Rainbow-Tastic Holiday Blog Hop

Shake, shake, shake....shake your Blooty!  That song has been stuck in my head ever since I was introduced to the Paint Chip Pals.  Blooty is the little blue guy with the pompadour.  He's one of seven characters created by the fun and fab team of Andrea and Cliff Currie from HandMakeMyDay.com.

Andrea, aka Ms.Craft-tastic is the glitter wielding champ alumni of TLC's Craft Wars, hosted by Tori Spelling.  Cliff, her marital cohort in craft is the self proclaimed meat head that puts stuff together.   In a wonder twins super power moment they gave birth (figuratively not literally...thank goodness) to seven little color ambassadors that they are hoping to share with the world.

They've launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowd fund their new endeavor.  As part of the campaign a bunch of other creatives and myself have been asked to create something inspired by the Paint Chip Pals in the Rainbow-Tastic Holiday Blog Hop.

So, while singing Shake my Blooty, in my off pitch glass cracking way, I crafted a little DIY that's perfect for kid's rooms, craft rooms or as a gift for that special teacher.  It's a monogram made out of crayons.  What paint chip pal wouldn't love that?

Click for Instructions

I've included the Paint Chip Pals and instructions to this Crayon Craft in an extended post about the trend of Super Color and the epidemic of color coma that comes with it.   Jump to it and enjoy.

If you love the power of hand made and support the entrepreneurial spirit, please consider pledging to the Curries Kickstarter campaign and watch your greens turn into a rainbow of colors.

If you'd like a chance to win one of the Paint Chip Pals, drop me a comment below to be entered to win.  Who's your favorite Paint Chip Pal?  What's your favorite trend color?  I'm shaking my Blooty...what song comes to mind for your favorite?

Visit the Rainbow-Tastic Blog Hop hub for more color inspired musings by Margot Potter, Twinkie Chan, Alexa Westerfield and more....

Color Coma, the Magic of Color and the Power of Green

You've seen them, I know you have.  Those folks standing in the home improvement store, staring at the wall-o-color wonder, the paint chip display.  They are suffering from what I call chasing rainbows, it's a debilitating sickness of epidemic proportions.  These unsuspecting and ambitious homeowners storm the paint department confident in their plans.  "I'm going to paint my room an x,y,z color...yep I am.  I just need to find the right shade."  They arrive at the paint chip color display and like some kind of hypnotic funhouse whirlygig the sheer amount of color options begins to undermine their confidence and send them into a trance.  Wobbly kneed and glossy eyed, they start grabbing random colors...."hmmm, this fuchsia is nice, wait how about bright yellow...oops can't leave out teal, teal is purdy....that's purdy...p u r d y  c o l o r s . . . l o o k   a t   a l l     d   a         p  u   r    d     y          c      o     l     o      r      s".  The poor victims have drops of sweat and a little drool forming as their color coma takes over.

I bring this up because abundant color is all the rage for home decor and fashion!  Every color is the new black.  So while the rainbow spectrum is hot I encourage you to explore.  But, to prevent a big box mental mush meltdown, I want to introduce you to three ways to improve your color swagger and confidence.


1) PAINT CHIP PALS

 You need a color buddy who will love you regardless of any color mishap or confusion.  My friend Andrea Currie and her hubs Cliff are working to introduce the world to their full spectrum Paint Chip Pals.

Andrea is a powerful force in the crafting community, you may have caught her champion worthy glitterness on TLC's Craft Wars, hosted by Tori Spelling.  She wields glitter like a sparkly ninja.

She and Cliff's characters, based upon paint color cards, are in development as plush dolls and colorful accessories.  You can help Pinky, Gaareen and all their friends paint our world and prevent color coma by visiting the Currie's Kickstarter campaign.  Your support can earn you Paint Chip Pal swag of your very own.  My favorite is  Blooty.

  

 Send some Kickstart-ing funds their way and watch your greens turn into a rainbow of color.  Head over to my Rainbow-tastic Blog Hop post for more info and a chance to win a Paint Chip Pal.

