A See of Color...

I recently started Micki Wilde's online class Paint Happy  and was inspired to create swatches of every single acrylic paint that I owned! In her first lesson she has an assignment where we create color palettes we like in our journals. Being the recovering perfectionist that I am, I really wanted to "see the colors all together" before committing them to paper.

I have.... umm... well... a LOT of paints! I even have them categorized by color. But still, when I'm painting, the ones in the drawers are out-of-sight-out-of-mind and the ones on my work table are... over crowded! So my idea solved two problems... Yay! I'll be able to see them all at-a-glance.

With my new swatches, I can create the perfect color combinations and play with subtle differences in certain colors until I get them just right! The top swatch is my favorite 70's junk jewelry combo... and right beneath it is the ultimate Sweet Tart palette!

Oh, and never fear, dear readers... I put the paint color and brand name on the back of every single swatch. Woot!

Heck, even the remnants from my project are juicy fodder for some other project... or they'd even make a great stencil!

I started a list in my journal of all the different places I can look for color palette ideas. The only problem is... that the possibilities are endless. Now where are my paint brushes? Wheeeeee!

A Real Treat...

Playing in my journal has become quite a habit lately... as have my visits to Dunkin Donuts. My favorite? One chocolate frosted donut and one chocolate glazed donut and if I'm in the mood, a coffee coolatta to top it all off. Mmmmmm. So when I decided on the color palette for this page, I wanted to pay homage to my favorite place to treat myself.

After laying down the pinks, oranges, browns and throwing in a little green for good measure, I added this cute little bear I quickly painted on an old dictionary page. Only problem was, no matter how I painted him into the page... I didn't like how it looked. I changed colors and highlighted various areas but I never got to liking him at all. I told myself I needed to sleep on it and just left it alone for the night.

And while laying in bed that night, I had an idea.... I'd turn him into a balloon! Yes, that was it! And so I let the page evolve around Mr. Balloon Bear and all was right with the world.

The whole page ended up being an actual Dunkin Donuts theme (I had originally just wanted the color palette!). But when the muse calls, I pick up and say, "hello!" Lots of serendipitous things happened along the way and I just went with it.

I figured if it was my fast food breakfast cravings that inspired my color palette, why not let the whole page be inspired by the actual craving. And I was right.... it was so good!