Color Your World

In the words of the well-known art critic, John Ruskin, “The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.” Color seems to stimulate the mind in an endless number of ways, conjuring up vivid images and inner feelings. Can color leap off the wheel and be a springboard for creating a unique scrapbooking page? Of course!

Chose a color, any color…now think about what it reminds you of. Let the ideas flow, finding one that speaks to you the loudest. Does the color turquoise bring up images of a favorite bedspread or a vintage bracelet? If the bracelet stands out, then think further. Do you remember how you acquired the bracelet? How about orange? Does it make you think of your son’s favorite t-shirt? Does your son make you think of hugs? You are engaging in a word association game, helpful for improving creative writing skills. By letting your thoughts run wild, you are thinking flexibly. Before you know it, a good story is on the way.

Check out what this approach yielded! Each lady below engaged in color association to create her page and to write the journaling. The results are beautiful works of art.

Bottle by Jennifer Larson

Supplies: Paper: Basic Grey, My Mind’s Eye, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, Stampin’ Up!, Alphabet: Heidi Swapp, Brads: American Crafts, Specialty Ink: Ranger Industries, Floss: DMC, Fonts: Times New Roman, Other: photo corner, adhesives, buttons. Tools: Punches: EK Success, Border Punches: EK Success, Templates: Bazzill Basics Paper.

Design Notes: The color “Bottle” popped into my head as soon as I saw the prompt! That color brought me back in time, and I enjoyed laughing about that color name. It made me think about how influential those early J Crew color names were. It also made me think about growing old. When was the last time you saw catalog colors like red, blue, green? It’s been a while. I also thought of my long-unused remaining acrylic letters. They reminded me of clear bottles, so I played around with alcohol inks to mix up every bottle color I could think of, plus a little red for fun. I inked both sides of the letters, and the spray adhesive I used made interesting beading in the colors—kind of like happens with glass sometimes!

Journaling: What kind of color is bottle? I thought this when in college I first saw the color “bottle” in a J Crew catalog. The catalog was marked by outlandish color names, but bottle stood out for me as being both creative and cryptic. What color of bottle…Green? Brown? Clear? What color is clear? I again thought of bottle as I stepped into a J Crew store recently, fifteen years out of college. Sadly, bottle-colored clothes were nowhere to be found, and the color names themselves, though still artistic, lacked the delightful ambiguity of bottle. Colors like flamingo, mushroom, coral, and petunia are pretty but straightforward; some hues even had a color added to make their shade clear (stable brown, lagoon green, and red clay come to mind). Seeing these color changes made me a little sad, and made me feel more than a little Old. Is the change in color names good or bad? Is it even relevant? I’m not sure, but I miss the delicious mystery of wondering the color of bottle. July 2010

Made With Love by Diane Payne

Supplies: Paper: American Crafts, Girl's Paperie, Chipboard: Melissa Frances, Alphabet Stickers: October Afternoon, BasicGrey, Flowers: Bella Blvd, American Crafts, Buttons: Making Memories, GCD, Ink: Tim Holtz (Ranger Industries), Other: gold Japanese tape. Tools: Punches: Martha Stewart, Border Punches: EK Success, Other: sewing machine.

Design Notes: I love the softness of this page as well as the story it tells. Because it is documented, every family member through the generations will know the story behind this dress.

Journaling: When I was a baby Mom knit this yellow dress for me. She sold it at a garage sale to Aunt Doris when I out grew it. 30 years later Aunt Doris gave me the rescued dress. I love having this piece of my past - hand crafted by Mom, just for me.

Blue is the Color of Summer by Alby Laran

Supplies: Paper: American Crafts, Pink Paislee, Scenic Route Paper, Making Memories, We R Memory Keepers, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper, Alphabet: American Crafts, Die Cuts: Creative Imagination, Tags: Tim Holtz (Ranger Industries), Journaling Spots: Tim Holtz (Ranger Industries), Acrylic Paint: Kaiser Crafts, Gesso: LeFranc & Burgeois. Tools: Border Punches: EK Success.

Design Notes: When I found out what the prompt is, I knew right away what color I would pick and why. It just so happens that summer is my favorite season of the year, and for me, blue captures the season perfectly. So I just searched my stash of recent summer photos and found the “right” one. The colors of the photo dictated the look and feel of this page. For this layout, I used a lot of old papers and mixed it with a few elements from a new one – great way to use up my old stash while keeping the layout fresh. A dab of turquoise paint makes the layered elements more cohesive while foam adhesive instantly adds dimension to the page.

Journaling: Waking up to clear blue skies and hearing the sound of the deep blue ocean kissing the shores of an exotic island is my idea of a perfect summer getaway. That’s exactly what we got when we spent a week or so in Palawan. Pure Bliss! (Majika Resort, Coron, Palawan – Summer 2010)