2)  SKIP THE PAINT GO STRAIGHT TO THE DECOR

Avoid choosing paint as a way to bring color into your home and decorate with color instead.   If you have neutral colored walls and want to add more color pizazz then consider furniture, accessories and decor as your palette for rainbow nirvana.

Here I've created a mood board to illustrate how colorful a craft room for you and the family can be with some fun and whimsical hues.  The magic of mixing and matching multiple colors will help you avoid the doldrums of a simple color palette and allow you to explore your inner color cravings.  You've heard practice makes perfect, right?  If you want to play with your own mood boards and decorate your color needful room virtually, there are a ton of great collaging sites to do so, such as Olioboard.com and Sampleboard.com.  

 

Let's play a game of eye spy.  Within this colorful craft room mood board, you'll not only find some Paint Chip Pals, you will find my latest wall art introductions of "Love Knows No Color", "Fill Your Heart With Rainbows" and "Color Outside the Lines".  All of which are available as canvas reproductions from my site and a network of 1500 boutiques nationwide.  They're my vaccination for the colorless lifestyle.

You will also spy a quick an easy DIY project which is my third cure for the color coma.  Craft your way into remission!

3) INTRODUCE COLOR THROUGH CRAFT

Create your very own Crayon Monogram Alphabet Letter.  You'll feel safe and sound playing with your childhood faves the crayon.  Arrange and rearrange them to explore your favorite combinations.  And maybe they'll inspire some paint colors.

This easy to assemble craft can personalize your art space, child's room or is a perfect gift for a beloved teacher.  All you need is some foam core or thin wood panel, crayons, a sharp knife and some hot glue.

Excuse me sir....maam, can I help you with something or bring you a tissue, you're drooling.  Welcome back from your chasing rainbows fever.  I hope my poppy, coral, greeny so you can rest color medicine helped you in your quest for a full spectrum.  

If you'd like a chance to win a Paint Chip Pal for your very own, visit my Rainbow-Tastic Holiday Blog Hop Post.  You'll find out more about these little guys, their creators and can visit more color inspiring posts by other artisans.

Geek Chic - Revenge of the Nerds

 Oh, isn't it cute that little Abby wants to be a princess and Aden wants to be a baseball player?  Those are decor themes we can get behind.  A little Disney gobbledy gook decor and her room becomes a castle.   Paint the boy's room team colors and hang a bat on the wall and it's a MLB paradise.  Brush your hands together, you're done....easy.  Right?  Not so fast....

Well what do you do when your sweet pea proclaims she wants to be a Endomolecularbiologist or your sure to be a little leaguer says Nanotechnological Bioinformatics System Integration Researcher?  Gulp, the silence is prolonged, the stuttering begins and for a brief moment you can hear the squeaking wheels inside parents heads grinding to a halt....errrrrrrrr....klunk.  What?  Sorry, kiddos you're going to have to pick out a predetermined fantastic identity that matches the offerings on the shelves at your local big box store.  Forget astrophysics, come on, don't you want to be a cowboy, Batman, a smells-like -stawberries imp or a one of those 12 inch tall fashion dolls?  Look there's matching sheets!

Times have changed.  While there's no coordinated bedding with accountant or lawyerly like patterns on it, we're seeing the industry mold break in a new direction.  That is one that embraces intellect and celebrates the word Geek as a term of endearment.  If your little one loves to read, enjoys math or questions the wonders of the world with the scientific method, you should be able to decorate their room with those interests.

To fulfill the wish for brilliant mind decor, I've introduced a line of children's wall art that explores inner nerd-dom.  The collection includes ABC and numbers charts in a retro chalkboard style, a new US map and more.

ABC wall art, available from my online shop and boutiques nationwide.

123's number chart available from my online shop and boutiques nationwide.

Genius art for children's rooms

Chalkboard look hand written typography wall art.

