Brianna

Posted on November 15, 2011January 20, 2019 by Brianna — Leave a comment

Color Schemes: Color Wheel Basics

Color makes a huge impact at any party or event. Why else would we deck the halls in red and green, go over the hill with black, and force our bridesmaids to coordinate their outfits. Obviously we intuitively know some colors just work for events. However there is a basis for picking out a good color scheme. That basis is the color wheel.

In this three part series I am going to show you the basic usage of a color wheel and how it works to pick out color schemes.

Primaries From Primary

Probably somewhere in elementary school you learned to mix your Play-doh®; blue and yellow make green, while, adding in red makes a greyish mess. But what does it all mean? (note if your into color theory or printing I’m not going into that type of depth here)

There are three primary colors you can use to mix and make every other color in the world! Red, Blue, & Yellow

For illustrations sake we are going to place these equally spaced on the color wheel.

‘Second’ary Isn’t a Bad Place to Be

Next we will fill in the secondary colors. Secondary colors are what we get when we mix two primary colors together. So back to our grade school Play-doh®:

red + blue = purple

blue + yellow = green

yellow + red = orange

Complementary Colors and Real Life

Now that we have our very basic color wheel filled in it is time to look at one of the most basic color schemes. Complementary colors are based on being exactly across from each other on the color wheel. In our very pared down version you can see we have three sets of complementary pairs; red & green, yellow & purple, and blue & orange.

While these are some of the most basic color schemes available, you may recognize two of them. Red & green are synonymous with Christmas while traditional yellow and purple remind us of Easter.

Tune in Thursday to take a more in depth look at picking three and four color schemes from the color wheel in Part II of this series.

Posted on November 1, 2011January 20, 2019 by Brianna — Leave a comment

DIY Halloween Costume: Toddler Braveheart

Instead of DIY Wednesday we are doing it a day early. The reason? A simple costume for Halloween that I simply must show off! William Wallace aka Braveheart toddler style:

It got very cold, so, yes he does have pants under that kilt… and an extra shirt under his shirt. This costume also included a buckler and sword, but being almost two years old he quickly figured out throwing the sword and shield was super fun. This was our followup to last year’s viking costume.

How to Create A Toddler Friendly Version of Braveheart aka William Wallace

Materials: Plaid, Brown T-shirt, Brown Duct tape

Optional Materials: Faux Leather, Brass buttons, Sewing Skills

Steps 1

Create a kilt. If you have sewing skills then go ahead pleat and add elastic. Otherwise simply cut a strip, wrap it around the toddlers waist and secure with a safety pin. In either case don’t worry about hemming. I even unravelled a bit of the edge to give it a worn appearance.

Step 2

Before putting the t-shirt on the toddler take an extra piece of plaid and either sew or safety pin it to the shoulder and waist of the t-shirt so this it drapes across the front. Do this BEFORE putting the shirt on. (Are you sensing the ‘before’ theme?) This will keep the toddler from getting obsessed with the plaid on the shirt.

Step 3

Paint face blue. Use a little cream makeup and put it on lightly. If it isn’t thick they can’t smear it much and McClain got a hoot out of watching me put it on in the mirror. If your toddler refuses then no big deal, just have them go as a Highland Scot.

Step 4

If you can sew: I added brass buttons to look like fancy pins at the shoulders, braided a leather belt to hang over, also sewn to the shirt. You can use strips of brown duct tape to mimic leather as well. Everything was attached so he wouldn’t have to fiddle with the costume.

I like to keep it simple and comfortable for a toddler. Certainly, I could have added more armor etc, but this gives the idea and he was free to run around and Trick or Treat in comfort.

Enjoy these articles? Get biweekly updates by joining my mailing list (no spam, no way, no how)

Posted on October 19, 2011January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 11 Comments

Gravestone Halloween Treat Bags

DIY Halloween Treat Bags in the shape of Gravestones

This weeks DIY project shows how to make some easy gravestone treat bags for Halloween. I am assuming you are making these for a party or small number of kids. We had over 150 trick or treaters last year so clearly they aren’t each getting hand made treat bags. However, some select family and friends will be getting Halloween favors.

Gravestone Treat Bags

Materials:

Basic paper treat bag (Grey would speed up the process but good luck finding that)

Black & white acrylic paint (cheap is fine)

Old paint brush

Scissors

Optional:

Printer & stencil plastic

Repositionable Adhesive

Step 1: Cut Your Shapes

I laid the bag flat and cut a simple notched shape along the top. Just Google gravestone images for basic shapes. It will leave a small triangle in the side which I leveled off with the scissors. You could make a template but I just eyeballed it.

