thinking spring

I redesigned my blog last week...but
It just didn't feel like me.

Too confining.

I need wide open spaces....a blank
white page to splash colors across

a bright place to come to.

I'm thinking spring :)

So I used the bag pictured as the color scheme for my redecorating.

If you're wondering how to get colors true to what you see in the color scheme of a picture you love and you have photoshop or any software that has an eyedropper tool, it's easy to do.

Follow the directions below or, for a PRINTER FRIENDLY page, click this link: DESIGNING YOUR BLOG WITH COLORS YOU LIKE IN A PHOTO

EDITED:  Island Sparrow left a comment telling me about THIS SITE
for uploading photos and finding color codes to accomplish this right on line!

and

IF YOU HAVE PHOTOSHOP HERE'S A LITTLE TUTORIAL THAT TEACHES YOU HOW TO MAKE SWATCHES AND SWATCH SETS OF COLORS YOU LIKE.

1. load the picture into photoshop
2. take your eyedropper and click on one of the colors in your photo
3. it will become your foreground color found at the lower part of your left hand toolbar
4. double click on it and your Color Picker Dialogue Box will come up showing that as the chosen color
5. on the right hand side of your Color Picker Dialogue Box you see will a button that says, "Add to Swatches"
6. hit that button, then name it in the box that will pop up, and then hit "okay"
7. if you have your Default Workspace open you will see a tab that says "SWATCHES"  above your layers pallet on the right. [If you don't see it, you can reset it to default by going to Window>Workspace>Default Workspace and clicking.] Now click on the Swatches Tab and your color will be the last one in the set.
8. continue to click on various colors in your pic and repeat the above steps.  As you do, the colors you've named will show up as the last ones in your swatches pallet.
9. If you want to save the Set you just created apart from the others that appear in your swatches, find the little tiny arrow that points downward on the right hand side of your swatches pallet and click it.  A drop down list will appear.  You are looking for the PreSet Manager.  Click on it and it will open a dialogue box.  In the PreSet Type box you should see the word Swatches and below that a copy of your opened swatches.  If you don't, click the arrows beside the window and a drop down list will appear and you can choose Swatches.
10. Now, as you hold down the Command key [mac] or CTRL [windows], click each color you want to save to make your set 
11. As you click each color you want to save as a set holding down the Command/CTRL key  they will be highlighted.
12. Now hit the Save Set button on the right hand side of your dialogue box to save the set of colors.
13. Make a folder labeled Swatches.  This is where you will place swatch sets as you make them, choose a name relevant to your colors....I named mine Spring Colors... and put  inside the folder you labeled Swatches.
14. Now anytime you want to use those colors to design a blog template, or a card, or scrapbook page, you can go to your Swatches tab, click on the tiny little arrow on the right hand side and look for Load Swatches, find the file you put them in, and double-click on the one you're looking for and viola....they will be loaded into your Swatches pallet!

When you're ready to build a blog template....

1. Load your Swatches
2. click on the first color you want with the eyedropper tool
   
3. it will appear as your foreground color lower part of your toolbar on the left hand side of your screen in photoshop....I don't know where in other programs
   
4. now double click on that foreground color and your Color Picker dialogue box will open
5. at the very bottom on the left hand side you will see a 6 digit # usually comprised of numbers and letters but sometimes just letters
6. highlight that number and go to EDIT>COPY  [or you can  just write the number down]
7. now go to your blog design area where you can choose custom colors and choose the element you want to be the color you just chose from the swatch; find where the original color# for that element is; highlight it and hit PASTE...it will become the exact color you told it to be :) [if you wrote it down instead of copying it, just delete the original # and type in the 6 digit numer.]
   
8. Just keep doing that with all the elements and colors you want.

If you don't want to make swatch sets, or have an eyedropper tool without the ability to make sets:

Of course, you don't have to make swatches; you can just click on the color with your eyedropper, double click the foreground color to open the color picker dialogue box, write down the number, and move to the next color and repeat. 
But swatch sets are nice to have when you want to work with a color scheme!

Have fun!