Continents Map Wall art available on my site and through boutiques nationwide.

Here's a couple of mood boards illustrating how a room can reflect a Geek Chic attitude.  They're also available for pinning off my Pinterest page.  

Smart Boy's geek chic decor mood board

Genius teen and tween room based around a science theme.

  

Up and Away Nursery - Chic Paper Airplanes, Cool Kites and Haute Air Balloons

My Fall 2012 series of children's wall art has just been released and I'm excited to share three of the pieces with you.  This group entitled Up and Away is a little twist on the traditional transportation theme.  Here I've explored things that float, sail and cruise through the sky.

Racing to and fro, these geometric motif paper
airplanes are filled with color and wonder.
Canvas reproductions are available on my site and
through boutiques nationwide.

Kites adorned with fanciful patterns fill the sky.
Canvas reproductions are available on my site and
through boutiques nationwide.

Patterned hot air balloons float aloft in this children's wall
art piece.  Canvas reproductions are available on my site and
through boutiques nationwide.

The series fits perfectly into the pattern rich and muted color trends popular in children's furniture and textiles.  To inspire you, I'm happy to offer this Up and Away mood board featuring my picks for a little boy's nursery.   Its subtle skyward theme comes through with the addition of adorable cloud mobiles, a sunburst mirror and waving pennant bunting.  For good measure, keep babies head warm with a hand knit aviator's cap.

All You Need is Love - Girl Nursery and Bedroom Ideas

I'm happy to announce the release of two of my latest children's wall art canvases.  These are part of my Flea Market Finds Collection.

The Love Bubbles Canvas speak of love in a rainbow of colors.
Available from my website and boutiques nationwide.

You Fill My Heart With Love shows the many layers of love in
a prism of brilliant colors.
Available from my website and boutiques nationwide.

These and other pieces from the collection are inspired by the folk and hand wrought one-of-a-kinds you would find at Flea Markets.  Whenever I travel, I love to hit the local flea markets.  My love of vintage signage and quirky folk art always has me hunting for my next art treasure.  Within these works, I was inspired to create imagery with that unique art appeal and offer it in a color palette that compliments todays nursery and bedroom textiles.  The sweet sentiment of "You Fill My Heart With Love" is a perfect expression of my love of text and painted word art.

Here you might enjoy two mood boards, one for a nursery and the second a girl's bedroom.  If you are interested in the art, it is available from my website boutique or from hundreds of retailers nationwide that carry my line.  If you would prefer to shop locally, send me your zip code and I'll locate your nearest retailer.  Keep in mind, EmbellishmentsKids.com offers e-consults and travel based design packages for nurseries, kid's and teen room.  See our website for information.

Enjoy!
-Aaron

Purple Glitter in My Paper Cut, Thanks Justin Bieber!

Over the years, my kids have become numb to the weird and wondrous stuff that leaves my studio.  They know, with a little smile and a hug, that I'll turn the studio upside down to create whatever their aspiring art director hearts desire.  Sucker!  Well, the prince of pop, Justin Bieber was coming to town and my daughter's studio wish list was submitted for my consideration.  "Oh, Dad...I don't want to ask for too much, but do you think you can make me a T-shirt and a sign?," she asked with a smile.  "I promised my friends you would make them some too!," she slipped in at the end.  Sucker!

Cut up t-shirts

What's a dad to do?  Get busy of course!  For the t-shirts we cut up the lower part of Bieber purple t-shirts and knotted them to create a fringed look.  I had recently acquired a Silhouette cutting system, so I thought I'd put it to task cutting out her text of choice to use as a reversed stencil, which was Belieber #1.   Placing the stencil on the shirt acts as a mask for the fabric spray paint.

With a few coats of Simply Spray's stencil spray, the purple was covered.  Peeling the stencil revealed the purple shirt color underneath.

She wanted signs to catch the attention of the local radio station, who was giving away seat upgrades.  If she and her two friends each had a part of the sign then for sure they'd upgrade all three of their tickets.

