Boot Camp: Extracting Inspiration

More and more these days, I find myself looking to ads and  page design for inspiration. Before I clean up the magazine selection in our office waiting area, I quickly page through outdated periodicals and tear out pages I find interesting, or have some element that I'd like to duplicate on a papercraft project.

Lisa Dickenson had some fabulous advice on how to choose your inspiration and what to do with it so that you can make the most of it. For this assignment, I chose a title page that initially caught my eye because of the color palette (gray, orange, yellow, black). I really like how the bright colors pop against the gray. I rarely, if ever, use gray.... for me, it feels cold, drab, and boring.

Article title page from an issue of Working Mother magazine

Other elements that I'm loving here: the font combo, the "journal box", the little owl print on the yellow skirt, and how the color black was used to balance the design. I will be using this piece several times in upcoming page layouts. For this assignment, I went with using the color gray as a background color and added bright, colorful papers that compliment the photo.

That's the photo I edited by applying the Urban Look.
Boot Camp: Urban Effect

The papers and buttons are Fancy Pants "Rough and Ready"
Waxy Flax by Close To My Heart

I tried it .... and I just might consider the color gray as a design element more often!