Daily Posts. Colorful Ideas & Inspirations.
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Colorful Round-Up + Links From Around The Web
It has been quite a fun week over here at COLOURlovers. Between our iPad contest with Zazzle, book review on the new Smashing Magazine book, Redesign The Web and so much more!
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FAVORITE BLOG POSTS:
Some of our favorite blog posts from this week are crafty projects you can do with magazine pages and some fabulously colorful digital art by Andy Gilmore! Also, Zazzle is hosting a COLOURlovers iPad Design contest! If you haven't entered, now is the chance, the winner will receive a $500 cash prize.
CMYLK by DESIGN MILK
Design Milk (one of our fave blogs over here at COLOURlovers) has created a brand new column called "CMYLK". Each week, they round up some images – products, interiors, and art – and their associated COLOURlovers color palettes to inspire and delight. This week, features some fabulous paintings by Kristy Gammill. Check out the blog post for more palettes!
Do you "like" us on Facebook? Well you should be because we post awesome photos like those below all week long!
A few weeks back we held a Betabrand sock design contest! The 3 winning designs are now listed for pre-order on the Betabrand website! Pre-order your pack now!
LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB
LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
- The entire process of creating and building this colorful little room is posted on Design Milk Megan Geckler for Bobble.
- House Beattiful shows us 6 Cheery Yellow Bathrooms. This is great inspiration for those of you looking to spruce up your bathroom for the summer.
- If you haven't had the chance to get yourself a few Pantone Coffee Mugs, now might be a good time to go grab them.
Have any colorful posts you have seen yourself? Share them in the comments below! See you next week with some more colorful round-ups!
Crafting With Magazines
A bit ago we posted about crafting with paint chips. Today I wanted to post about another product you probably have laying around your house that you could turn into totally awesome art.
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Have you ever tried to find a use for magazines and catalogs that you finished looking through? Throwing them away feels like such a waste sometimes, doesn't it? Well today we are posting about various art projects you can do with those old magazines to repurpose them and bring those pages to life, for the second time. These projects are also a great way to give your kids something to do, using only products you already have in your home.
The magazine sunburst is probably my favorite piece of magazine art yet. All you have to do to create such an art piece is a roll up magazine pages and paste them together. Check out how she did it. Next to this fun DIY is a cool magazine clock that you can get off Etsy.
Source: I know the holidays aren't upon us for quite a while, but here are some fun things you can create for the season. Creating bows from magazine pages is super easy and a fun touch that you can't find anywhere else.
Source: Magazine jewlery! Want to find something unique to wear? This is definitely a good route to take, and you can even make it yourself which is even more impressive.
Source: Here are a few fun ways to add a little bit of magazine crafting into your home.
Source: Now this is one incredibly awesome vase! Even without flowers, this is such a statement piece for you home.
This is a fun craft project for you and your kids! And they make for great storage after the fact.
What are your favorite pieces? I would love to see the color palettes and patterns you all can create with such fun inspiration. And if you have the chance to craft with magazine paper, I would love to see pics of what you are coming out with.
Colorful Modern Art by Andy Gilmore
I posted one of Andy Gilmore's pieces on the COLOURlovers Facebook page a few weeks back. While digging deeper into the site, I found myself in awe over every single piece. I don't have enough space to feature them all on this blog post, but I would highly recommend checking out his entire collection of work if you are as impressed as I am by this small feature.
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Creating magazine covers is nothing new for Andy. He shows plenty of them in his body of work. I do however remember this Wired issue which I thought was great when I saw this. Opposite of Wired is the cover he created for the New York Times Key Magazine.
Here are a series of excellent pieces using bright colors and some very modern shapes.
Source for all images: Andy Gilmore
What do you think of this art? Would you use these patterns on something fun such as your iPhone case or throw pillows? Let us know what you think.
COLOURlovers Interview with Artist The Skid
Today we are featuring an awesome artist and giving you all a bit of an insight into the creative process behind his pieces of art. Each piece is bright and vibrant and each tell a story.
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This talented artist started small and kept, all the while he gained more and more traction in the blogosphere and now you can see his art work featured all over. The artist behind it all is Adam Sidwell, AKA The Skid. Check out his Tumblr for lots more pieces are art that are not featured here, you'll definitely get lost in the great color palettes and pieces he has created.
First up, why don't you tell the community a bit about who you are, what you do, how long you have been doing it.