For the signs, I cut out the stations logo in black foam core in two sizes.  One was covered with glue and glittered black and silver.  The other was coated in purple.  Sandwiched in between the layers, I duct taped little battery operated LED lights.  Her favorite part was using two print outs of Mr. Bieber's face as the centers of the zeros.

Decked out in their Bieber wares, holding their flashy signs did the trick!  They caught the attention of the pop star reviewing the crowd from above.

Justin Bieber gives the girls two thumbs up.

As for the seat upgrades, well... the radio station was only upgrading tickets from the upper levels to the floor, which they already had.   Oh well... they we're rewarded by catching his attention and receiving the two thumbs up from the purple pop star.

 She and her friends had a great time.   Which makes it all worthwhile.  Now, if only I could get the purple super fans to help clean up the whirlwind of glitter that's everywhere in the studio and wedged in the "blood, sweat and tears" paper cut I gave myself wrestling the lights onto the foam core.

Thank you Justin Bieber for the opportunity to bond with my girl, her friends and sport bits of purple glitter.  I guess if you can be the purple pop-star, I can be the purple glittered craft dad.

What kind of extraordinary crafty things have you created to make your kids happy?

Kid's Room Trends- closing out 2012 and welcoming 2013

  In her latest post, up on SheKnows.com contributor Susie Fougerousse, kid biz mommy of five taps a few industry experts to get their opinions on the trends closing out 2012.  Embellishments Kids owner, designer and kids art go-to-guy, Aaron Christensen shares his picks for the year end.

 An upcoming feature, here on the Embellishments Kids blog will explore Aaron's trend finds and elaborate on the SheKnows article.

Get-a-way - A Room for a Teen Longing for Paradise

Dig your feet in the sand, lay back and sun yourself.   In this mood board featuring my American Byway's Prop Plane art, I've assembled a room for the young guy who longs for travel and exotic locals.  Borrowing from the hot trend of reclaimed lumber, deconstructed furniture and primal materials, the design brings home the textures and colors of the beach, preferably one in an far off paradise.

Visit my website for the art and details on how I can help you design your children's, teen, tween and youthful spaces.

Pin It To Win It! Up Your Chances To Win!

My friends at Rosenberry Rooms, one of the fantastic retailers that feature my children's wall art line shown here is hosting a Pinterest contest.

Basically, create a Pin worthy Pinterest Board featuring Rosenberry products, following their instructions here and you can be entered to win one of three prize levels totaling $3000.00 in merchandise.

Well, I'd love to increase your chances at a win.  If you feature my wall art or products that can be found on Rosenberry Rooms in your Pinterest Board submission, I'll enter you in my own drawing for up to $300.00 of my wall art.  While many may enter their contest, you'll only be competing with those that use my products in my contest.  Imagine winning both!

To be qualified in my drawing, you must 1) Enter your submission in Rosenberry Room's contest following their criteria, by their deadline.  2) Send me, by email a copy or link to your Pinterest submission. 3) Follow me on Pinterest.

The winning Pin board featuring my goodies will be chosen randomly.  All entries will be featured on my Facebook page and a fab new Pinterest Board.  Winner will be contacted via email.

Please note, my contest is not sponsored by Rosenberry Rooms and their winner has no correlation to whom I randomly select.  Email me if you have any questions.  Their contest entry ends October 4th with a winner selected on the 18th. The winner* of my contest, will be selected by October 6th.

Get busy and start designing your Pinterest Board today!

You can find my art featured here on Rosenberry!  There's over 150 products to choose from!

*continental US residents only.  Sorry Canada!

Render a Gender- Designing a Neutral Nursery for Baby

 There's a segment of the population that want their baby's gender to be a surprise until birth.  If completing the newborn's nursery ahead of time is a priority, then for sure the term gender neutral comes up.  Oh, but how I wish we could adopt a term other than gender neutral to describe that desire.  Gender neutral sounds like a physical impairment or a sarcastic answer to a Match.com dating preference question.  Regardless, whether they are inny-outty-unsure, seat up or seat down undecided or reproductive representation reserved, those choosing to wait on their baby's sex have decor decisions to make in their nursery.

