More Colourlovers

Here are a few more of my newest color palettes paired with inspiration source images.

Colourlovers

Before I continue with my discussion of decoupage and papercrafts in general, i would like to talk about the amazing, inspiring fun that is colourlovers.com. This color community is a live index of color combinations created by members (almost 800,000 and counting). It is free to join and I would encourage any design enthusiast to do so. Not only are members challenged to come up with a dizzying array of palettes and patterns, we are also required to name all combos as well as any new colors created. The titles people come up with run from seriously descriptive to completely random. 5-color palettes can be created by simply using the color tool provided until you come up with a combination that suits your mood. Or lately I have been using images from my vast digital collections as inspiration: you can pixilate the image and pick out 5 tones for your palette. For instance, my "finlandic borealis" color combo came from a source photo in my extensive "atmospheric optics" folder (both pictured above)

My Romance with Decoupage

When I began this blog I somehow never got around to discussing my love of all things decoupage. It seems silly in hindsight since my etsy shop and most of my crafting is devoted to it. And by decoupage I mean cutting and pasting and lacquering images. In the sixties my mother created neat trompe l'oeil wooden panels where she decoupaged cut-out objects from magazines so I was acquainted with the process. Then I was lucky enough to read a book "The New Decoupage" by decoupage guru Durwin Rice. His website is a treasure trove of tutorials, including videos, and supplies for the descerning crafter.
His book is packed with great ideas, in his inimitable style, and his writing style is casual and encouraging.

Back from a long hiatus

It has been a while since I last posted. I had an intense 2008 which featured being laid-off and acquiring a severe double-fracture and dislocation of my left elbow.
Add to that political anxiety and you'll see a good recipe for writer's block.
So, now that the dust has settled I'm feeling pretty energized and am re-embarking via this blog. Throughout the year I kept up with my handmade work as best I could and am now back on track and will be sharing this with you readers.
It's nice to be back!