Hello again! Today is the exciting day that we get to announce the winners of the Betabrand Argyle Sock Design Contest!

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First of all, we want to thank Betabrand for allowing COLOURlovers to design the next product on their website. As I am sure you know by now, Betabrand has some pretty awesome clothes to choose from. The question to yourself won't be whether to buy, but instead, which color or pattern should you pick.

As you know, Betabrand chose 9 finalists and for the past week we have left it up to you guys to vote for your favorite design. Now comes the time when we announce  which designs had the most votes. First, let's refresh you all on the prizes for the winners:

The Prizes:

The Betabrand design team will select three winners, who'll receive the following:

• $100 Gift Card to Betabrand
• Recognition on the Betabrand website (photos/video/optional) & COLOURlover username printed on the sock packaging
• Five Three Packs of the COLOURlover socks bundles for free

So now, let's get down to business and announce the brand new COLOURlovers sock collection!

Congrats to Magg, Michaelann3, Faith4faith! Thanks to everyone who entered and voted in this contest. We hope to have Betabrand here again soon as you COLOURlovers can help them create something else just as awesome!

We are back with an update on the Betabrand Sock Design contest we have been running on our blog for the past week. Submissions are officially closed for the contest, and it is time to get your vote on and help us pick the winning designs.

 

Betabrand is one of those really cool clothing companies that is sure to keep the men dapper and the women trendy at all times. Their latest release is a cool pair of shorts with a black & white design (with a hint of turquoise) that I think is pretty awesome. And in case you haven't heard this enough, COLOURlovers even has a collection of our own on the Betabrand website.

So let's get down to business. Submissions are now closed for the Betabrand contest. Thank you to everyone who has entered and voted!

Out the top 30 most-loved palettes Betabrand chose 9 design finalists and from there 3 will triumph as winners. The three winners will be bundled into a 3-pack and sold on the Betabrand website.

 

Voting is incredibly easy. All you have to do is head over to the Betabrand Contest Page and click to vote. You can only choose 1 to vote for, so make sure your choose your favorite. And to make things even more fun, 5 lucky voters will be randomly selected to win a free 3-pack of socks as well!

Good luck to all and happy voting! We will be back on Monday to announce the winners!

 

Ready to put your color-matching talents to good use? Betabrand is offering you a chance to design their next set of socks. They have created the argyle design, and you get the chance to color the coolest sock you can and possibly have YOUR creation sold by Betabrand. How cool is that?

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Betabrand is an online-only clothing company based in San Francisco that produces unique designs in limited-edition batches every week. They make tons of hip clothes for both men and women. And look, there is even a batch of COLOURlovers pieces including 2 flannel shirts (here and here) and some cool sock designs created by COLOURlovers.

The Prizes:

The Betabrand design team will select three winners, who'll receive the following:

• $100 Gift Card to Betabrand
• Recognition on the Betabrand website (photos/video/optional) & COLOURlover username printed on the sock packaging
• Five Three Packs of the COLOURlover socks bundles for free

How It Works:

Create an entry: Get creative and make a palette to design this argyle sock however you choose. You may create up to 3 submissions.

Once you have created the coolest palette, time to get votes. Share your entry with your friends and try your best to get lots of love on your sock. The 30 most-loved submissions with be considered for the top 9 finalist spots. Check back on Tuesday April 24, to see the top 9 finalists and to vote for you the one you want to win.

Once you have created your entry, check out the designs other people are creating and vote for your favorite. Good luck and happy coloring!

Color-blocking has become all the rage in fashion these days. As far as handbags go, designers are following suit by offering their most popular designs in a variety of hit colors of the season. These choices allow you to spruce up any look, and add that pop of color in any of your favorite outfits.

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These bags are not the only ones to fall in line with this new trend, no matter the price point, the designer or the look you want, you will find a variety of colors popping up in your favorite bag. With spring just around the corner, this is a great piece to lighten up your winter wardrobe.

Source: Balenciaga

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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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!

Techniques (also need to scroll to find each): Larksfoot (technique) | Squiggly Wiggles (technique) | Granny Squares

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?

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Spring Palettes:

 More COLOURlovers spring palettes...

Erin Loechner is a writer, stylist and designer. She is a quirky girl with lots of style and a great swagger about her. Everything she publishes on her site, Design For Mankind, pushes the envelope just enough to keep you interested and excited about trends and styles. She has graced the pages of many magazines all the while keeping up with trends and colors on her HGTV.com segment.

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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, and your background. 

I'm Erin Loechner, a 28-year-old freelance design writer and blogger (DesignForMankind.com). I dabble into styling, consulting and rearranging the furniture of any willing party! I'm also an online personality for HGTV.com.

Fashion trends generally change by the season as opposed to by the year, but here we will highlight some of the top trends of this past year along with what we can expect to see this coming year. And we have some good news on the color front.

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Things are brightening up in the fashion world this year! For the past few years we have seen a growing trend in brighter colors hitting the market and becoming fast trends. Spring 2011 we saw lots of orange hitting the runways, such as these orange pieces below.

Source: Refinery 29, 

2011 was also a great year for the bowtie. This trend hit fast and heavy in 2011, and we can definitely expect to see a lot more of this trend in 2012. And as far as colors? No color or bright pattern is too awesome to match with your outfit.

Source

So many great things have happened on COLOURlovers in 2011, but one major, behind the scenes project that only a very small portion of members have been aware of was a quilt project straight from the heart of the Group: COLOURlovers on Spoonflower.

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Group administrator, leader and very involved COLOURlover, Penina, wanted her group to be something more than just a group of people who loved the idea of fabric. So one fine day back in July 2011, after coordinating ideas to make a digital quilt from the group member creations, she had the thought, “What’s stopping us from making a real quilt?!”

Penina wanted this quilt project to have purpose and to involve as many group members as possible. This also meant that the final piece would need to have a good home at a single location; so who would get the quilt?

The time has come to ring in the new year, so why not do it in style. This occasion definitely calls for some fancy, yet stylish outfits with which to celebrate the night in.

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Holiday parties with the boss are over and done with, so pull out some of your favorite accessories of the season and go big this year.

Source: Dress, Clutch, Bracelet, Shoes

For the men, getting fancy means putting on that favorite suit you own and adding some pieces to spruce up the look. A watch is sure to make a statement no matter which style you choose. Adding a vest to your suit livens up the look a little bit more and is worthy of any sort of plans you have to ring in the new year.

Source: Watch, Shoes, Suit