Creative Encounters

worked almost as much on my two framed projects as they did. helpful and kind employees, however had «stylistic» decisions made by owner without any contact or edification of changes to my project was highly disappointing. lack of empathy from owner related to situation. would not use again for future projects.

Our experience was disappointing. We had to have the patience of saints to get the owner to be helpful about making any effort to fix the mistake the shop made. When we asked that the loose slip of information on the back of the poster be attached to the back of it after being mounted in the frame, the owner said they do that routinely, so not to worry. We even heard her instruct the employee putting the measurements in the computer to include that the slip should be attached to the finished back of the frame. We saw him enter that request, so we were confident they would follow the instructions.
Except they didn’t include our item, and didn’t return it to us, and they still can’t find that slip of information, which must have been discarded. Instead, they attached a colorful sticker identifying the shop, and also a sticker about the special glass.
We stopped by last week to inquire the status, because we hadn’t heard back in over a month. The owner was ever so breezy about how she’d just have a look in the workshop to find the item, as if it was a trivial matter, but after 10 minutes she still hadn’t returned, so we left after providing our phone number yet again to an employee.
Finally, someone called today to say that the owner found some information for us online and will mail it to us. It’s a small printout about the image. It’s a nice gesture. It would have been nicer if the owner had expressed her regret for what happened, and if she had given us her assurance that this wouldn’t happen again, and if she had explained how it is they included their own material on the back of the poster, but not ours. The employees in the front of the store are particularly pleasant and helpful, so I am surprised the owner wasn’t more solicitous.
Please think twice about handing this shop any provenance about your artwork. If the owner simply had apologized for the mistake, we might have been inclined to give the shop the benefit of the doubt in the future. But without having received an acknowledgement that they are sorry this happened, we will take our framing elsewhere. We will miss the shop’s great selection of unique greeting cards, but feel we should shift our shopping elsewhere.

Not a place you would go if you are a professional artist but a strong selection if you are a hobbiest. Great gift shop. It’s a very cheerful store with a lot of very nice gift items and the staff was knowledgeable and inviting. I noticed they had a few small items that were rather difficult to find for crafters, like jars of gold flakes and a good variety of unique sketch books. You can pick up some nice water colors, paints, pens, canvas, and there were some high end items like professional brushes. I will definitely return the next time I’m in Keene.

Love this store. The staff is incredibly friendly & helpful, always. Some fun stuff, gift-​ideas, some expensive. But great photography supplies. They always have bags of mat scrap for sale. Love this store. The staff always goes «above & beyond». So refreshing!

Creative Encounters is both an art supply store and framing shop – it isn’t a large store, but what they lack in product they make up for in customer service and quality work.
One of the things Creative Encounters specializes in is shadow boxes. I had some old pictures of my Grandmother and a poem she wrote for me when I was an infant in a shabby shadow box of my own that I purchased from a large chain art and craft store. I also had a string of pearls and a scarf that my Grandmother used to wear that I wanted to integrate into the shadow box display, but after multiple failed attempts to keep everything taped/​pinned/​stuck in the right place, I brought my display to Creative Encounters to see if they could help me out. I spent about 45 minutes consulting with a very nice sales associate about the design, colors and frame choice. Three weeks (and 300 dollars) later, I had a beautiful new shadow box display of the precious pictures, poem, pearls and scarf. Each piece of the shadow box is displayed beautifully and the materials in the box are protected from light and fading because of the special glass that was used. Even though the shadow box was pricier than I had imagined it would be, it was a worthwhile investment. The shadow box is a piece of art and a memorial to my grandmother that I will have forever.
Creative Encounters has numerous other shadow boxes on display in their store, and they are all beautiful as well. Even if you aren’t in the market for a shadow box, frame or art supplies, the beautiful work they have on display in their store is worth going in to take a look at!

this store didn’t excite me at all from the outside. it just looks like a framing store… whatever. but i wandered in when my husband was next door at the music shop and it was soo adorable! unlike most novelty stores, the prices here were average, maybe even on the cheap end. they have a collection of notebooks and accessories made of vintage maps, plus a whole selection of art supplies. the selection was surprisingly good and the prices of a moleskine were actually less than barnes and noble. the woman who owned it was also very nice. i’ll definitely be back here next time i’m in keene!