I was into illustrating as a kid. In 2010 I started doing weekly drawings of pop culture, started taking requests, and would post one online each week. The blog started gaining traction after some time and I started freelancing.
What past experiences do you think have contributed the most to where you are now?
Growing up as a kid in the 80's, playing video games and watching movies like rambo and terminator, that had the most influence on me in terms of content.
How do you choose your color palettes?
Generally I kind of stick to 6 colors. I primarily use green, yellow, red, orange, purple, blue. I usually use a lot of complimentary colors in the same series. As long as the colors are bright and vibrant there is really no method to the madness to the way I choose colors.
What colors do you think we will see a lot of in 2012?
I started out using very traditional colors but I like more neon and vibrant colors. I did a series of video game box posters and the way those colors blended together are my favorite colors of any piece.
What is your general design process?
I stick to thumb-nailing and sketching. Then I take it into photoshop and I usually redraw the image because I don't use a wacom board the first time around. I like to get the feel of real pen and paper. I print out the wacom board drawing on water color paper and watercolor it, then rescan it then touch it up. Then the color palette comes to form and I start creating from there.
As an artist, what is the best advice you have ever received?
There is always going to be someone more talented than you but you can always work harder than them. I'm from the midwest, hard work ethic is what I grew up with. I was a part of a blue collar family and it is transformed to the digital sense.
Source: All Photos by Adam Sidwell
When you are feeling stumped, where do you turn for inspiration?
Tumblr, but it is sort of bad because I get stuck. I don't explore that much outside of that.
What's one thing you tell designers that are just starting out?
I feel like a lot of people take things too personally, whether it comes to critiquing or posting and not getting likes then giving up. I started out and my friends at work and my mom were basically the only one's following me. I kept at it and the blog gained footing and things took off. That never would have happened if I just gave up. It is kind of hard receiving negative criticism. I see artists start up and get discouraged and though they are creating awesome art work they give up. Basically, just keep going and going.
Easter Favorites for a Colorful and Festive Holiday
So many fun things can be done to make Easter a little more festive. From crafty decorations to different ways to dye eggs, these ideas will get you excited for the Easter festivities.
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Craft up this yarn garland using balloons, glue and yarn. Check out the DIY tutorial.
These bags and tags are perfect for finding and gathering Easter eggs.
Have you heard of cake pops? I'm sure by now the answer is yes. The fabulous Bakerella has thought of how to turn everything under the sun into a fabulous cake pop, and these easter eggs are no exception.
Looking for fun ways to spruce up those eggs? I guess traditional egg dye isin't the only way to make eggs look awesome. My personal favorite are the neon dipped eggs. Oh how I love neon at the moment.
Happy Easter from all of us here at COLOURlovers! We hope you enjoy your weekend!
Community Day: A Tribute Project for Sunmeadow & Latest Survey Report
A lot has happened this month already. This week I am going to keep it short and sweet as we have the holiday weekend ahead. This week I'll cover our last survey and a discussion about doing a tribute project for Sunmeadow's family. Thoughts and opinions needed on both subjects.
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Community Survey #3: Results Report
In looking at the last survey responses, it's fun to see how COLOURlovers use the site in different ways be that from your desktop or laptop or mobile device.
We had about a 107 entrants to the survey, double what we've had before - Thanks to everyone who got involved. I will be skipping a survey this week in leu of the Easter weekend and the Moo contest.
I will be accepting open suggestions for the next survey which will be based on Groups. Anything and everything Groups related. So suggest away!
The Sunmeadow Project: A Tribute & Family Gift
As a dark cloud shrouded the COLOURlovers community with the sad news that one of our dearest members had passed away, the mass of ways to show our love, life celebrations and tribute to dear Sunmeadow as a wonderful artist and person, have been happening all over the site. It's touching to see everyone surround her passing with such compassion and devotion.
Suggestions have been coming my way to put together a physical tribute for her family. The best suggestion came from, Penina of the COLOURlovers on Spoonflower Group - a book (possibly a Blurb-style book).
This book would include her works of art on COLOURlovers, but I also thought it might be nice to also include notes of tribute from her fellow community members and closest friends on COLOURlovers as her father had expressed an interest in being able to come back and read through all the wonderful things members had to say about her.
