my sports wall hangings end up in boys rooms, teen spaces and areas of the home where sports fans gather. Given all of that, have you any requests? Do you have a particular decor style or color scheme you'd like to see? I'm painting now for my 2018 releases, I'd enjoy hearing from you.
I love the opportunity to bring a clients vision to life. When my clients, whom home school their children, moved into their new place, they called looking for my help. You see, they had a huge room over their garage and wanted to convert it into a classroom for their kids and maybe other cooperative homeschoolers. Waving his arms around Micheal, the owner, asked how can we make it bigger than life, something the kids would go crazy over. Well... I was happy to oblige. Here are some first round photos. I need to go back with a wide angle lens to capture the entire room.  Creating a simple sketch to communicate ideas is a great start. Here is mine for this project. This concept won their hearts. It's a pretty grand in scale so I broke it down into parts.  A glimpse of the mural depicting around a hundred years. One thing that is not illustrated in my sketch is the stair well leading to the classroom. We decided on a mural starting at the base with the dawn of time, and winding up through the years as the stairs ascend. Here I picked out some notable events, interesting facts and persons to illustrate a time period. The video below captures most of it.
If I were to identify whom might be my number one influence in my artistic endeavors, it most certainly would be Dr. Seuss aka Theodore Geisel. While Walt Disney the man, not the brand is close, Seuss was a bit more of a rags to literary wealth success story, which for me embodies the American dream. He single handidly changed the way in which young people learn to read and in turn see the world around them.
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." - Dr. Seuss
On this special day acknowledging Mr. Geisel, please allow me to geek out for a bit and share some of my favorite Seuss and Seussisms.
The task: Create a loft bed, fort, reading nook incorporating two double beds. The clients: Two young twins- one drawn to performance arts, the other drawn to horseback riding. One wants pink, the other says yuck. Ones a bit tidy the other not so much. The challenge: The mom wants something unique, more fort than furniture! She loves modern yet has a rustic touch to her style. The girls need organizers bulletin boards, space to stash their collections of things and an extra bed for sleepovers. The result: A studio built grey and white washed horizontal planked custom bed loft fort unit. Custom wall organizers with pegs, dry erase, paper and storage. Extras: a display wall for art and a whimsical mount of their senior aged basset hound Clementine.  Custom loft, fort, reading nook bed unit for two double beds by Aaron Christensen  I needed a few New Years Eve poppers to display as a centerpiece, so I scraped up some of my holiday craft left overs and cranked up the computer. Rather than have to adorn them with sequins, go glitter crazy and go through great efforts to use a lot of fabric colors and textures, I scanned the ingredients and printed them. The prints were super easy to cut up, fold, fan and glue.  A little bit of this and a little bit of that stuff like beads, glitter, tinsel ribbon and glass crystals were added to finish them off. Prior to tying them off you could fill them with candy, glitter or encouraging notes for the new year. If you're like me.... hiding treats in these might prevent bad snacking. After all the New Years Resolutions start in less than a week. {yikes} So don't recycle those empty wrapping paper tubes and download yourself a set of the papers below. Free treat popper ephemera and paper / textures downloads As with all of the downloads I offer, I ask that they be used for personal use only. They are not for commecial use, all rights are reserved. © Aaron Christensen 2016
My younger self was a professional window and holiday display designer and visual merchandiser for high end department stores. 20 years ago when I left that world to start Embellishments Studio, I retained a few of my freelance clients. Flash forward to 2016, I've created dozens of trims for several clients. The trims that quickly comes to nostalgic memory are the ones I've created for my client in Vancouver, Washington called Willows. It's a clothing and accessories boutique.  Holiday trim elements include mixed metal foliage, frosted accents and tons of lights. FREE VINTAGE LOOK CHRISTMAS CRAFTS SPRAY DOWNLOAD BY AARON CHRISTENSEN  Just for fun! I'm sharing my original Holiday spray labels. For me they represent all the years I've spent creating retail Holiday trims. I think of them as mementos. For you, they can be a fun item to display, create hijinx with your Elf on a Shelf or beef up your Jack Frost street credibility.
The images are sized for a traditional spray can. If you need them larger just dial up your print percentage. I recommend using empty spray cans of course. You wouldn't want lil' ones spraying black spray on your frosty windows. By popular demand, I've added a new series to my Speedway Racing Collection of wall art. The new pieces explore the thrill of speed with images of a race car, mx motorcycle, mechanic type ephemera, vintage signage and more. The works are available as individual images or combined into a nine image collage with either a cream or black grid border.  Racing Inspired Wall Art Decor "Throttle" by Aaron Christensen. Available in a nine image collage and as individual pieces in stretched canvas and poster print. Visit my shop's Transportation category to see this piece and many more race inspired pieces perfect for boy's rooms, teen spaces and of course the man cave.  Mx, Motorcycle, Race Car and Auto Ephemera Mood Board with ideas for Boy's, Teens and Men. Featuring wall art by Aaron Christensen.
 
Soccer Art - Line Up Collection
$30.00 - $169.00
Football Art - Line Up Collection
$30.00 - $169.00
Baseball Art - Line Up Collection
$30.00 - $169.00
Rugby Art - Line Up Collection
$30.00 - $169.00
Cricket Art - Line Up Collection
$30.00 - $169.00
Home Visitor Arrows Sports Wall Art Decor for Baseball Football Soccer Basketball
$20.00 - $249.00
Vintage Locker Room Door Basket Sports Wall Art Decor for Baseball Football Soccer Basketball
$20.00 - $249.00
Rough Game Scoreboard Sports Wall Art
$30.00 - $179.00
Rough Game Allstar Sports Wall Art
$20.00 - $249.00
Rough Game Sports Motivational Poster Prints
$7.00 - $15.00
Home Visitor Sports Pillow
$32.00 - $39.00
My Home Visitor pillow cover is available made from 68% cotton, and 32% linen natural fiber (shown) or 100% Polyester Velveteen. It is from my Sandlot series which can be found here. Coordinating fabrics are available in my Spoonflower shop: The image is also available as a stretched canvas or paper print. Available in sizes 18 x 18 and 22 x 22". We use YKK zipper enclosures. The pillows backside is a coordinating neutral. Launder inside out, tumble dry on low. Iron inside out using your irons polyester setting. Price is for enclosure/case only. 
