Color of the Week - Teal

This week's color is Teal - a dark greenish-blue hue!

Teal is a beautiful, rich color that's perfect for anchoring light, bright, spring-and-summer candy-colored hues like watermelon pink, apple green, and turquoise. Alternatively, pair it with a neutral like snow white, icy silver, or jet black to create a sophisticated cool color scheme for winter events.

Fun facts about Teal:

1. The first recorded use of teal as a color name was in 1917. The name came from a type of duck native to Eurasia - the "Common Teal" - which has the distinguishing feature of dark blueish-green feathers around its eyes.

2. The post-2004 redesigned version of the U.S. $100 bill features teal as its primary background color.

3. The basketball team the Detroit Pistons used teal as one of their primary colors from 1996 to 2001.

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Color of the Week - Cherry

This week's color is Cherry - an eye-catching, highly saturated red with just a hint of pink!

Decisive and bright, cherry red is the perfect way to add a pop of color to your event or home decor - just remember that a little goes a long way! ;)

Fun facts about Cherry:

1. This color name derives from the name of the popular cherry fruit.

2. Cherry red is similar to the color known as "cerise," though the later is technically the slightly more blueish hue of a cooked cherry, such as those found in cherry pies.

3. Traverse City, Michigan is known as the Cherry Capital of the World and hosts an annual summertime National Cherry Festival to celebrate their production of tart cherries.

 

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Shameless Plug Time: Love this color? Looking for custom stationery made to match this color (or whatever other color combinations you're using for your event)? Visit Invites by Andrea to view more samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.

Fun Bandana Decor

I love bandanas - they're colorful and cute, and they're useful for so much more than just wearing. They're so carefree and summery, they're perfect decor for this time of year!

1. Use bandanas to jazz up your patriotic Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day party or picnic!

2. Bandanas come in other colors, too! Use them for outdoor parties, office picnics, children's birthday parties, and decorating your house (especially kids' bedrooms or nurseries)!

Bandanas are perfect alternatives for cloth napkins, make great flags, banners, tablecloths, and table runners, and easily roll up for utensil holders or clever nut/popcorn carriers!

And bandanas aren't limited to just summer, either - orange and black bandanas are great for Halloween and other autumn events!

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Red, White and Blue Recap

Memorial Day (and the unofficial start of summer) is quickly approaching! Rediscover my patriotic color and decor inspiration board from last year to find the perfect idea for your family's Memorial Day get-together! :)

Floral Quilted Wall Hangings

This past holiday season I hand-sewed three different "wall hangings" to give out as gifts to my mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother. 

Buy these floral fabrics here: http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/ideasbyandrea

All of the fabric swatches (except for the solid light green around the edges) were printed at Spoonflower - a website that allows you to upload your own designs to be printed on fabric! The images you see are photographs of flowers that I've taken in the last several years (including pictures of roses and bouquets purchased at supermarkets, the flora around my grandmother's house, and professionally-designed gardens and landscapes in Barcelona, Paris, Southern Italy, Croatia, and Upstate New York). Many of the photographs were slightly altered/desaturated in Photoshop to give them a slightly vintage/aged/faded look. 

All of the photographs have a similar color scheme (shades of light greens, pinks, yellows, whites, purples, and oranges), and are intended to work together as a collection, making them great fabric choices for patchwork projects like these quilt-inspired wall hangings! 

There's no shortage of photographs of the finished project, so keep scrolling down!! :)
 
 

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Thanksgiving Color Combo #2

Yesterday I showed you a more traditional Thanksgiving color scheme - analogous colors red, orange, and yellow. Today's color scheme is still festive and beautifully autumn, but packs an unexpected lime green punch.

Though lime green is not one of the more obvious Thanksgiving color choices, it works beautifully with yellows and rusty orange-browns, and there are plenty of typical Thanksgiving dishes that can be spruced up with lime green to complete your table. Add green leaves or slices of pear or lime to the plate of turkey, and use fresh leaves of spices like cilantro or basil in your stuffing. Finally, serve vegetables like green beans and thin baby carrots (or puree them to make a delicious soup) for more pops of color.

For decoration, pick orange and green gourds, or cluster a bowl full of pears and lime green fabric leaves at the center of the table. Add names to pear stems to mark each person's spot at the table, and run a long lime green table runner underneath the groaning plates of food. In dim candlelight, and surrounded by green accents, glasses of white wine will look perfectly matched to the rest of your decor.

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Shameless Plug Time: Love these color combinations? Looking for custom stationery made to match these colors (or whatever other color combinations you're using for your event)? Visit Invites by Andrea to view more samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.

