Rainbow Inspiration

Friday, September 28, 2012

Hello everyone, happy FRIDAY!  It’s Beckie here today with a little color to brighten your day :)

Today, in fact, is my daughter’s 8th birthday party.  I can’t BELIEVE she’s 8 already!  She decided on a sleepover party with 8 other friends and a rainbow theme.  We’ve had so much fun making her invitations (she insisted on paper invitations – I had to get out my paper cutter and my glue – gasp!) and planning out activities.  We have painting, kraft bag decorating, and polymer clay bead making all lined up as activities!  Oh – and a new movie, of course!

So – where does a mom on a mission for a rainbow themed party turn?  why Pinterest, of course! :)  Want to see a few of favorite rainbow finds from Pinterest?

Rainbow Potion – a fun kids drink with sprite and Kool-Aid that looks so cool and colorful!

Rainbow Fruit Skewers – beautiful, delicious, and healthy!  And you could always just arrange the fruit on a tray in rainbow fashion and leave out the skewers :)

…and check out THIS CAKE.  Truly, it’s the mother of all rainbow cakes!

And there’s rainbow paint chip garland, rainbow woven gift wrapping, and even a rainbow wooden mat!

Seriously, every time I searched i ended up meandering…from food to decorations to completely random things.  But they were all COLORFUL!  So, I got to thinking…why not spice up my scrapbooking a bit with a few rainbow inspired pages?  And I asked our very own Kylie to play along with me!  I hope these cool colorful layouts inspire you to add a little rainbow color to your pages!

First up is Kylie…and all I can say is WOW!

I could look at this page all day.  SO much detail and attention into the background papers!  …the stitching, the random width of the stripes (using a Rise & Shine easy-as-pie template), the little bits of elements scattered about.  And I love how big and bold she went with the use of the rainbow in her design.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Next is one of my creations.  ‘Round these parts (Texas) it’s SO hot and dry all summer.  So when we get a little rain, the kids all go crazy.  They play in it, lay in it, run in it, basically just BASK in the rain!  I’ve had these pics for a few weeks, wondering what to do with them.  I love the way the rainbow papers in the background brighten up the overall design (especially the gray, overcast pics!).  I also like the little sentiment…because these kids really do make each other happy.  ( I love our neighbors so much I made a page about our little cul-de-sac :) )

And finally – one more rainbow inspired creation by me.  I’ve mentioned in the past how much I loved using ink/paint/pens in my paper scrapping days, and I thought a rainbow was a perfect chance to bust out the virtual paintbrush yet again :)  Oh, and yes, that photo of my daughter is totally blurry.  But I still love it.  She’s laughing, she’s being real, and i just love the moment!

Want to get the look of those brush strokes?  I started with a basic brush and made a few adjustments.  Then I saved it as a new brush pre-set, so I can use it any time!  Here are the settings:

I started with a basic “flat curve” brush in Photoshop, then adjusted some of the bristle qualities.  And most importantly – check “wet edges”.  This gives realistic color variations throughout the stroke :)

That’s it for today!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend…wish me luck with our first big sleepover party tonight! :)

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