Lacrosse Art - Line Up Collection
$30.00 - $169.00
Often when I design props for store displays or fixtures for merchandising they are purely from my imagination. The challenge lies in bringing those ideas to life. I recently proposed a farmhouse chic style trim for one of my apparel boutiques. In my mind I saw old water/wind mills, old barn doors and abandoned relics.  To create vintage look props its easiest to find old wood and supplies to build them out of. One of my local haunts, The Rebuilding Center serves me well. There I can find treasures to build my ideas from. For this particular trim I came across old packing crate supports, degraded galvanized flashing and oddities, old cast wheels and a ton of reclaimed bits of wood. Staring at the items in my checkout cart I decided to build a windmill out of the flashing, an old hoe and the packing crate supports which were rich with rusty character. The wheels, some old mahogany wheelbarrow handles, old galvanized channel and 2 x 12's would become a vintage look florists or fruit vendors merchandising cart. Random chair parts, old wood, part of a tv roof antennae and miscellaneous bits of hardware would become an abandoned swift bird house.  Old furniture parts, odds and ends, and reclaimed wood are transformed into a birdhouse. One that would be stationed by a field crop to be occupied by swifts or bluebirds. Weathered paint techniques and distressing turn the new piece into something that looks decades old.  Old rolled flashing is reworked into windmill blades. An old garden hoe, miscellaneous metal pieces and packing crate supports are used to create the functioning windmill. Distressing and weathered paint techniques age out the newly made piece.  Reclaimed wood, old metal channel, a piece of metal railing and oxidized wheels become a rolling merchandising cart like a florist or fruit vendor would use. Garden mural project
Flash forward four and half years, they called me back to help them with their backyard eyesore, a cinder block garage wall. Their fresh landscape and beautiful hot tub gazebo and deck built by a friend of mine, Dave Izer were fantastic. The backside of the neighbors wall not so much. It was decided to cover the wall with a landscape that extended their yard visually.  There of course was a special request by their daughter (who's nursery I painted). She wanted a unicorn. With Mom and Dad's nod, I tucked a sleeping one into the painting. It's a magical surprise when you approach the mural but its not really visible from the house or deck. That way the illusion wasn't affected by the appearance of a large mythical creature. 
 Time Lapse Video Here's one reason I love my job. When I completed the mural, it happened to be one day before my birthday. Well, my lil' client brought me a card she drew and a mandala she colored in. My heart melted. Good thing it was the last day because nothing could top that moment. Thank you McClures for your faith in my work and of course treating me like family. You're amazing!  I hurriedly met with Mr. D as a response to his heartfelt plea for help. You see, he and his wife just divorced and their three year old daughter was not adjusting well. Her world of routines, togetherness and familiar places had just been turned upside down. The sale of their home had mom and dad leaving for separate new places. Mr. D found a quaint farmhouse to rent. He had one week until Jane's first visit and that's where I come in. His plea- "will you make her room amazing?"  Finding myself with little notice and a newly divorced man's budget I scoured my retail haunts for furniture and findings that would fit lil' Jane's personality. She loves to draw, make forts, play dress up, be read to and the colors purple and pink. The plan was for me to help her adjust to her new home by making her room "hers". Outside of a few stuffed animals and some dress up clothes, I had to find treasures to fill the room from floor to ceiling, and stay on budget.  One week later, the white walled, dark floored room was filled with what I would hope she would come to love as "her room" and "her things". The end result....well.... Rather than my babble further, here's what Mr.D sent me- "Aaron, I wanted to extend to you my sincere appreciation for your hard work with Jane's room. There are so many wonderful options for Jane and her new room signifies the wonderful girl she is. At one point while she and I were in the room playing I almost broke down crying because it just felt so right, right for Jane and I in this moment. She adores her new room and I can't even tell you how special it is to have you come into our life at such a difficult time and help make it better. We couldn't be happier!" I'm happy to report that Jane is doing much better, she and her new kitty "Tiger" are enjoying her and her daddy's new home. Mr. D, having experienced this makeover, now has me working his new bedroom into a manly refuge. I'll post about it soon.
To fill Jane's room on a modest budget, I relied upon some big bang for the buck items and a few fast and effective fixes.
If you have a trick or tip on transforming a plain white walled rental, I'm sure my readers would love to hear about it. Your comments are welcome!
Score free shipping on you order* and make Pops happy on Father's Day with some new art! Enter the code DADS16 at checkout! *on domestic orders over 99.00.
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Welcome to Aaron Christensen's Embellishments Studio Blog.
Welcome to my Embellishments Journal, it's a new feature. I will be posting about some of our projects, sharing pictures and interesting things. Chime in, ask questions and keep your arms and hands inside the ride until it comes to a complete stop. -Aaron
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Shop top selling wall art, paintings and prints for boys, boys rooms, kids, teens, adults, tweens, nurseries and rooms by artist Aaron Christensen. Vintage sports art, racing art, scoreboard art, rock and roll art can be found in our shop. View works by interior designer Aaron Christensen, whom specializes in children's spaces, theatrical and themed spaces, pediatric office and retail environments. Based in Portland, Oregon. All images, text, DIY's and art copyright Aaron Christensen. All rights reserved.
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