Thanksgiving Color Combo #1

Getting ready for Thanksgiving and looking for decor ideas and color schemes? Then you're in luck, because today and tomorrow I'm showing off two color combos, each based on a different photograph I've taken.

Today's color combo: Mackinac Island Sunset!

This color combo is perfect for autumn in general - and Thanksgiving in particular - since it so closely resembles the color of the leaves on the trees and much of the food you'll be serving on the table. Red, orange, and yellow is a great analogous color scheme and instantly brings to mind pumpkins, squash, stuffing, and a deliciously browned turkey - but don't feel limited to just the traditional foods! Add some red or yellow peppers to your stuffing, or make an amazing appetizer quiche (wrapped in bacon!) to further play up the bright colors of sunset.

For decor, the options are pretty much limitless. Use food (orange and lemon slices, pumpkins and gourds), nature (bright-colored flowers, tree branches, acorns, pinecones), candles, and fabric to add more punches of color throughout your table.

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Shameless Plug Time: Love these color combinations? Looking for custom stationery made to match these colors (or whatever other color combinations you're using for your event)? Visit Invites by Andrea to view more samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.

Election Results Party Ideas

Happy Election Day, Americans! If you're over 18, make sure you get out there and VOTE before the day is over!

Then, once you've done your democratic duty, invite your politically-inclined friends over for an Election Results party!

If you can manage it, grab several different TVs or computer monitors and congregate them all in a central location so you can see the results pour in from several different media outlets at once. Then, have fun with "drinking games" (if you're not into getting wasted on a Tuesday night - or are too young to consume alcohol - you can always change the rules to "eat an M&M" or "take a sip of pop"), and complete the desired activity anytime you hear key words and phrases (like Democrat, Republican, "polls closed," etc.) or your state's name.

In between results, quiz your guests on presidential trivia of past elections, or get some bets going on the projected outcomes of different races (on a national, state-wide, and local level).

Serve patriotic foods like apple pie and hot dogs, or pick foods from the candidate's home (such as Chicago deep dish pizza for Obama, and Michigan brands like Vernor's ginger ale and Kellogg's corn flakes for Romney). Finally, conduct your own "exit poll" by making donkey and elephant shaped sugar cookies and watching which plate gets emptied first!

And don't forget the party decor! :)

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Fancy/Funky Friday: Patterns Connie & Louise

Today's patterns are both unique and feature (among other details) "x"-like designs.

First, the "fancy": Pattern Connie

More unusual than many of my "fancy" patterns, Pattern Connie stays elegant with its thin lines and "x"-like details. The "x"-like forms both create structure and interest, while hinting at the regal diamond-like shapes I love to include in my "fancy" collection. The small loop-like details also hint at elegant crafts like embroidery or crochet, and from a distance, the design looks almost like lace.



And now, the "funky": Pattern Louise

This pattern feels distinctly Western, and brings to mind the designs of nineteenth-century American pioneer quilts. Furthermore, the curved bracket-like forms look like the sorts of designs a shoemaker might stamp on leather cowboy boots. From a distance, Pattern Louise appears to be a modified plaid design, but up close the curves of the almost-rectangular pattern units become more pronounced, giving it a more modern, playful vibe. Finally, the thinnest lines create an underlying "x" structure to each pattern unit, giving it an almost elegant feel.


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July Fourth

To all my American readers: Happy Independence Day!

For the past several days, I've been on a road trip with my husband and three of our close friends. First, we drove out to LA over the course of several days, stopping in Oklahoma City (to see another friend), the Grand Canyon, and Zion along the way. Now, we're on the long journey back home to Michigan. It just happened to work out that we'd be in South Dakota for the fourth of July, so today we're visiting Mount Rushmore on Independence Day!

I just wanted to take the time out of our fun (but exhausting!) trip to remind you of the ideas I posted for Memorial Day about all the patriotic decor options available. :) I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday!

Patriotic Event Decor

With Memorial Day just around the corner, I thought I'd take a minute to post an inspiration board for patriotic events. Red, white, and blue is a classic color scheme for American holidays, but just because those colors are adorned on paper plates for casual family get-togethers doesn't mean that they can't also work for formal events.

Having weddings on long holiday weekends like Memorial Day or Independence Day can be a great solution if you're planning on having a lot of out-of-town guests, and you can save some money by booking a venue on a Sunday instead of the traditional Saturday. But the last thing you want to do for your guests is make them feel like they're missing out on their typical holiday celebrations by attending your event. The solution is simple - adopt the red, white, and blue color combination for your wedding and host the most sophisticated patriotic event your guests have ever seen!



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Shameless Plug Time: Love these color combinations? Looking for custom stationery made to match these colors (or whatever other color combinations you're using for your event)? Visit Invites by Andrea to view more samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.