Tracey Melton's Tree Ring Paintings are made from dead red and white Elm trees and acrylic paint, adding a colorful twist to the natural beauty of the wood.

"My work is a expression of what I sees while hiking and camping in the Appalachian Mountains. It is based on how nature develops, grows, dies, then starts again."

Whether you think of Easter as a time to dye eggs, bust out your pastel dresses or go hunting for candy, it can prove to be a really creative holiday. If all those lovely colors get you in a crafty mood, you can certainly find many ideas to create your own Easter project, or ask friends and family to help you and make something in the spirit of the the season together.

Serious Eats

Naturally we all think of dying eggs at Easter, but you don't have to be stuck using the same old Paas kit that your mom brought home every year. Why not try handpainting your eggs, or even better, dying them naturally? This handy guide will actually take you through the process of making your own dyes using beets, tumeric, cabbage and more. Also, don't miss the method of dying with onion skins -- it yields a truly beautiful result!

The black circular world of vinyl records took on a new spin with the introduction of the first picture discs in the 1940's and the widespread use of colored vinyl in the 1970's, setting off a trend of crafted vinyl; a trend that has reemerged in today's small batch record releases popular with DJs and collectors.

While focus is usually on album cover art, working color & design into the actual record itself adds another layer of craftsmanship, and creates another outlet for special/limited edition records to catch the eye of collectors & enthusiasts.

Here is a selection of some of the colorful endeavors in crafted vinyl records.

Derek Higgins

Vogue Picture Records: approximately seventy-four titles were produced by Sav-Way Industries of Detroit, Michigan from May 1946 through August 1947. They are highly prized by collectors for their colorful designs.

Whether you like to embroider, knit or even sew by hand, there's always tons of projects waiting for you just around the corner. Or, if you're anything like me, you may find that you go browsing around Etsy for inspiration on what to make next. Some colorful solutions to stimulate the creative senses are always a good idea!

We loved this unusually shaped clutch from makemeadress, which features prominent white stitching and buttons of a beautiful pink for contrast. Loving that organic shape too! There's also more where there that came from, such as ruffly party dresses and delicate feathered tiaras.

Perhaps you're not so into the whole going out on the town thing, but you'd rather make something for your little girl to wear and earn admiring stares. I'll bet a crocheted burst of color could be just the thing!

We've already brought you a primer on the simplistic, brightly colored vinyl toys known as 'Designer Vinyl' in the collectible toy world, and if you aren't much of the make-it-yourself type, you can easily sate your hunger for bursts of color by placing these bits of toy art around your home. However, if you are the crafty type (and if you're hanging around in our craft channel, I suspect that you just might be), you may find it inspiring that these toys also come in fully customizable (or DIY -- do it yourself) forms.

[Via Ian Murchinson]

The basic white Munny form can be purchased from Kidrobot.com for as little as $4.95 for smaller sizes. However, a larger size is available (you can get these guys up to 18"!). Once you get your hands on that simple little form, the only thing holding you back is the limits of your imagination.

The emergence of these DIY toys has basically fired up an entire subculture of artists who have gotten their creative groove on by painting and modifying them into something altogether different, and often incredible.

[Via Bobby Chromik ~ Lawcrow]

You can easily search the web and find all kinds of tutorials on how to make your own Designer Vinyl customs. Toy artists will also often show the creation process on their blogs. Even celeb Rosie O' Donnell has gotten into the custom world. You can start simply with something like markers or use products such as Sculpey to completely alter the shape of the figure itself.

We've visited the world of colorful paper sculpture before, but previously we focused on larger scale projects meant to widen the eye and drop the jaw. We'd all like to be able to produce such stunning work, but let's face it -- not everyone has the time to pop out such paper miracles, especially when it comes to scope and grandeur. What if you'd like to enjoy some folding therapy on a simpler scale? Perhaps, projects that take less than ten minutes?

Well, we can share some of those with you, but first, let's look back at the history of papercraft for a moment. As you may already know, paper folding traces as far back as Europe  from the year 1440. Origami is a traditional folding art which focuses on the use of colorful paper, and while many people associate it with Japan, there is evidence that the art form popped up in China, Germany and Spain as well.

[lifestorm]

Modern papercraft can range from simple three minutes projects to incredibly complex ones (Japanese fans in particular take the art form to crazy levels) , but if you prefer to keep your folding to small doses, we have quite a few solutions for you. Paperkraft is updated regularly and offers lots of simple projects that you can print out to decorate your desk with. Papercraft World also has a lot of options, ranging from simple to challenging. Another major favorite is Cubeecraft, which boasts over two hundred simple projects based on pop culture icons and more. Scroll down to enjoy even more links to great papercraft sites!

Paper Foldables | 3eyedbear | Shin Tanaka | Nintendo Papercraft | Papercraft Paradise | Paper Museum

[Header photo via Warm n' Fuzzy]

On my own blog I've kept a regular Friday Favorites post going, in which I pick a handful of products from around the internet that have caught my attention that week. I'd like to do this here, but with a specific color in mind .

This week, since most everything I found is from Etsy, I thought I'd start with ORANGE!

Pole Orange by labokoff

2. Orange Rosette Brooch Pin
3. Orange Ride
4. retro vintage fabric Pillow Case
5. Monkey See Monkey Say I Do Print

A customer of mine recently suggested a new color scheme for my products, which happens now and then, but this time caught my attention. She said she would like to see something in purple, orange, and green--because those are the colors she is using in her wedding.

I have never had great success with purple. Paired with a neutrals like tan, gray and white, it's not bad. But with orange and green? That's a lot of color.

So I thought it would be a nice challenge to come up with a color scheme based on those colors and here's what I've got.

Orange and Green can work well together, opposing cool and warm colors, so long as there's enough yellow in them to coordinate with each other. Too much red in the orange or too much blue in the green and they don't work as well.

I based this scheme largely on this photograph I found on Flickr by John Dalkin.

credit: John Dalkin

This blend of purple is beautiful. I pulled three shades of each color in the leaves and flowers + some of the dark pink shade at the tips for an accent.

I bought a few little vintage things from FritziMarie last week, and what a lovely package! She tied everything up with tissue paper and beautiful blue ribbons. That's a photo of her package lower right.

I bought some mary janes (pictured on my feet top left) and she threw in the neat post card from her hometown (Seattle). She used vintage buttons in the wrapping too, so sweet. It just happened that all this stuff is in the same color scheme. I was instantly inspired, so I took some photos.

Color is everywhere. Look for colors that appear near each other and find ways to make them connect. It just so happened the placemat sitting on my dining room table where I set these items was the same dark brown/gray found in the items from the package. Though I didn't plan it, the placemat ended up a perfect backdrop.

Hornsea Pottery was founded in 1949. Located in the seaside town of Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the first factory housed founders and brothers Colin and Desmond Rawson. The factory's earliest pieces included Character Jugs and posy vases with attached animal figures. The business continued to grow over the years, moving into larger and larger buildings. At its largest, Hornsea employed  700 people. The business closed in 2000. Today, over 2,000 pieces from the pottery's beginnings in 1949 to 2000 are on display insides two converted 18th century cottages is theHornsea Museumin Newbegin, the main street of Hornsea. Inspiration: Hornsea Pottery

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