When deciding to paint a room we tend to have a heck of a time picking that perfect paint color. But some crafty people took it a step further using paint chips as inspiration for a paint replacement. Beyond that, there are some crafty ways to reuse those billion paint swatches you are left with once you finally pick your perfect paint color. Here are some quick tricks, easy DIYs, and all around great ideas inspired by paint chips. For lots more paint chip ideas, check out our Pinterest board.

If you are looking for the perfect way to create a statement piece in your house, and you are a lover of color, this might just be the perfect thing. And the best part is, the cost is extremely low (depending on how many paint chips you can get from your local paint shop).

Source: Paint Wall, Bedroom, Wall, Stairs

Stenciled walls are becoming quite the trend right now. And for good reason, it adds an awesome pop to the  room.  I have been dying to stencil a wall for a while now, the problem is, the process looks very daunting and frankly, a little tedious. Finally, I decided to go for it and stencil the main wall in my living room to give the rather drab room, a big pop.

Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

After looking through tons of color palettes and patterns, I set out to find the perfect gray and decided on a Moroccan pattern similar to the bedroom below. I bought the "Wall Stencil Marrakech Trellis" from CuttingEdgeStencils for about $50.

Do you like making jewelry? Do you like playing with shrink plastic? Perfect—me too! Shrink plastic offers endless possibilities when it comes to creating personalized jewelry.

When it’s in its final shrunken state, this plastic is incredibly durable and it can be sanded or drilled into just like wood, Plexiglas or metal. So, when you’re creating pendants, charms, or, in the example I’ll share with you here, “beads,” even if you forget to punch holes in it before you shrink it, you can always drill holes afterward.

Start with clear shrink plastic. It comes semi-clear or in several solid colors, but for this particular technique, clear works best. Drop alcohol ink (my favorites are Ranger Ink’s Adirondacks) onto scraps of the plastic, or, full sheets if you prefer. It’s fun to watch the ink blend and redistribute itself. This ink comes in a large assortment of colors, so it’s easy to find and use your favorite palette!

When picking a wedding date we hope for sunshine, gorgeous days, and perfect temperatures, which is why a high majority of weddings you see are during the summer. But what about chilly, cozy and romantic nights filled with candlelight and bundling in the best fall fashion has to offer?

Winter weddings have a charm all their own and the color palettes can be just as gorgeous as those of summer weddings. If you are looking to tie the knot over the holiday season or the winter months that follow, don't forget that you have many great options on your hands as well.

Source: Kiss

Red details make for a festive pop during winter months. This gal below decided to tie her look together with a bold nail color and matching shoes. That just screams winter romance.

Source: Christmas Wedding

Gift wrapping has taken on a whole new life in recent years. It almost seems like it has become a competition to see who can be more genius at the art of gift giving.

If this display of craftiness won't get you in the mood to dig around your house for things you can turn in to beautifully embellished gifts, I don't know what could. Here we give you a fabulous collective to top, tie and cover your gifts in an eye-devouring display!

Covering: Wrap It Or Bag It

Receiving a gift wrapped in anything other than ordinary wrapping paper can be intriguing and a lot of fun. There are many ways to creatively get the proper packaging for a gift. Crafters seem to be conquering the feat of the "gift card" gift. Anywhere from creating fancy hand-made envelopes to putting one in a handmade snow globe - there are some fun ways to tackle making it look cute.

Mini Envelopes | Word Search Wrapping Paper | Stamped Kraft Paper | Lace Covered Kraft Paper | Stenciling | Fabric Covered Gifts | Newspaper Gift Bags | Embroidered Fabric Gift Bags | Egg Carton Gift Box | Patterned Pillow Boxes (or up-cycled toilet paper rolls)

The possibilities and ideas are endless! Fabric covered gifts could potentially go to the seamstress or crafter to reuse (the whole gift with gift idea here). Lace and dollies are being used plenty as embellishments in many variations. Embroidered fabric gift bags would be perfect for children to reuse or store the gift that came in it. Did you run out of gift bags and wrapping paper? No big deal, dig out some Kraft paper or newspaper and create your own gift bag! Lastly, pillow boxes and up-cycling toilet paper and paper towel rolls are trending massively right now.

However you wrap it up, make sure you embellish it fantastically too!

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.

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).

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.

Meet Shannon, a new author soon to be seen frequently on our Wedding Channel (mainly). She has over 23-years of floral experience and is so deliciously creative with her art, that we had to snag up some of her talent for our benefit!

Besides owning and running, Flourish, located in Sacramento, California, Shannon also blogs and manages, FancyPantsWeddings.com, a fantastic resource and fun place for wedding tips, floral advice and you name it.

Shannon has been a COLOURlover since September 2010 as FlourishShan, and constantly refers brides over to COLOURlovers.com to first create a palette before deciding on flowers. We'll get to learn more about her flower advice and a little DIY in the coming posts. Give her a big welcome and feel free to hit her up with any wedding flower related Q's! Enjoy! - Molly Bermea / Blog Editor

Hello, from Shannon herself...

