color me inspired » Free Design PDF

Color Me Inspired Spotted | Go plaid, go plaid!

Trisha — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:00:49 +0000

While plaid seems to have made a trendy fashion comeback this year, I think it’s a classic and timeless pattern and perfect for the holidays. I’m a long time plaid-aholic (anything in Burberry check is a serious weakness of mine) and have to confess that Gap’s plaid and cheer-tastic holiday campaign this season (created by CP+B) puts a smile on my face. . .especially this super fun buffalo plaid bus!

(image on left spotted here, image on right spotted here)

Inspired by the warm and cozy feel of a plaid pattern, I’ve decided to make a homemade hot cocoa mix for my “all-purpose” holiday gift for this year. A mix is easy to make, holds up well in the mail and is sooo yummy. I created a similar version of the label I’m using just for Color Me Inspired. Simply download the pdf right here, print on full sheet label paper and trim to size. Or, print on cardstock and punch a hole in the corner to use as a gift tag.

Today’s Color Me Inspired Download: Free Printable “Homemade Hot Cocoa” label

Color Me Inspired Spotted | Vintage Holiday

Trisha — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:00:28 +0000

We’ll be back to posting our regular color inspiration boards soon, but I wanted to start the week off with some holiday inspiration found via these vintage Christmas cards spotted here and here.

Hopefully this free printable gift list will help inspire your organized gift giving this year. Having a list and making a plan for gift-giving helps ensure you don’t forget anyone or over spend on last-minute purchases. Simply download the PDF, print on letter size (8.5 x 11) paper and get you list going today!

Today’s Color Me Inspired Download: Free Printable “Check it Twice” holiday gift list

Color Me Inspired: An Autumn Afternoon

Becka — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:44:40 +0000

Hello lovely friends! As promised, here is our harvest themed color board. We’ve been getting lots of requests for more fall palettes and one particular request for traditional colors presented in a un-cliched way. Well look no farther! Greenery Productions in Orlando, Florida put together this GORGEOUS look for an entirely outdoor wedding and reception. They incorporated grape vine, moss, gourds, and all kinds of flowers to create a soft, harvest feel to each arrangement. Little lanterns dotted the head table and votive candles were perfectly placed all around.

These images are from Erin & Alex’s October wedding:

Advice cards make wonderful keepsakes and are a more personal way to remember guests instead of just a list of attendees in a traditional guest book. Rather than store the cards in a box or album, keep these mixed in with your regular recipe cards for a surprise reminder of your wedding day, every day.

Today’s Color Me Inspired Download: Free Printable Marriage “Recipe” Cards

Color Me Inspired: Shades of Survival

Becka — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:30:53 +0000

As October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Becka and I decided to create today’s color board and printable inspired by Pink Initiative. Founded by wedding photographer Emilie Sommer (whom I had the great pleasure of meeting last year at engage!08 the encore), Pink Initiative is a collection of wedding industry professionals and private donors dedicated to funding awareness, outreach, education and research for breast cancer. Pink Initiative also recently received its official status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. For more information about getting involved or making a donation, visit www.pinkinitiative.org or follow Pink Initiative on Twitter.

Becka created this powerful “Shades of Survival” color board and we both really love the image on the right of the mother and daughter in shadow standing strong. Becka said, “That’s one of my favorites of ours so I’m really happy to let it be representative of such an amazing cause.”

Last year, a close a family friend of ours who years ago thought she had beat breast cancer, found out it had returned and metastized in her liver. In layman’s terms, it was likened to someone taking a cancer-bullet filled shotgun to her liver. Even though the diagnosis was that treatment would be more management than treatment, she began chemo. Her daughter had cut her hair a few months back and was saving it for Locks of Love, but never sent it in. Instead, she gave it to her mom to have it made into a wig.

I also found out that she had started to tape up all the cards, emails, etc. she was receiving on a wall in her house to read when she got discouraged. I decided to design a simple poster with an inspirational quote that she could print out and add to her wall. So for today’s printable, I designed a similar poster featuring a favorite quote of mine by Christopher Reeve: “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” You can download the letter-size poster right here.

