In two previous posts—one for the Market Bag and the other for the iPad Sleeve—I shared with you some techniques I love to use for painting layers on canvas and then using the canvas to sew projects with. Well this time, I wanted to kick it up one notch by adding some hand stitching to my painted fabric. I chose the Amazing Artist’s Apron from the book, Sharing Stitches by Chrissie Grace. Liz Lamoreux—one of 15 contributing artists in Chrissie’s book—designed this project.

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I was already of fan of Liz’s aprons, so I was excited that she shared how to make one in this book! The yummy palette I was inspired to draw from for my apron—How To—comes from lover Phoenixfire. So, with my palette in mind, I headed to Michael’s for paint and embroidery floss and found it easy to find all of the colors in both instances. Having the ColorSchemer app on my phone made this super handy, as I could just pull up the palette and have it in my hand as I visually scanned the products.

I started by painting plain pieces of light-weight cotton (I only used a small amount of duck canvas this time) with the five basic colors, then had fun layering them with spatters, drips and, of course, lots of stencils. After my fabrics were dry, I cut all the pieces I would need, according to the directions in the book. The focal point of this apron is the pocket, which is a mini quilt of sorts, made up of strips and squares of the various painted fabrics. The pocket is lined and divided into four sections—making it like four different pockets—but before I sewed the patchwork pocket to its lining, I went to town having fun with hand-stitched doodles (or embroidery if you prefer).

The suspense has been high between two layers of voting and over 2,000 participants - the Betabrand Palette-Sock Contest has finally come to a close. So without further adieu, the winners are...

Luna Rose "Urban Nature" | Northern Dancer "80 proof socks" | earlgrey "Good Morning"

These striped palette-socks will be sold in packs of three together in time for the Holidays over at Betabrand.com.

A big congratulations to these three ladies! They will each receive a $100 Betabrand gift card, their username on the sock packaging, five free sock three-packs and recognition on the Betabrand site in photos/videos (when able).

For the rest of you, Betabrand is offering great pre-order savings on the winning shirt and socks. And a special 20% discount on everything else at Betabrand.com. Click either of the links below...

COLOURlovers Striped Socks: $33 $25 Pre-Order Price

COLOURlovers Plaid Flanel: $80 $60 Pre-Order Price

A Look Back at the 30 Finalists & COLOURlovers Votes

Enjoy a looksie at the 30 most loved striped socks in phase one. Again, great job everyone, thanks for participating!

header sock credits:

Pitter patter I hear a lot of palettes waiting to be worn on your feet! We recieved over 2,000 entries in the Betabrand Striped Sock Design Contest! Here we are in the final round - 30 finalists have been determined with the highest LOVES. I can't believe only three will win?! The winning sock designs will be sold as a 3-pack and ready for the Winter holidays.

Voting ends Tuesday, September 27th at 5:00 pm Pacific. Only THREE entrants will win and you only get to vote once! Additionally, FIVE lucky voters will win a prize from the Betabrand product line! So get your bunz over there and make it count!

Also, Betabrand is giving everyone a discount code:

"StripeSaver" is good for 20% off until the end of the September.

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If you haven't caught wind already, 'Elements' by Lisa Clair (lisadale69) is our winner of the Color-A-Plaid Shirt Contest by Betabrand + COLOURlovers. 

To be noted: I [mollybermea] am not responsible for Lisa's palette combination. I simply needed it in palette form for a badge in this post.

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Congratulations to Lisa for her fantastic design!

Here's what she gets:

- A $100 Betabrand gift certificate.
- Recognition on our Web site.
- A Betabrand plaid flannel shirt based on her design — the very first of the batch that we're selling this Fall! Each shirt will have her name on the label (see below).

 WOW, 5,000+ Submissions!

Betabrand wants to thank the COLOURlovers community for the more than 5,000 design submissions they received as well as a big thanks to everyone who voted - five (5) voters also won something special.  Check out Betabrand's announcement here.

"We love collaborating in order to bring new expertise and fresh perspective to Betabrand's daily commitment to invention and this has been one of the most satisfying collaborations we've been involved with to date. We can't wait to see the finished flannel shirts this Fall and we're looking forward to keeping in touch with the COLOURlovers community." - Jared :: Head of Design at Betabrand

If you're just now tuning in, check out the initial contest post, plus here were our nine (9) finalists. That about covers it. Looking forward to the next one!

Betabrand, an online-only clothing company that produces limited-edition batches of clothing and accessories, recently paired up with COLOURlovers in the contest, Color-A-Plaid Shirt Contest by Betabrand + COLOURlovers. The contest turned out to be a huge success with over 5,000 entries!

