Pantone's 2020 Color of the Year - Just Announced!

Pantone just announced the 2020 Color of the Year, Classic Blue!

According to Pantone, Classic Blue is...

"a timeless and enduring blue hue elegant in its simplicity. Suggestive of the sky at dusk, the reassuring qualities of Classic Blue offer the promise of protection; highlighting our desire for a dependable and stable foundation from which to build."

But even more interesting...

"As we cross the threshold into a new era, Pantone has translated the hue into a multi-sensory experience to reach a greater diversity of people and provide an opportunity for everyone to engage with the color. We will be tapping into sight, sound, smell, taste, and texture to make the Pantone Color of the Year for 2020 a truly immersive color experience for all."

I love the color and can't wait to see where it appears in 2020! 

Diamond Art Gingerbread Family

Remember the snowman family portrait on a pillow I shared recently? Similar concept, different holiday icon. Affiliate links below. 

Diamond Art Gingerbread Family

Materials:

• wood gingerbread men
• 1.5" wood hearts
• Fiskars craft drill
• Plaid Teddy Bear Brown acrylic paint
• leftover gems from diamond art
• tacky craft glue
• white twisteezwire
• Supertite glue

Steps:

Drill holes in each gingerbread man's hands. Paint the gingerbread men and hearts Teddy Bear Brown.

Add white gems to the gingerbread people's face, arms, and legs using tacky glue. I used our family colors for the buttons.

Add white gems around the edge of the hearts. Thread the wire through the holes. I curled the ends of the wires around a toothpick.

Glue the hearts to the wire using Supertite. Alternately, you can drill holes through the hearts so that you can string them as well.

I thought about adding dates to the hearts: 5/30/04 for the heart connecting Gingerbread Steve and Gingerbread Cindy, then 6/07/06 for the heart connecting Gingerbread Cindy with Gingerbread Trevor. I love the idea, but at this scale it's not possible to do in a way that realistically mimics royal icing. I might go back and add it anyway. What do you think?

Pantone 2020 Color of the Year

As usual, I've been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the Pantone Color of the Year. They were teasing it all day yesterday, so I expect the news any time. Traditionally, Pantone selects the Color of the Year from its Spring/Summer palette, which is announced in the fall. According to Pantone,

"Combining our desire for stability, creativity, and more spontaneous design approaches, the color palette for Spring/Summer 2020 infuses heritage and tradition with a colorful youthful update that creates strong multi-colored combinations as well as energizing and optimistic pairings..."

Here is the Spring/Summer 2020 palette:

I really love the palette and would happy with most of these as Color of the Year. I particularly love Saffron, Orange Peel, and Mosaic Blue. My least favorites are Biscay Green, Coral Pink, and Cinnamon Stick. I'm not feeling super confident about COTY, but if forced to guess I'll go with Flame Scarlet. Or Classic Blue. 

What are you liking? Any predictions?

Washi Tape Christmas Gift Tags

I recently added to my washi tape storage, as my collection of this handy little tape has grown to a ridiculous size. I now have three full dowels of regular washi, plus a fourth for holiday washi. While I was organizing it, I whipped up a few gift tags using 8 different Christmas washi tapes. Affiliate links below. 

Washi Tape Christmas Gift Tags

Materials:

• holiday washi tape (I've linked the one I used, but oooh, I like this one too!)
• cardstock
• scissors
• tape runner
• Cropadile
• yarn
• pen

Steps:

Cut white cardstock into 4" x 2" rectangles. Cut off two corners to make the tag shape. Tear lengths of washi tape to decorate the front of the tag. Wrap the excess washi around to the back.

Cut a piece of complementary cardstock slightly bigger than the white tag, then glue the two pieces together. (This isn't necessary, but it hides the back where you've wrapped the extra washi.) Punch a hole at the top of the tag.

Cut two 6" lengths of yarn. Fold them in half and add them to the tag using a lark's head knot. Trim the ends so they are even.

Write TO and FROM on the tag and it's ready to go!

Gift Guides

I don't enjoy shopping, unless it's for food or craft supplies. Anything else is a chore rather than a pleasure. On top of that, I hate crowds. Needless to say, Black Friday is not my thing. Thank goodness for online shopping! If you're like me and are shopping from home this season, you might enjoy the gift guides I've put together.

With only a few exceptions, the items in my gift guides are things that I own, use, love, and/or paid for. I am recommending them to you because I love sharing neat stuff, I want to support the manufacturers of awesome things, I want to provide my readers with a useful service, and I regularly buy things I've learned about from other bloggers' gift guides. I hope you'll find mine useful.

Most of the links in my gift guide are affiliate links. This means that I receive a small commission based on any purchases you make after clicking my link, at no extra cost to you.

From my Gift Guides tab, you will find gift ideas for kids, teens, families, travelers, bakers, scrapbookers, crafters, and rabbit lovers.

   

   

   

   

If you can't find quite what you need in my gift guides, I am always happy to give individual recommendations. I'll gladly point you toward something I think your recipient will love. Happy shopping and thanks for your support!