We are some of the lucky ones, as our friend’s story is one of survival–by a true miracle, our family friend is alive and well today–but that is certainly not the case for many, too many, people. Here’s to the continued hope that all “pink stories” can be ones of survival.

Color Me Inspired: An Un-Autumn Autumn

Becka — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:42:48 +0000

Hannah wrote in to us asking to see a color board to help inspire her for her outdoor September wedding in the midwest. She’s envisioning an Anne of Green Gables style with muted tones while staying away from the normal fall colors of red, yellow, and orange. Here is what she wrote us…

Neither of us is a fan of bright or saturated tones, and I was wondering if you could put together a board for a Midwest, outdoor, fall wedding that didn’t look like it could double as a bulletin board at an elementary school? If it helps, my delicate engagment ring is rose gold with a rough cut gray diamond, and we love those colors together. Do you think it is okay to use muted bronzes and lighter grays together with a rich ivory?

I went off the idea of her rose gold ring with gray stone with lots of ivory. I do think you could make it work with bronze as well, as long as the bronze color is kept to your accent and the softer, muted tones are in the forefront. I envision a muted, almost vintage feel with lace and lots of candles in glass jars. Soft pink and rose gold colored flowers in antique bronze candle-holders. Channeling an Anne of Green Gables romance I love the idea of keeping everything warm, even the gray tones and chose a soft, gray lavender shade. By keeping the muted tones warm you can keep them from looking too “springtime”. And you may want to start watching the sales at Anthropologie as they seem to favor this style and may have some great pieces you can incorporate into your decor. Just an idea… I hope this inspires…

Just because you’re having a fall wedding, doesn’t mean you have to incorporate leaves into your motif. Abstract botanical shapes still suggest an outdoor feel, while the warm muted colors hint at fall without being expectedly fall. Mail these in a shimmery envelope (like shimmer copper or shimmer silver from Paper Source) to add a touch of simple autumn elegance.

Today’s Color Me Inspired Download: Free Printable Save the Date Card

Color Me Inspired: The New Royals

Trisha — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:21:31 +0000

Jewel tones are here to stay. (Just ask Marie Claire.) The only rule? Keep it simple! These tones naturally provide a lush connotation, but coming on too strong can make you look more like a court jester than a queen. Jewel tones softened by various shades of cream, vanilla, and burlap mixed with less-traditional bouquets and table decor make up what I like to call The New Royals. These colors give a warm, elegant, and dynamic feel without being stuffy, presumptuous, or overdone. I’ve noticed that the idea of softening has been big this year as many brides make their weddings more intimate affairs and use many more hand-made accents. So fear not lovers of everything lush, you can still have your cake and eat it too. Just pair your favorite jewel tones with something softer, keep table decor minimal, and pull in natural or earthy accents for an unfussy, romantic air.

Today’s Color Me Inspired Collage comes from the lovely wedding of Lyndsey & Justin

Add personalized touches to your wedding party thank you gifts, or to your favors with these gorgeous gift tags. Or save them for later and use them to fancy-up your Christmas goodies, housewarming gifts, thank you’s, and anything else your creative mind can think of! Print these “New Royals” inspired gift tags on cream colored or linen textured cardstock for a softer, but still super luxe, look.

Today’s Color Me Inspired Download: Free Printable Gift Tags

Color Me Inspired: Coastal Sunsets

Becka — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:00:34 +0000

Happy Monday friends! I’m excited about today’s color board for a few reasons. First, I (Becka) grew up on the West Coast of Florida so I am quite accustomed to beautiful sunsets. I actually consider myself a quite the connoisseur of beautiful sunsets. And I am a firm believer in the fact that we have some of the most beautiful ones in the world in my hometown. Creamy colored sand, deep blue water, and candy colored shades from pale pink to persimmon fill the skies every evening over the Gulf of Mexico. Warm breezes filled with the smells of water and salt blow inland carrying everyone away into tropical wanderlust. Why not pay homage to mother nature with a color palette worthy of her glory? I think this palette works so well for a variety of seasons, the muted tones translating well into fall while also adding a bit of preppiness to a spring or summer affair. And, as this post is going live right as football season starts, what better way for Florida Gator fans to show their team spirit in an understated and elegant way?