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To enter the contest, COLOURlovers simply had to color a pre-picked plaid pattern - Betabrand2, which had been created by one of our very own Lovers, sec9586. After coloring the pattern it produced a plaid shirt mockup of the finished product.

VOTE HERE AT BETABRAND

The contest is closed and nine finalists were chosen by the Betabrand design team. Voting on these nine selections will be open until NOON (12pm PST) Monday, August 22, 2011.

The Finalists

Betabrand chose the finalists not by the amount of LOVES each pattern/palette got. Simply because this would have been unfair. COLOURlovers had added the ability to LOVE the designs and share them for the fun of the contest.

"Our design team narrowed it down to 9 finalists not based on the number of loves on Colourlovers - because patterns that were created at the beginning of the contest would have an unfair advantage to those created toward the end. As for not picking a winner, but rather narrowing it down to 9, we decided to do that because we were so thrilled with the volume and quality of submissions that we wanted to keep the love going!" - Jared @ Betabrand

The nine finalists in no particular order...

Hipster Plaid by bcrider

cloud nine by martino

*colour hunter* by Sunny21327

Using patterns in print design can really punch up a project. It's nothing new, but I'd like to point out a few different variations you might see as key benefits.

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Single Use Design Pieces

Simplify a project by using patterns. In this design, the abstract pattern with the perfect color palette, truly resembles a feel for the arts. It doesn't restrict the design to a certain type of art where the festival might cover anything from painting, sculpting, fiber arts and more. Using an artistically geared pattern keeps that visual open.

Print Magazine's, Color in Design Awards (2011) / Poster Design by Dave Whitley

Coordinating Design Pieces

Using patterns in coordinating print projects can easily lend a hand in matching sets of items such as wedding invitations which usually contain a main element, the invitation - plus response cards, enclosure cards, save the date cards and thank you cards. Not to mention possibly following through with the design on wedding day programs, seat placement cards, etc.

autumn textile by weddingpaperdivas.com

Reusable & Customizable Design Pieces

When working with products you want buyers to customize, simple two-color patterns make it easy to do so. This makes it a snap for you to go in and adjust the pattern palette before shipping a digital file or physical product off to a client.

Tea Invitation by FLIPAWOO (customizable pattern invitations)

No matter what type of print project you have, these are a few benefits to using patterns to speed up your design or business process, not to mention a great way to add a ton of interest in your work.

Using COLOURlovers Patterns in your designs...

Here at COLOURlovers you can download an .SVG file of your pattern designs as long as you were the original Pattern Template creator. Additionally, if you have Seamless Studio, you can export designs as: .SVG, .JPG or .PNG to be able to use in other graphics software for design.

The Giveaway - How to Earn Your $75

This is a random giveaway picked from those who leave a comment. You have two choices:

Link to and place an image of a project you have designed with patterns. This can be from a yesterday or today, real or fake and must be a complete looking project. Does it fall under one of the three examples above?

OR

Link to and place an image of a print piece or pieces (such as a wedding invitation set) you adore and think is a prime example of one of the above three examples.

In addition, I'd love to know why you like using patterns in your design or why you like seeing patterns in design.

Entries will be collected through Sunday, August 28th, 2011 (by midnight PST). 

Next Day Flyers, the postcard printing specialists will be providing gift a credit of $75 to the randomly selected winner!

***THIS CONTEST IS OVER***

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We know you love color so here's a way to bring that pop to work with some very colorful desk supplies. Why shouldn't your every day workspace be more fun?! Poppin gives you the chance to fix up your drab cubicle and turn it into a space that’s inspirational, more functional and much happier.

The Giveaway: An Entire Desk Top Set!

Poppin is giving away an entire Desk Top Set! You will have the option to mix it up or keep 'em all the same color if you wish.

Desk Top Set ($100+ Retail Value):

• In Boxes
• Desk Set (2 Pencil Cups and 2 Desk Trays)
• Tape Dispensers
• Stapler
• Staple Remover
• Scissors
• Rulers
• XXL Binder Clips
• Signature Pens
• Highlighters
• Calculator
• Small Soft Cover Notebook
• Medium Soft Cover Notebook

The Contest: Desk Set Color Hunt

Today through next Tuesday we're going to play a game and choose a random winner from the entries (in the comments). What you have to do:

2. 1.) Go to Poppin.com (there's also a search by color page)
3. 2.) Hunt for a 5-color palette entry. This means you must find FIVE (different) items you can combine in to a set.
4. 3.) Create a color palette for those five items on COLOURlovers.com (Basic | COPASO | FROM A PHOTO).
5. 4.) Post the images of the items and the palette in the comment section to this post.

EXAMPLE:

NEED HELP? Send me a Love Note me (mollybermea) if you do not know how to insert an image or the palette badge.

