We’ve moved!

Design Once, has been a fun blog to write over the last year!

I’m going to continue writing more design related content, but I need to move on over to blogger, where my company blog resides: www.freshouttakes.blogspot.com.

There will be some minor glitches to be improved upon in the upcoming weeks, but overall I am happy with the tidy clean appearance and the content which will be a combination of Fresh Outtakes product updates and my personal lifestyle and design ideas.

I hope you enjoy the new combined version!
-K

Free Valentine’s printable!

Free printables, just in the nick of time!

Our last free printable was downloaded so many times during Christsmas that I had to give away another one. You can download the aqua and purple template for free! These labels make great gift tags or print on sticker paper for sealing bags, envelopes or for embellishing your Valentine’s notes.

The labels are formatted as a pdf available to you immediately. Click here or on the photo above to download the file.

Once you put your labels (Avery #8293) into your printer you will be able to print from Acrobat rather than downloading any complicated templates. I’ve done the work for you!  If you need Acrobat Reader you can download it here.

Other designs available for purchase on Etsy for just 1 dollar…

I hope you have fun with these colorful designs and have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!!!

Tangerine Tango wrap up!

It’s been a fun week exploring the history of Pantone® and its newest color of the year.

I found this color everywhere around my home and office. I had magnets, fabric, magazine clippings, envelopes and more!  I was so surprised that I had enough to fill a whole tray with these bits of inspiration. Naturally, I felt compelled to create a new design board for my office using any materials I could manage to stick under a magnet.

I hope you enjoyed this week of posts about the new “exotic & energizing” color of the year, Tangerine Tango.

Have a great weekend!

What they are saying…

If you’d like to read more about Tangerine Tango on the Pantone® website, click here.

Who IS Pantone anyway?

Pantone® DEFINES color.

For designers, Pantone® is THE way to communicate printed color. We use the Pantone® book in the same way you would use a color swatch at the paint store. In our digital files we designate by number, what color we want to produce. You can see those numbers next to the color squares in the picture above.

The following description is taken from the Pantone® company website: “The PANTONE® name is known worldwide as the standard language for color communication from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer.”

In simple terms, Pantone® is how we can articulate to a printer what exact color we want to see. It’s the industry standard for communicating color. Furthermore, a printer will not only have the swatch book that designers use, but another swatch book that actually breaks down the exact ink formula needed to reproduce a specific Pantone® color. Pantone® colors are also referred to as a PMS color/number.

Interested in reading more? Click  here.

This information is simply to remind us why, if anyone, Pantone® is qualified to name a “Color of the Year.”

Rumor is, that the color chosen is supposed to connect with the “spirit of the time” or the current “mood of the era.”

I hope you hang in there with me for a week long celebration of the color, Tangerine Tango!

Pantone Color of the Year 2012

Every year Pantone®, the printing industry standardized color reproduction system, will declare a particular “Color of the Year“.

This year they have declared “Tangerine Tango”, or Pantone® 17-1463, as the color of the year!

As a designer, I find their annual announcement interesting, and I admit that I am curious every year in anticipation.

Tangerine Tango has been described by Pantone® as a provocative attention-getter in fashion, versatile in the cosmetic industry, and is said to energize interior spaces.

I have to agree…it’s bold, it’s energizing and it just so happens to compliment my favorite color!

More to come this week in celebration of Pantone’s® Color of the Year…

Book giveaway winner…

Thank you everyone for participating in our first giveaway featuring the novel, “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”. This was an amazing read and lead to a fantastic adventure for me, exploring Seattle in a new way. I hope you all have a chance to read it!

Kathy, please email me at blog@designonce.com and let me know where I can mail your new book!

Free holiday label printables!

Do you have any good friends that you’ve been thinking about lately, but haven’t been able to get together with?

I do. And I feel terrible and short on time during the holidays. So I’m sending them all one of these…

If you want to make these too, all you need is this:

treat + bag + sticker + stamp

In my bags, I put hot cocoa (I bought the Starbucks™ trio from Costco – different flavors and incredible packaging), my favorite sweets from See’s and Ghirardelli and a few mini marshmallows.

I used up my ribbons I had from other crafty projects and created a few fun stickers to seal the bags. Each little package is so small they can even be mailed in an envelope. Who doesn’t LOVE getting mail?

The labels are formatted as a pdf available to you immediately. Click here or on the photo above to download the file.

Once you put your labels (Avery #8293) into your printer you will be able to print from Acrobat rather than downloading any complicated templates. I’ve done the work for you!  If you need Acrobat Reader you can download it here.

I hope you enjoy these fun stickers as much as I did and use them to brighten up your holiday gifts!

Color inspiration is everywhere!

I am often asked if I have any advice about how to choose the right colors for a home. Whether furniture, walls, or a front door, that’s an easy question to answer.

My advice…just look around you. Color inspiration is everywhere!

The circles above represent colors that I’ve sampled from the photos above. All of these objects made me smile! The yellow Vespa looks like a fun ride and the warm colors of the changing leaves are inspiring. Nature really is the best teacher when it comes to color.

Objects like these can help you on your path to choosing colors for your home. You can see exactly how the color inspiration above translates into a color choice for a home in the picture below. What a gorgeous front door!

Can you imagine this conversation?

Homeowner: “I have a gray house, what color do you suggest for our front door?”

Paint store: “Orange. Definitely”.  (not likely)

This homeowner was not just daring but brilliant in their color choice for their front door.

My advice:

I always choose colors that make me feel good. It may sound corny, but it works. If you are trying to decide on a color for your interior, exterior, furniture or accents, be sure to ask yourself a few questions first. What do you want to feel when you see it? Calm? Inspired?

For example, I am usually trying to crank out creative work in my home office so I need to feel inspired. I decided on warm yellow walls to inspire me and all white furniture to act as a clean palette for each new project. The wall color makes me feel awake and ready to work while the bright white surfaces keep my mind uncluttered.

Of course, I had to make a mistake first in order to learn this lesson about color. I used to love the cinnamon walls at my favorite cafe. I loved them so much that I came home and painted my office that exact color hoping to elicit the same relaxing feelings I had at the cafe. When it was done, it looked amazing. Unfortunately, it was all wrong. Why? I enjoyed the cafe interior because it made me feel calm and relaxed, which was not the intended goal for my home office. Shortly after I painted the walls a cozy cinnamon color, all I wanted to do was sleep at my desk! Luckily, I learned an invaluable lesson about color that I can pass along to you.

I hope these ideas help you to find your color inspiration for your next project! I’d love to hear about it.