TRENDSPOTTING: has anyone else noticed this trend of blue-stone engagement rings? Colored stones have come into fashion recently but rich blue tones especially I am seeing more and more of this year. Rock on blues lovers!

Today’s Color Me Inspired Collage comes from the lovely wedding of Lauren & Mr. E

Trisha designed these place cards, perfect for your Coastal Sunsets inspired wedding or party. Simply print the place card templates on cardstock, trim to size, fold in half, and personalize. Place cards are a simple way to add a splash of color to your table and make your guests feel special.

Today’s Color Me Inspired Download: Free Printable Place Cards in 2 colors

Color Me Inspired: Summer in Sorrento

Becka — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:22:58 +0000

Italy is an easy place to fall in love with. And an easy place to fall in love. In the summer time on the coast, everything is bright blue, green and yellow and citrus flavored desserts and liquors abound. As I was looking back through images I shot during my summer in college spent on the Italian Amalfi coast, I came across this shot of a bride and groom and instantly felt inspired to build a color palette around them. (I took it before I ever had dreams of being a wedding photographer, perhaps that trip was prophetic.) They were taking their wedding portraits while we were touring the ruins and I was drawn to them. As summer is ending and cooler weather starts to come our way, I envision an outdoor party in this color scheme using up the rest of this seasons lemons from the farmer’s market. I imagine green glass wine bottles filled with lemonade and tied with burlap string and letter pressed labels. I see natural woven tablecloths, leafy centerpieces, and wine corks made into placecard holders. I see tiny bottles of limoncello as party favors and yellow ribbon hanging in loose knots from the trees. I can almost feel the sweet sea breeze…

Today’s Color Me Inspired Collage comes from my trip to Italy in the summer of 2006

Limoncello is easy and inexpensive to make at home and Giada’s recipe looks like a great one to try. Trisha designed these labels to make your homemade bottled Limoncello look extra special. Download a free, printable label pdf right here.

Print on full sheet label paper, trim to size and apply directly to bottle.
Or print on cardstock, punch a hole in the corner and use as a gift tag.

Thank you!

Trisha — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:50:59 +0000

Happy Friday new friends! Becka and I are so excited to be bringing you all color inspiration curated from our own work. That’s right, all the images in our color boards have been taken by Becka & Nate at Studio222 Photography and all the designs we’ll be giving away come from yours truly. We had been talking about doing a project like this for a while and are completely blown away by the warm welcome that met us with open arms. We have another color board coming your way on Monday. We’ll even give you a hint about it! It’s “molto bello”. But until then…

We want to say a special thanks to Creature Comforts, DIY Bride, Joie de Vie, Juicy Fairy and our new twitter friends for featuring Color Me Inspired this week.

In appreciation, I created bonus download for this week: a set of free thank you cards and envelopes to match our Southern Romance color board and printable fan template. Download it in powder blue, apricot or rose petal.

Color Me Inspired: Southern Romance

Becka — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:08:27 +0000

Hello lovely friends! Trisha and I are so thrilled to bring your our first color board on our new blog, Color Me Inspired. This board was inspired by the gorgeous wedding of Traci & Steve. Traci was a bride after my own heart and understood the importance of details and what a big impact they can have on the overall aesthetic of an event. As a photographer, I was in detail heaven! I titled this board “Southern Romance” because of the soft palette Traci chose. The wedding was colorful but every color whispered romantic elegance while being anything but stuffy. Spanish moss hanging from old oak tress, bundles of pastel pink roses in antique gold candlesticks, luxurious linens to match the sky, and an outdoor reception under strands of twinkling lights reminded all the guests what southern charm is all about…

And because we believe that the best weddings have personalized touches, Trisha has designed these gorgeous fan templates for you to download and make for your guests. Just think how beautiful these little fans would look in rotating colors on white chairs for an outdoor ceremony! You can dress them up with ribbons or pearls, personalize them with your wedding program, or leave them as is for a simplistic elegance. Click here to download the PDF template.