You can freehand the ‘RIP’ but my hand writing is unattractive so I printed a Gothic font out of the computer. If you were assembling a large number (Anything over 15) go ahead and get some stencil plastic and cut letters from that. The plastic will remain intact through the entire project. If you are only doing a small batch then cardstock will hold up for some painting. Make sure to save the round parts out of the ‘R’ and ‘P’.

Step 2: Prep The Bag

To get the gravestone look I did a wash of grey on the outside. Just mix white with a little black. While the paint was still damp I used the brush to smudge in a darker grey to make it look worn. Then allowed the bag to dry.

If you were making a large number of these the process could be sped up by either purchasing grey bags or spray painting in batches.

Step 3: Stencil Time, Rest In Peace

If you used a stencil now is the time to LIGHTLY coat it with repositionable spray adhesive. Then take a tiny amount of black acrylic paint on a very dry brush and tap it into the blanks of the stencil. I tried to let the grey show through in places to give it an aged look.

Voila! Fill with treats and you are done.

Posted on October 5, 2011January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 2 Comments

5-Five Minute Fall Place Settings

One of the things that often holds me back from entertaining is the feeling I need elaborate decorations. Honestly, after I have managed to clean the house and corral the toys I have very little energy left to give a nice seasonal feel to the house. So to prove to myself you can make some pretty place settings in no time I created:

5 Place Settings in 5 Minutes for under 5 Dollars

I used a placemats, napkins, and china I already had to make these place settings. I figure most people own a neutral napkin and placemat they can use in a pinch. I can guarantee these are quick, easy, and cheap. Why? Because I did these last night in less than an hour (with pictures) after McClain went to bed. Of course this is also why the pictures are a little dark.

Butterflies and Dried Hydrangea Place Setting

Wired craft butterflies taped to the table. The tape is covered with mini-pumpkins and dried hydrangea.

Country Acorns Napkin Ring

Simple strips of burlap act as a napkin ring. Just use hot glue to close the ring and attach the acorns.

Fall Berries Tucked Around the Place Setting

The napkin is folded to allow a small pocket. Instead of inserting the silverware simply tuck in some fall berries. Add some more small branches along the outsides of the plates.

Copper Vines Napkin Ring and Wine Charms

Scrap wire in various shades of copper and gold are wrapped to mimic vines. Matching wire is placed around the stem of the wine glasses to make wine charms.

Fresh Autumn Leaf Napkin Rings and Coasters

Simply hot glue colorful fall leaves together; creating the original disposable napkin ring. A few dots of hot glue keep the leaf coasters from scattering when guests lift their glasses.

Now there are no excuses left for me to not entertain. Well except maybe cooking the food…

Posted on September 20, 2011January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 2 Comments

Easy Harvest or Fall Decorations

One of the easiest ways to create pretty Harvest or Fall themed decorations involves nothing more than 8 ears of Indian corn, wire, and a stick. With these simple items you can create a pretty fall swag like this one:

Step 1:

Gather your materials. No, I wasn’t joking, it really does just require corn, wire, and a stick. I guess if you want to be technical you will need wire cutters (in this case old garden shears) and something to hang the swag with (more wire).

Step 2:

Take one ear of corn and overlap the pulled back husks of the second ear. Wrap wire around the corn at the base and through half the husks of the first ear. I suggest using half the husks so you can fluff the other husks out to fill in between the ears.

Obviously, I didn’t worry to much about the wire showing. I knew this would be hung high over my door and not really visible from a distance. You could easily hide the wire by using brown floral wire or tie with monofilament instead of wire.

Step 3:

I wired 4 ears together facing one way and 4 ears the other direction. Then I wired them to a branch (i.e. the stick) I had laying about the yard. I suggest wiring the corn together first before attaching to the branch. This allows for the corn to hang down freely and look less rigid than when wired directly to the branch.

The corn isn’t all that heavy so you could simply hand the corn attached together however I found a firm base makes it much easier to hang the whole swag on the wall Plus it allows you to arrange the corn attractively while it is on the ground. As you can see from the above picture using a rustic branch, as opposed to a dowel, blends with the harvest theme and doesn’t stand out if it shows between the ears.

Step 4:

There really is no step four because it is that easy.

Usually the grocery stores offer indian corn this time of year but you might also try your local farmers market. While your out, snag a few pumpkins to give an extra harvest touch.

Since Halloween is right around the corner I couldn’t help but add a gargoyle into the mix.