The Craft Begins - Inspirations Boards

I found Bri's blog The Craft Begins about a year ago and I love all of her amazing photography, all the inspiring photo's, but what inspires me to go to her blog every week is to see her new inspiration boards. I was lucky enough to get in touch with Bri and she agreed to share the inspirational process behind creating her inspirations boards.



I have tons and tons of magazines. I can read interesting articles, bookmark them for later, and then recycle them, but there seems like there's such a wasted step in the middle. I'm always inspired by colors and textures and patterns I see in magazines, but it's hard to translate that into a look. So I took to cutting out interesting bits and hoarding them, not sure what I was going to do with them. I try not to always cut out a whole pretty picture - I try to find an interesting piece of any ad or photograph and will sometimes just cut out a small corner. When I was leafing through the pictures, I noticed colors that sort of naturally tended towards each other, and I came up with the idea of putting them together into color collages.



Though I make a lot of these now, and know what I'm going for, the process is still the same. I go through magazines and cut out lots of bits until the little box I have is filled to the top. Then I start going through the cuttings, a few at a time, keeping in mind color patterns that are jumping out at me. I make little piles for each color scheme, putting most of the cuttings into an alternate pile and just culling 5 or 6 schemes at a time, which can take some restraint! Then I go though and paste the cuttings into these big 3 ring binders that I keep for this project. Needless to say, I use a lot of rubber cement. I repeat until I'm left with no cuttings left or so few that I can't pull them together to make something cohesive - then it's back to the magazines!



When I get the collages made and a book filled, I scan them into my computer and then plug them into my photoshop template where I pull a few colors out of the overall look and then try to name them. It's a ton of fun trying to come up with the actual names but it gets hard after a while coming up with original things

I really didn't have a purpose in mind when I started making these other than to just curate my love for color. However, as time goes on, I've found them invaluable for a number of applications. When helping people pick paint colors for their house, it's much easier to have them flip through and get an idea of the overall look rather than one color specifically. When I'm doing graphic design work, either for myself or a client, it's easier for them to pick a few color schemes that they like and so I know what they're going for, rather than force them to articulate something they're not comfortable with. I use them for myself when I'm stuck - sometimes it's hard to pick colors out of the blue. I also use them for my event planning business, for the same purpose. Mostly I just like to look at them and absorb all of the color and wonder there is in the world!


Bri has a beautiful blog The Craft Begins and it is a must see. Stop by her blog, she is having a giveaway, but today is the last day to participate, so don't miss out.

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Thanks Bri for sharing how your create your inspirations boards and the photo's of your process!