Design Medley: Retro Teal & Olive

Nothing shouts retro 70's mod design louder than the color scheme of teal blue and olive green. (Well, maybe vivid orange and bold brown do, but we'll save that for another design medley post!) Just picture the 1970's wallpaper in your parents' kitchen, or the old avocado green Frigidaire rattling along in your basement. Now anchored by a supporting cast of creamy white and recycled brown, these vintage colors take on a bold new meaning. Check out some of the whimsical cards inspired by this design medley!

Up top, an edgy yet simple thank-you card uses mixed textures to showcase the versatility of these colors. The raggedness of the distressed olive background is balanced by the delicate smoothness of the woven teal ribbon on the left. Yet the raggedness and distressed-look of this card is reestablished by the unraveling fringed fabric of the center teal blue "thank you" motif. A satin ribbon flower continues the unconventionality of this card in an unexpected color.

The card at the right uses an awkward pre-fab card as it's base. Blue argyle paper and unique green ribbon architecturally divide the bubbly space of this card. A floral medallion of paper, felt, and mesh in browns, golds, and greens is fused together with a retro, square blue brad. Separate, these design elements would strain the eye and be considered unattractive. But together they form an alluring montage that draws the eye in and encourages the eye to explore and appreciate the colors, shapes, and textures as a whole. (Am I starting to sound like a freakin' art critic or what?!?!) Bottom line: DON'T be scared of making something ugly. The results just might surprise you!

This final card is my favorite from the group. It is pure whimsy. Designed to celebrate an engagement, a wedding, or an anniversary, this card ignores conventional elegance and drastically re-writes the rules on "pretty". Teal blue and olive green elements explode all over this card. Buttons, embroidery floss, fabric, ink, ribbon, and bejeweled charms scatter across the page in a billowing display of retro opulence and distressed home-made enchantment. Delightful!

P.S. I practiced some of my photo editing and image design on GIMP for this post. That's where all the overlaid flourishes and graphic embellishments came from. Hope you like it!

Design Medley: Black, White, & Red All Over

An embarassed skunk.
A sunburned Penguin.
A Zebra with diaper rash.
A Nun rolling downhill.
A Newspaper.

Remember those silly jokes when we were kids? The ones we loved to tell but never got the punchline and delivery quite right? The ones grown-ups cringed during but laughed at anyway, causing us to aspire to be the next Bob Hope or Eddie Izzard?

Well, this Blog may not be about one of those jokes but it sure resembles them in a chromatic sense.

I've recently fallen in love with the color combination of red, white, and black. Its simplicity yet stark contrast lends itself well to a variety of mediums - home decor, scrapbooking, quilting, fashion, product packaging, etc. Here I've chosen to highlight some of the cards I've designed following this color palette.

My first two examples are made from embellished pre-fab cards. The same silver-striped notecard was used as the foundation for both. The first thank you card uses my ever favorite ribbon in red and a black & white printed paper in a large diamond motif. The fine lines of the striped card and diamond motif contrast well with the bold wideness of the red ribbon. The second thank you card was inspired by the card's sentiment "Thanks a Bunch" from a rub-on transfer I had. The large black & white floral print is positioned at an aschewed angle to make the striped card more pronounced. A red bejeweled floral charm was added to the flower bunch provided in the rub-on transfer. It adds a touch of elegance, inspires a three dimensional element, and ties in the large floral print a bit better.

Undertaking a mixed media approach, the third example I'm calling "Baroque Greeting" also takes advantage of the black, white, & red color combination. Although its difficult to distinguish in the image, the black and white background is actually achieved by weaving strips of paper together. I then layered on red accents made from paper, red jewel charms, and bead-strung wire. I used black ink to distress parts of the card. This was also my first attempt at hand-lettering on a card. I prefer stamps, rub-on tranfers, or computer generated text, but overall I am quite pleased with this card.

The final card in today's post is my favorite in this black, white, & red design medley series.

Look for future posts about my Design Medleys! Like Inspiration, I anticipate posting occasional montages that adhere to a design theme: color, pattern, shape, theme, etc. Sometimes I love a pattern or a fabric or a design element so much, I can't stop using it. It would be unprofessional to post the same thing over and over again... That's where Design Medley comes in!