Good Look Cookbook | DIY Graphic Design Recipes: July 2011

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Extracting a Color Palette from a Favorite Image

It's so fun to browse through color inspiration sites. Lots of eye candy that you can use for your projects. You can easily make your own color palette extractions from your favorite images. Try Pictuaculous.

I started with this awesome image of a Red and Yellow Barbet from Jasenka Luksa. I love the colors and patterns of this little bird and wondered if it could translate into a cool design project.

Just upload your image and click "Get my palette."

It'll bring up some suggested colors along with their hex values to use on blogs or web development. They also give you some similar options from Kuler and ColourLovers. If you have Adobe products, you can download a swatch file to use right in the program.

You can take a screenshot of the colors to paste into your image document if you want to keep the image and the palette together in one image. What if you see an image and want to capture it right then? They have a function for smart phones too, just snap the image and email it to them. You'll get the palette delivered to your mobile. Cool!

I decided to make a little 4x6 flat notecard using my inspiration image and color palette.

It's bold and colorful, just like the little bird! It'd be fun to do a project like this on a bigger scale for a print on a kids room wall. Maybe matching the color scheme of the other art or bedding in the room.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Another Great Knock Knock Review & Giveaway! CLOSED

We had so much fun with the last Knock Knock giveaway that we decided to do another one!
This time, I am reviewing the Receiptables Coupon Book which includes a nifty shopping list, pocket files for your coupons and some labels for the tabs. I've recently started dabbling in this coupon business and it is definitely more fun with an item like this. To go along with this great Knock Knock item, I've decided to show you how to create a printable errand list to slip into the book before you head out the door.

Read on to find out how to enter to win your own Receiptables book from Knock Knock!

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Items needed:

• Photo editing software
• Circus or fun display font
• Clean and modern, sans serif font
• Pattern (ie: .pat file or an existing scrapbook background file)
• Long, narrow rectangle shape
• Checkbox graphic

If you'd like to create a notepad with the printable list:

• Glue
• Water
• Strong Clips
• Small paintbrush or fingertip

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I measured the shopping list included in the Knock Knock book and created a document at the same size which is approximately 3.5w x 6.5h.

I then filled the entire background with an orange color and filled it with a pattern overlay in Photoshop that I had created beforehand. I then added a white rectangle shape on top of the background for the main content area. Next I began adding the lighter orange rectangles for the list items and numbered them. I then created a checkbox and placed one at the end of each rectangle.

I used a fun circus font called Carnivalee Freakshow for the word 'Errands' at the top and I used

futura font for the line beneath it as well as the 'are you tired yet' line at the bottom right of the page.

In order to print out multiples at one time, I saved this file as a jpg and then created a new 8.5x11 document and placed the Errand list file into it. I then rotated it 90 degrees and arranged three in a row

down the page.

You can either print them as use them as you need them or print out a stack and clip them together adding watered down glue at the top for a notepad! Simply print and cut the stack, clip the sides together tightly and use your finger or a brush to glue the tops of the sheets together. Once it dries, take it apart and you have yourself a notepad!