Tribute submitted by COLOURlover hana* located on page 2 in the APC Group Tribute to Sunmeadow
The COLOURlovers Team is in support of a project we could gift to her family as a colorful piece of Sunmeadows artistic expression on COLOURlovers.com.
Will any other members in addition to Penina, be willing to assist in organizing this project? With over 6,000 palettes, 10,000 colors and close to 800 templates it will be quite the undertaking to filter through what to include and in what order.
I am also up for alternate suggestions for a tribute piece. A quilt has crossed my mind, but I think a book would certainly be able to fully encompass all her beautiful works and messages of love and support by members. Thoughts?
Another wonderful tribute piece of Sun's palettes by COLOURlover, hana* in the APC group on page 3
Sunmeadow was such an intensely defined COLOURlover that the reality of her loss was so great to many who knew her well and even to those who did not. Let's give the gift that Sun gave us, to her family to cherish and treasure as well.
*Sunmeadows wonderful works of art and account will remain online.
Group Tributes List to Sunmeadow
Sunmeadow: Colors | Palettes | Patterns | Templates
A tribute in Artist Palette Challenge (APC) - One of Sun's groups, now administered by WordofMouse.
FFP - SUNMEADOW, a tribute in the Freeze Frame Project Group administered by Gasp365.
Sunmeadow was honored in the March 2012 Remembrances, in the Remembrance Group administered by ketisse.
Sunmeadow Memorial HPP in the Haiku Palettes & Poetic Patterns dedicated to the memory of Sunmeadow, also administered by ketisse.
Sunmeadow Fields, a tribute section in The Anythings Group administered by American Women.
And lastly, a look back at Sunmeadows moment as CLAD (COLOURlovers Artist of the Day Group), also administered by American Women.
*Please let me know if I missed any.
The Lost Colors of Crayola
Crayola has been the standard for crayons, and at least partially responsible for bringing color naming to the mainstream for 126 years now. The crayons and color names have come a long way from the standard 8 color crayon box of black, blue, red, green, brown, yellow, violet, and orange.
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Over the years they've added plenty of new colors to their line of wax crayons but not all of those can still be found today. Some of those colors have been discontinued or renamed, for various reasons, and since 1998 they've maintain a core collection of 120 colors, (check out our post 'All 120 Crayon Names and Color Codes' here in the COLOURlovers blog to see them all and grab their digital code equivalents).
The retired colors.
Retired colors are tucked away in the Crayola Hall of Fame but that's no place for color! So here we look back at those colors that are no longer at our finger tips but can live forever in our digital coloring books. Click on the colors to grab their digital equivalent from the COLOURlovers' library.
Graffiti Hotel Room
Hello everyone! Chloé from Plenty of Colour here and I'm thrilled to have this new opportunity to pop up on the fabulous COLOURlovers blog a couple of times a month. What an incredible community devoted to all things bright and colorful.
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This week, I wanted to share a rather unique hotel room in Au Vieux Panier hotel in Marseille, France that caught my eye. The 'Panic Room' was created by artist Tilt and features one half of pure white and one half soaked in layers of colourful graffiti.
I also love the round mirror with just a hint of colour.
Check out the bed fabric!
Source (photographs via my modern met)
It is quite a fascinating design that feels at once sterile and artfully chaotic (and perfect for a COLOURlover). Perhaps some might find it less than restful but I imagine it would feel like living in an art installation! The Au Vieux Panier has five rooms redone every year by different artists which is such an intriguing idea.
What do you think? Would you book the 'Panic Room' on your next vacation?
Community Day: CreateMixedMedia Contest & COLOURlovers Survey
Happy Friday COLOURlovers! Today we are going to do something a little different for Community Day. First up, we have an awesome template challenge we've organized with one of our wonderful craft authors, Tonia Davenport, who comes over from CreateMixedMedia.com.
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Secondly, each week I am going to feature the first of many community surveys. They are only going to be between 3-5 questions to help us understand what you lovers would like to see on the blog, on community posts, contests, you name it. Let's just call it a quick raise of hands on some topics. I'll promise to keep them short. In turn, we'll give one participant at random selection, a COLOURlovers T-Shirt each week.
This week's survey topic: What do you want Community Day to be about?
I can guess all day long what you guys would appreciate being featured on Community Day, but why not ask you? So let's show a raise of hands...and remember, one person will win a t-shirt!
CreateMixedMedia Template Contest
This is a template contest. That means you will need to use either Seamless Studio or Seamless Lite to make your initial submission.