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Now here's to some fun poppin-ized desktops!

Poppin Colors:

You may use these colors as reference to create your palettes - just copy the HEX#.

Additionally, Poppin is giving you 15% OFF through Tuesday / Contest End, with code "COLOUR" at Poppin.com. Enjoy!

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HP is not involved with this giveaway contest

How exciting—I get to give something away! Several people liked the Market Bag that I posted last time (thanks so much for the love, lovers!), so I thought it would be really fun to make something to giveaway this time. The palette—Sirus IFRC—that provided the inspiration for this project comes from napkin guy and I loved working with this combination of colors. The pattern comes from Sew4Home and was designed by Alicia Thommas (edited by Liz Johnson). With the exception of omitting swivel hooks (instead I used center-release buckles), using a concealed magnetic clasp instead of a nickel one (and, of course, using my own painted canvas and a coordinating fleece), I made the project just as it was presented.

It’s really a lot of fun to make projects from canvas that you have painted and made your own mark on. The person who first got me excited about painting layers on canvas with this approach is Roxanne Padgett. I took her Luscious Layered Canvas class last spring and have been having a grand ole time ever since. I continue to experiment and try new things and new ways of making each piece uniquely my own. You’ll be seeing more projects from me where I take this path using a palette, so I thought you might like to see briefly, how I go about painting the canvas. And if you don’t want know all that, just skip to the bottom and leave a comment if you’d like to try and win this bag. I’ll never know the difference.

Have you ever wanted to apply your color design abilities to a real-life product? Well here's your big opportunity! Rev up your color coordination skills and become the next palette designer for a plaid shirt offered through Betabrand! You'll get the unique opportunity to color a plaid pattern, see the design in action (applied to a template shirt) and the possibility of having your colors picked for print. How cool is that?!

Betabrand is an online-only clothing company based in San Francisco that produces unique designs in limited-edition batches every week. They make Cordarounds, Japants, DARPA hoodies, Farmer's Market backpacks, disco pants, and much, much more.

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Ready, Set, Contest Time!

We've had our very own, sec9586 create a pattern template for a new plaid flannel shirt that Betabrand plans to release in two versions for the 2011 holiday season. Betabrand has already chosen the colors for one version - the other is up to you!

How it works...

Easy, color the Betabrand plaid pattern template, Betabrand2.

Your colored pattern will automatically appear with the rest of the entries on the contest gallery page. You may color as many versions of the pattern template as you like.

If your colors are chosen...

The Betabrand design team will select one winner, who'll receive the following:

• - A real-life finished plaid flannel shirt;
• - Your COLOURlovers user name on the shirt label (for this 2011 production run - see above image);
• - $100 Betabrand Gift Card;
• - Recognition on the Betabrand web site and in all company communications; this includes photo of the winner in his/her winning shirt (optional).

The contest runs August 2nd - 11th (2011). Anyone who submits an entry will receive a coupon code for 20% OFF any Betabrand product - offer only valid during the contest timeline.

View the Contest Gallery

Color this plaid pattern template to enter (Betabrand2)

Many of you know about our COLOURlovers iPhone App - ColorSchemer Touch, but do you know all you can do with it? I wanted to do a quick highlight of all it's features, so let's get down to it!

At this point in development, ColorSchemer Touch allows you to do the following:

Peruse COLOURlovers current Palette Creations... tapping once on a palette will bring you to the Palette information.

Palette Information includes author, loves, views, comments, rank and when it was created along with the colors used.

Full Screen - To get a bigger and more beautiful show all this palette has to offer, just tap on it (again in the information screen) and it will expand full screen. WOW!

Color information includes the COLOURlovers original titles as the default display.

Just tap once over the color area to display the Hex Values for each color, tap again to see the RGB values and another tap brings you back to the original titles.

Creating Palettes in So Many Ways!

There are so many cool tools for creating your own palettes!

• - Use the standard color wheel
• - Play around with LiveSchemes (which may need it's very own post to cover how cool it is)
• - Use PhotoSchemer to grab colors from photos you have on your iPhone (or take a new photo).
• - Or use the Spectrum

And Yes, you can make palettes with varying widths!

When you're done making a palette, why not share it?!

I'll end with answering some questions that might or have already come up...

• - Yes, we're hoping to develop an Android version at some point in the future.
  
• - Yes, eventually it will have more COLOURlovers site features on it (such as perusing patterns!).

The Grand Giveaway!

WeI'd like to give away FIVE copies of ColorSchemer Touch! Tell us how you would use the app if you had a copy and how much you dearly want it. :)

If you already own it, please feel free to let us know how you use it!

You have until Friday, July 22nd, 2011. Entries will stop at 1pm (USA PST).

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