Hi!  Let me start my intro post by saying that I LOVE color!  Color has always been a defining element in my life.  I clearly remember the color of my childhood bedrooms, the color of my high school's corridors and the colors of my own bridal bouquet.  Color drives my passion for floral design.  I consider the way I combine colors in my creations to be my strong point as a designer.  That is why I am so drawn to the COLOURlovers site and the tools it offers to myself and other color-philes (is that a word?).

Sarah Maren Photography

To celebrate Earth Day today we have, Tiffany Threadgould of RePlayground.com and Terracycle.net, here to teach us how to re-purpose an old t-shirt to make these adorable flower pins. Tiffany just launched her first book, ReMake It! (by Sterling Publishing). It's super adorable and is a pretty fun book to have on hand whether you have kids or you just love to re-purpose. We'll be doing a giveaway for 3 of these books at the tail end of the tutorial with a BONUS PRIZE, so stay tuned!

T-Shirt Scrap Flower Pin

MATERIALS:

• T-shirt
• ruler
• washable marker or pencil
• fabric scissors
• twist tie
• button with two holes
• pin back or safety pin

Use one T-shirt to make a single color flower, or mix it up and use strips from a few different shirts for a flower with different colors.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Measure and cut ¾-inch wide strips from the bottom of a T-shirt. From those strips, cut eight 8-inch long pieces.

2. Pull on the ends of each strip and stretch them until their edges curl. Snip three holes into each strip—one in the middle and two more, each ½ inch from the ends. Be careful not to cut across the whole strip, just to make small holes.

3. Slip the ends of the twist tie through a button, and pull it through so it is snug across the front of the button. Twist the ends of the twist tie together tightly until they are completely twisted at the back of the button.

4. Thread the end of the twist tie through the hole at the center of one of the T-shirt strips. Then, thread the twist tie through the holes on the ends of the T-shirt strip. Repeat this for all the rest of the strips

5. Holding the T-shirt strips and button together, untwist the twist tie ends. Insert them through the holes in pin back or wrap them around the safety pin (whichever pin you decide to use). Adjust the twist tie until the flower and pin are held firmly in place on the pin back. Remake a whole bouquet of flower pins and grow a garden on your shirt!

More About The Author

Tiffany Threadgould is a design junkie who gives scrap materials a second life. She's the head of design atTerraCycle, a company that collects and creates products from waste. She also keeps up her own green biz,RePlayGround, where you can find ReMake It recycling kits and oodles of DIY projects. Tiffany thinks that garbage has feelings too and can sometimes be found talking to her pile of junk at her design studio in Brooklyn, N.Y.

THE GIVEAWAY!

Tiffany was so kind to send us three (3) books to give to you! We are going to do another random pick from the user comments on this one. So if you'd like a cool copy of ReMake It! You must do the following:

Leave a comment telling us what your favorite art/craft style is be that a link out to your most favorite craft blogger(s) or just list your top 1-5+ most favorite things to work with be that modge podge, sewing, quilting, re-purposing, scrapbooking (traditional or digital), card making, painting, etc. The sky is the limit in the craft world!

BONUS PRIZE!

Bonus Prize is a $25 Gift Card at COLOURlovers partner, Spoonflower.com.

I will be posting this article on the COLOURlovers Facebook wall. All you have to do is:

2. 1) LIKE the COLOURlovers Facebook Page
3. 2) SHARE the article on your facebook wall
4. 3) Leave a comment on the article I posted on our fb wall which should include your COLOURlovers USERNAME.

We will be conducting a random drawing from the facebook post commentary. As long as you followed the steps, you will be included.

If you have already LIKED our facebook page, then that step is done. You won't be able to see the SHARE or COMMENT on the COLOURlovers facebook wall until you have LIKED our page.

I've posted THIS (the above image shows what it will look like) blog article to our facebook wall. Re-Post it to your wall by clicking the link on it, SHARE (see red arrows in the image). And then make a COMMENT letting me know you shared it, and let me know your username on COLOURlovers. The facebook contest is ONLY for the $25 at Spoonflower.com. If you want the book you must ALSO comment on the blog post here.

You may play and qualify for BOTH prizes (ReMake It! book AND the $25 at Spoonflower.com). The contest will run from today, April 22nd, 2011, until Thursday, April 28th with winners announced Friday, April 29th, 2011. You must be a COLOURlovers user to qualify for either prize. So register if you need to!

The work of Daniera ter Haar & Christoph Brach, who have become better known by the name of one of their projects, Raw Color, is highly prismatic, covering the spectrum between art, design, photography and color research by mixing the powerful colors of vegetables, innovative color harvesting processes, with unique applications for print and textiles. Each project is created with an astute design sense and captured with stunningly composed photography.

The Eindhoven, Netherlands based team uses color as the 'connection between their different practices' posing questions like, 'what is the nature of a color and what is the connection to its physical state?' This post focuses on their research on vegetable pigments. Two other posts to follow will focus on their design and photography.

“Color is a really nice connection between those disciplines. We use it almost as a material, and it’s transformative the way it can make something seem hard or light or heavy.”