Making Memories; Large flowers (pink): Heidi Swapp
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If you’re lucky enough to live in a tropical locale, such as sunny southern Florida, or will be visiting one soon, you’ll be delighted by the vivid, sun-drenched colors and heady aromas of exotic flowers and fruits. But even if you won’t be near the equator any time soon, you can still get lots of inspiration and ideas simply by visiting a grocery store, where you’ll find tropical fruits, or a florist, botanical garden or conservatory for tropical floral inspiration.
The projects below use traditional Chinese color combinations and emphasize how the use of the traditional color schemes can give an ethnic flair to the project without requiring the use of Chinese-patterned papers or embellishments.
Lime in the Coconut
Bringing Exotic Tropical Colors to Your Layouts
Tropical Asia can be experienced through the senses. The sites, smells and tastes of the tropics are all right there in the fruits and flowers of the region: the green palm trees, the abundant bananas, tangerines, limes and dragon fruits—the saturated yellows, oranges and fuchsia. Luckily, being based in Singapore grants me the opportunity to travel to some of the world’s best tropical locales. Each time I come home from vacation I am refreshed and inspired by the sights of tropical Southeast Asia. Walking along the beach in Bali, for example, I feel stimulated by the brilliant bougainvilleas that I see. My taste buds go into overtime when I walk by the fruit seller’s stall filled with papaya, dragon fruit, limes, and coconut. My whole body relaxes at the sight of the white sands and aqua sea. The tropics are warm, and the colors used to evoke them also tend to be warm and bright.
The characterization of a color’s warmth is based on its location on the color wheel and its relation to the colors surrounding it. Generally, warm colors include the yellows, reds and bright pinks, symbolizing fire and the sun. Cool colors, which are represented by the sea, grass and sky, are obviously blues and greens. Purple, actually violet, falls in the middle of the spectrum and can be classed as a warm or cool color depending on the colors with which it is partnered. Warm color combinations make for energetic, stimulating and festive layouts, whereas cool color palettes are more restful and soothing. It is possible to design a tropical layout featuring cool shades as well. For example, the combination of lime green with coral clearly gives a tropical feel, but is not so overwhelmingly “hot.”
TROPICAL ASIAN COLORS
Let these bold and vivid colors guide you on your travels to tropical Southeast Asia:
Green: Lime, Palm Green and Fern
Yellows: Orange, Lemon, Bananna
Blues: Aquamarine and Sky
Reds/Purples: Fuscia, Dragon Fruit
Neutrals: Sand, Coconut Brown
Sundrop by Lynita Chin
Warm, bright and fun, this layout just screams with energy. Fuchsia pink, lime, lemon and orange—colors that represent the tropics—accentuate the excitement of Lynita’s children while sharing a favorite vacation treat.
Supply Credits Patterned paper: paper salon, Fancy Pants Designs; My Mind’s Eye/Every Day Tango; Alphabet stickers: DoodleBug Design Inc.; Gems: My Mind’s Eye/Bohemia: Other: Dymo tape
Congratulations
by Heather Taylor
Using the relative warmth of the orange paper and balancing it with a cool color such as blue shows how well warm and cool colors naturally work together. When paired with tropical-inspired pattern paper and an Indian-based motif, this project imparts a tropical feel without overwhelming the senses.
Supply Credits Cardstock: Unknown; Patterned paper: Paper Salon; Stamp: Art Neko (Henna Hand), Savvy stamps (congratulations); Inks: Versacraft Black; Embossing powder: Moon Glow in Morning Glory Azure Teal; Other brads and orange-painted background with acrylic paints with gold
TIP Tropical layouts featuring oranges, reds and vibrant pinks will all feel warm, and by using these colors you can brighten up an otherwise ordinary photograph. You can also create tranquil tropical layouts reminiscent of a cool evening sunset by balancing the cool color of aqua with some neutral colors like sand and coconut brown and a warmer tone like burnt sienna to create a layout that is pure tropical Asia.
Jaylene’s Beads by Julie Kosolofski-Kuo
Using the red, green and raspberry/purple colors found in the dragon fruit, Julie took a challenge I gave her to use these colors in a layout. Julie’s layout is grounded by the use of light-colored kraft cardstock holding the three colors together without competing for attention. It is easy to see that lime green, raspberry and red are all warm colors, and the brown acts as a soothing complement.
Supply Credits Cardstock; Patterned paper: Creative Imaginations/Christine Adolph (pink wash), Green Tea Squared; Stamp: Heidi Swapp (Drama); Monogram: Colorbok; Letter stickers
Cinnamon and Sapphire
The Colors of India
India is a nation of color where roses and marigolds are used for celebrations and offerings, brides are adorned in red silk saris and textiles of every color in the spectrum are seen on the streets. Many people think of the spice colors of cinnamon, turmeric, mustard and red chili in connection with India; but I also tend to think of women in their bright jewel-toned saris, in colors of sapphire blue, turquoise, amethyst purple and emerald green.
The women of Rajasthan, India, are renowned for their love of color and will wear brightly colored saris, even when working in the cotton fields. While in Singapore’s Little India, I purchased a few silk scarves that remind me of these saris—scarves in deep dark luxurious ruby, turquoise and purple adorned with golden paisley patterns. Working with these rich colors is inspiring!
How we use colors in our crafts can change the way that a project is interpreted. We know that warm colors such as yellow, red and orange add energy to a project and that the cool colors of blue and green tend to calm us down and center us. Rich deep colors such as the jewel tones impart an air of luxury and elegance to the projects and are wonderful when paired with glitter, gold and rhinestones.
Just as in other parts of Asia, colors in India are also associated with certain meanings. In India the color red, as in much of the rest of the world, represents sensuality, but did you know that the color also represents purity? When a bride wears red in India it symbolizes both purity and passion, as well as devotion between two people and fertility and prosperity. Blue, another popular color in India, is the color of Krishna and the color of peaceful change. The color of saffron also holds religious meaning in India, indicating joy, festivity and happiness. Green symbolizes fertility and nature. It is not surprising to see bold combinations of color in India, but as in China, the Indian people do not use the color black except to ward off evil; and, contrary to Western culture, white is the color of mourning.
INDIAN COLORS
India is a land filled with a multitude of color, but most people identify the spice tones and handsomely adorned women in silk saris when they think of India. To bring a bit of Indian inspiration to your projects,
