DOT: A tiny round mark made by or as if by a pointed instrument; a spot. - thefreedictionary.com

This is such a simple method that I always think everyone already knows how to do it, but I think that's just me, who comes from a crafty background. Growing up we were constantly exposed to art, painting and crafts of many variety so things like this come by second nature without a thought. But then the thought did come to me that some of you may not realize how fast and easy a project can be when you're adding painted dots - which you might be dreading. Dread no more!

image credit and copyright raysto on flickr.com

Brought up here in the COLOURlovers forum, the PersonalDNA site allows you to decode your personality into a color palette. Who wants to make buttons? If we were to all wear our personal color codes just think how quickly we could recognize like minded people. Or maybe some things are better left personal.

PersonalDNA is "an innovative new personality test that combines thorough scientific analysis with novel questions and response techniques. The result is a fun test that provides accurate, detailed feedback. Are you an "attentive thinker"? A "free-wheeling artist"? Find out which one of our 256 personality types matches you, and get details that go beyond those categories, plus suggestions on how to be different—no two results are alike. Then compare your results to your friends' personalities, and see how well you know each other with our psych you/psych me feature."

Find out your color DNA. Are you a____?

(hover over any color to reveal the name)

Animated Analyst

Benevolent Creator

Generous Thinker

Generous Thinker

Reserved Inventor

Considerate Idealist

Have you ever seen a [w] tag in a palette's name and wonder what is was? It's wordlinks, a fantastic game and creative exercise! Take a look at the description by praxicalidocious in the latest recruitment post for the game:

There is a delightful game here on CL, so delightful, in fact, that it has it's own dedicated group, wordlinks. (You might have seen a [w] palette tag, and wondered what it meant.)

Wordlinks are palettes where each colour is a part of a 'chain'; the name of each colour begins with the last word of the previous colour. Like so, since I can let badges do all the work:

...You see? (If you're more ambitious, and are lucky with the first colour (which is always the last colour from the previous palette in the chain; please try to keep this in mind when choosing your own final colour, to allow others a good starting point), the power of the word doubling lends tremendous dramatic weight to your 'scenelets'. (In [w], irony is always delicious!)

Here's to another colorful year in 2011... Happy New Year!! Post your new year palettes, patterns and colors in the comments.

Below you will find 6 years of color cheer--palettes named "Happy New Year" or "Happy 200x" and created during December or January of each year. Can you find any color trends?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back when I did this original post Reception Tent DIY: Coffee Filter Pom-Pom How-to, I had promised some pictures of the pom-pom's at the wedding. Unfortunately, the lighting at the time when we did setup and had time to take our own pictures, was a little sharp. These were the dreadful tents we had to work with, but it worked out.

The reason for the revisit is that I had many many people contact me via COLOURlovers, facebook and twitter for more detailed information to assemble these things. I dumbed it down and made a process that worked great and pretty efficient I must add. I have omitted the details of dying the filters (to add colour) because that's something in itself and was covered a bit in the last post. I will also do an immediate follow-up post on different variations on what I found worked, to add colour to the pom-pom's.

Getting the Scrunch Right.

Trust me when I say that this step matters. Prepping your filters for scrunch is highly important as they will just turn in to floppy filters within an hour (or less) after ONLY hand scrunching. I spent an entire afternoon with trial and error to nail down the best method for best final results in the most time-efficient manner.

Are the kiddos are at home and in need of entertainment? - making ornaments is a fun way to spend time together. Get involved as a family, turn on some holiday tunes and have some creative time. If your tree is getting too full of ornaments, I'm sure Grandma & Grandpa and Aunties & Uncles would love some for their tree's too!

#1: Half Eaten Gingerbread Men

I first came across this ornament design by Noodle-Head.com "Half Eaten Ornaments". I love this take on making Gingerbread Man ornaments with a laughable approach. These will definitely be on my list for next years projects. One of the simple details here is using a red button with white yarn/string to make them look like peppermint candies. Genius! Original pattern by Elsie Marley here.

This is a perfect way to dress up your house for the Holiday's and might even be okay rolling over in to January. You can also include the kids! Instead of making real, edible gingerbread men make these up and let them decorate them with puff paint (aka "frosting"). You can also add embellishments such as buttons, ribbon and rick rack to give them a little extra cuteness. Just glue any extra's on.

SUPPLIES:

- Gingerbread Man Template (Two sizes are included in the PDF Template and Instruction download)
- Large Brown Paper Grocery Bags
- String, Twine, Ribbon or Raffia Swag
- Something for tracing. I like to use white chalk. If using something permanent, trace on the non-showing side.
- Sewing Machine (although you could hand-stich each, it would be a lot of work!)
- Stuffing (100% Polyester Fiberfill - any cheap kind)
- Puff Paint - I mainly use white, but that's your prerogative
- Optional Embellishments: Rick Rack, Ribbon, Lace, Buttons...etc.

PREP.

Paper Bags: Cut down the middle of ONE side (on the crease). Then cut around/off the bottom of the bag and discard.

Templates: If you are using a permanent marker/pen, trace on the printed side of the paper so that it won't show when you put them together. I personally like to use white chalk and trace right on to the showing side. I also trace and cut them a little fatter than the template.

Trace as many as you can fit, reversing the pattern to make them fit better. You will need TWO cutouts for each final gingerbread man.

Unevolved Brands is "A progressive study on brand & logo simplification by Graham Smith - ImJustCreative." Graham strips some of the most recognizable brands in the world (and web) down to their simplest form leaving us with a new perspective on color's place in identity design. Some takeaways from this study: color and the positioning of elements makes all the difference when it comes to creating effective visual branding; a unique color scheme will help ingrain a brand; and games are a lot of fun.

How many brands can you recognize after they've been Unevolved?

Skype

#12

#20

#46

#10

#50

#18

#49

#19

#15

#41

#9

#22

#52

#25

#24

#33

#30

#53

#44

#65

#64

#89

#77

Looking for the answers? Match up the numbers listed above to the sheet here.

Now that your all warmed up jump over and add to the fun in the COLOURlovers Name That Brand game!

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This is a super-fast, easy ornament project almost anyone in the family can participate in. It is also a great way to recycle all the burned out lightbulbs collected over the year(s) (start saving in January for this project next year). If you don't have a stash of burned out bulbs start asking your family, friends and neighbors.

What You'll Need:

- Old Lightbulbs (normal size)
- Wooden Craft Balls (hardware or craft store)
- Scrap Fabric (for scarves)
- Rafia or Twine
- Wire (baling wire, craft wire, hanger wire - anything you can bend and twist easily)
- Paint (acrylic) & Brushes: White, Black, Orange and any other colours you may want.
- Hot Glue Gun & Glue

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Much pleasure thine COLOR can'st give me... So much so that there are over 200 Christmas tree colors in the COLOURlovers Library. Below you will find common varieties of trees used in North America & Europe as "Christmas trees," and colors extracted from, or inspired by, them.