12/6/18

Pantone's Color(s) of the Year, 2000-2019

I wanted to do a quick follow-up to the announcement of Living Coral as the Pantone Color of the Year for 2019. First, check out this video that Pantone released to showcase Living Coral.


Stunning, right? Like I said yesterday, there is nothing inherently wrong with Living Coral, but I still think it's a hard color to wear and difficult to incorporate in both crafting and home decor. I am very interested to see how it shows up in fashion, crafting, etc. I have to say, I love how it pairs with the ocean water and the fish's eye.

Here's a look back at the Color(s) of the Year from 2000-2018. You can click on the colors from 2007 on to read more about each one. It's fascinating.

2006

Sand Dollar
13-1106
2005

Blue Turquoise
15-5217
2004

Tigerlily
17-1456
2003

Aqua Sky
14-4811
2002

True Red
19-1664
2001

Fuchsia Rose
17-2031
2000

Cerulean Blue
15-4020

12/5/18

2019 Pantone Color of the Year

I've been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the Pantone 2019 Color of the Year, and it's finally here! Rather than wait to post this in the morning, I wanted to jump in and publish this as soon as possible, which is why you're seeing this early.

Pantone selects the Color of the Year from among their Spring/Summer color palette, which is announced in the fall. According to Pantone,

"Spring/Summer 2019 reflects our desire to embolden ourselves as we face the future; turning to colours and colour stories that provide confidence and lift our spirits; embracing a colour and design direction filled with creative and unexpected combinations.... This new mindset underscores a desire for a joyful juxtaposition of colour that transcends seasonality..."


Overall, I like the palette. My favorites are Princess Blue, Pink Peacock, Pepper Stern, and Turmeric, though I like many of the others. My least favorites are Jester Red and Living Coral. 

So which color came out on top for 2019? 


I'm not pleased. While there's nothing inherently wrong with it, Living Coral is not a universally flattering shade for clothing and not a popular color for crafting. I don't think it plays all that well with others, unlike some of the Spring/Summer colors. I'll be very interested to see if it shows up at the Creativation Show in January, or if manufacturers will steer clear of this year's Color, as they largely did last year with Ultra-Violet. 

What are your thoughts on Living Coral? I'd love to hear whether or not you'll incorporate it into your wardrobe, home decor, and/or crafting in 2019!

Family Name Snowman

This is my latest piece of holiday art. It combines three of my favorites: snowmen, name art, and my family!


Our family of three fits nicely in a traditional snowman. If there were just two of us, I'd have put our names in the bottom two parts and drawn a face in the top one. If you have more family members, add an extra ball of snow, put a name in the hat, or if your family is large, make two snowman!

This is the sketch I doodled when I first came up with the idea. I stayed very true to my original plan, which does not always happen.


To make your own, use a pencil to draw a snowman on a piece of white paper. Write the names inside, curving the letters to match the curves of the snowman. (I found it easiest to draw the circles first, then put the names inside them. When I tried writing the names and drawing the circles around them, the spacing was weird.) 

When you are happy with the lettering, trace over it with a Sharpie, then erase the pencil marks. (Alternately, use a window or a light box to trace your design on a separate sheet of paper so that you don't have to do any erasing.) Cut out the completed snowman. 

Use black construction paper to piece together a top hat, then accent it with a little piece of holly cut from construction paper. Cut a scarf from red construction paper. Cut a strip of white construction paper to make the snowy base the snowman is sitting on. 

Now it is time to assemble everything onto the blue background paper. Glue the snow down. Glue the scarf to the back of the snowman, then glue the snowman to the background paper. Add the hat and your art is ready to display!


12/4/18

The Hay Wheel

The hay wheel sat untouched in Trouble's cage for the first year or two after we adopted him. Then one day I heard an unfamiliar squeak and noticed him spinning the wheel to find just the right piece of hay. Now he checks it regularly and gives it a spin just to play fairly often. It's adorable, like everything he does.

Need a hay wheel? This is the one Trouble loves. That's an affiliate link. Your Amazon purchase earns me a commission that helps keep the hay wheel full. Trouble and I thank you.

I Love My Hay Wheel (affiliate link)


I have mixed feelings about this layout. The pictures are cute, but too dark and really busy. I don't love the font of the green letter stickers (I'm trying to use them up), and the purple and green color combination (with red in the title and orange in the photos) is not my exactly my favorite. But I'm still glad to have these pictures scrapped and in the album. Not every layout has to be my favorite, particularly when they're from ordinary moments like this that don't really matter but that make me smile. 

12/3/18

Santa in the Chimney Craft

Steve and Trevor are well-trained to check with me before throwing anything out that might possibly be reused or turned into a craft. This chimney used to be a plain red gift bag that Steve received. Now it's filled with tasty truffles and ready to give to someone special!


I do most of my crafting at home, but occasionally I load up all the supplies I think I'll need for a project and complete it while I'm waiting after driving Trevor somewhere. Such was the case with this. I found a quiet corner to work during Trevor's Scout meeting. I was very pleased that I did indeed manage to bring everything I needed. That doesn't always happen, as my crafts often evolve as I make them!

The materials list below contains affiliate links. I receive a small commission on any purchases at no extra cost to you.

---------


Santa in the Chimney Craft


Materials: 





This is what the gift bag looked like when I started.


I used the ruler and the white pencil to mark every centimeter to a height of 13 cm. on both sides of the bag.  


Connect the marks to make horizontal lines, then trim off the top half of the bag. But don't throw it out!


Add staggered vertical lines to mimic the look of brick.


Remove the extra red paper from the trimmed-off handle section. Glue it to the inside of the bag to hide the kraft interior. If you want, you can draw bricks on it before gluing it in place. I didn't. There won't be quite enough red paper to fully line the inside, but you really only need to line the top inch or so. 


Now, tackle the boots. I folded a scrap of black construction paper in half and cut out a boot shape, giving me two matching boots. I originally thought I would cut a teeny square out of the center of a small square of gold paper in order to make the buckle, but I came to my senses and realized you can get the same look by layering a small black square on top of a slightly-larger gold square with no need to snip out any interiors. MUCH easier. Glue the squares in place to make the buckles.


Glue the boots to the inside top of the bag, leaving most of the boots sticking out. Add a bit of cotton (I used 1/4 of a cotton ball for each boot) where the boots touch the chimney. 


Fill the bag with truffles or other holiday treats and you have a gift that anyone would love!