The challenge is for you to design some numbered templates - a pattern design. These will be showcased for the first week of April, days 1 through 7.
- We will need a template for numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 - That's SEVEN WINNERS!
- You may include graphics within the template as long as the number you chose is legible (see how it will preview on createmixedmedia.com below).
- The theme to base your design on is "April Fools Day" and "April Showers" - combined or singly.
- Seven different winners will get a $25 gift code at the NorthLightShop (applied at checkout).
- Winners will be chosen by CreateMixedMedia.
CreateMixedMedia.com does an artistic feature on their homepage showcasing the days of the month, coordinated one week at a time - see below.
Days of the week shown on createmixedmedia.com
You will have from today (March 2nd) until Wednesday, March 21st to submit designs in the comments of this post.
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National Craft Month Kickoff: A Collection of Spring Must Makes
As crafters and sewers, we emerge from our cozy winter projects and start looking for fresh, colorful crafts that will get us ready for warm weather ahead. So we've put together a collection of spunky spring crafts to kick off National Craft Month.
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We bring you a the latest trends in DIY to brighten up your life be it you prefer to sew, work with fibers or even glue, it's all here in a bundle of color and style!
20-min Tote DIY | Repurposed Jeans Bag DIY | Boxed Pouch DIY | Diana Hobo free pattern | Kindle Slip-Case | Felt Checkbook Holder DIY | Easy Knit Produce Bag DIY
If you make anything this spring, it has got to be a new bag, clutch or tote of some sort. Changing up your carriers or adding new ones to your collection will add a little skip to your step for certain! The 20-min tote is an awesome way to utilize a great print you want to see hanging around and that denim bag is the trendiest done with repurposed jeans.
Those adorable boxed pouches can be used for organizing anything from makeup, hair irons, art supplies, accessories, you name it. At the end of the day, most of these are the quickest projects to start your spring crafting off right. In addition, a great book by Kay Whitt came out last fall called, Sew Serendipity Bags which would also be an excellent choice full of colorfully inspired patterns, as her style is unbeatable!
Blue Clover Pants modeled on author Sarai | Skirt & Dress
What better to go along with a new bag or tote accessory than a new outfit? The Colette Sewing Handbook, is chalk full of spring and summer fashion patterns perfect for any beginner to intermediate sewer. Sarai also continues to offer tips, tricks, more in-depth tutorials and alteration ideas (usually with tutorials) to the patterns in the book.
In addition to all this available support, she features real sewers from around the globe on the Coletterie blog, with photos of finished outfits from the book and a small interview. A great sense of community and an excellent purchase that keeps on giving.
Coffee Filter Flowers | Felt Hair Pins | Felt Dahlia | No-Sew Vase Flowers | Bottle Cap Button Flowers | Felt Hair Accessories
Heading away from sewing projects, here is a colorful collection of minimal to no-sew DIY flowers to get your floral fever on. Between crafty arrangements for your table or something to adorn and accessorize with, they're all full of texture and color!
patterns (scroll the page to find each): Green Grocer Tote | Daisy Motif | Loopy Roses | Irish Roses | Love You | Mabel Pillow | Granny Garland
Springtime brings flowers, farmers markets, celebrations and an itch for warm weather and sunshine. This is the time to start getting some summer-loving colors on and around you! A cheery market tote, a bright celebration banner or a few unique flower patterns to add to your lapel, hair, shoe clips, bag, you name it - bring some flowers out before they actually sprout!
Check out these wonderful techniques. The Larksfoot (shown above) works so well with an ombre palette, the Squiggly Squiggles is fun and funky and really pops with a large, loud palette and granny squares, well gee you can do so much with them!
Hawaiian Flowers FREE printable PDF crochet pattern
If you're looking for a great way to color block and add some palette-love to your body or abode this spring, get cracking on one of these fabulous projects from Sarah London, author of Granny Square Love.
LOVE pattern | Cartwheels pattern | Wind Swept pattern | Snow Globes pattern
If quilts were nothing special to you before, they will be after you take a second look at, Quilts from the House of Tula Pink. Tula is a total trend-setter for an entirely new kind of quilting. If anything, her projects will give you fantastic inspirational colors, textures, patterns and shapes.
So what are you working on right now? What medium is your favorite to work with and what colors are seeping in to all of your projects?
Spring Palettes:
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