From all angles in my work as a kids designer and artist creating art and products for the retail marketplace the trend of color is being shouted from the mountain tops.  How's color a trend you may ask?  Well, the trend nerds who spend their every waking hour looking for hints on how to forecast consumer's buying habits all look into 2013 and beyond as years of saturated color.  They are proclaiming the full spectrum of rainbow colored hues IS the new black.   They say it has a causality relationship between our rebounding economy and the need to feel optimistic, re-energized and alive!  Alive with color....say it with me....ALIVE WITH COLOR!  Extra points for your jazz hands and open mouth smiles, well done reader, well done!

This gotta-have color trend relates back to my topic of gender neutral, because basically, I'm not a big fan of mousey mint and rubber duck yellow.  Those official colors of nursery neutrality are tired and thankfully my most recent nursery client agreed.  When I brought up the topic of color, in our initial client meeting, I met no resistance to pushing the color palette into the super saturated one.

My client was ever so happy to put faith in my decisions and abilities.  She used the magic words "I trust you!"  So off I went shopping for fabrics and all that might inspire a color rich room while trying to remain neutral to gender or, P or V identification procrastination.   Having hit every fabric resource in town with my faithful designer counterpart Shannon Ponciano, whom was designing the rest of the clients home, we came upon a terrific abstractive chevron fabric.  It was color rich, fun yet sophisticated.

This fabric choice led me to my fellow children's artist Melanie Mikecz's wall art entitled the Rainbow Zebra.  What a beautiful mix of happy colors, a fun subject and textures I am so drawn to.  I was delighted to frame the piece with a custom frame, made here in the studio.

From there the room's design rapidly came into fruition.  I planned on saturating the walls with a deep teal, adding a vanilla framed color block of green on the ceiling and furnishing the room with blasts of color and the neutrals grey and white.

Throughout the home's interior, rustic woods are being used in modern ways, so I designed corner shelves for the nursery and constructed them out of 50 year old reclaimed barn wood topped with an acrylic polyurethane finish and lined with burnt orange paint.

For those of you that know me, you are aware of my love for building and creating unique items for my kid's spaces.  I drew up several ideas for a crib mobile and was ready to build my favorite until I came across a terrific DIY, by Jaime over at Sew She Sew's.  Her mobile design was an amazing mix of homespun ingenuity and artful elegance.  I couldn't imagine a better fit for the nursery.

Having solved the mobile dilemma my attention turned to props and accessories.  I created a custom alphabet piece, a vintage wood mirror and a cute green chalkboard to compliment the grouping anchored by a 30 inch tall giraffe sculpture.

A Red Ryder wagon entered my studio brand new, out of the box, and left a distressed and faux antiqued piece ready to act as a bookshelf along the room's bank of windows.
Inspired by the crib fabric I chose to render one wall with a series of elongated zig zags inviting more color into the room.

Once baby arrives the room can evolve to impart a more feminine or masculine attitude.  Of course that depends on their little one either having a wee wee or a she wee!  Yep, after that, I'm fresh out of gender neutral terms.

I have an extremely happy client, I've made the hidden from sunlight trend seekers proud and most of all had a lot of fun.  I did however piss off all of those mint and yellow fans.  Oh, well....sorry, I'll repay you in 20 years when the whole southwestern pastel aztec trend reemerges like a zombie.  Aaaaaahhhhh!

Best,
Aaron

This nursery is featured until September 23rd in an open home tour, in Vancouver Washington.  The homeowners are opening their newly completed home to visitors as part of the Clark County Parade of Homes.  If you're in town, I'd love to have you drop by and check it out.

Of course, I'd love to hear your comments here or you can join me on my Facebook page, where I'll share a few more details.  For you Pinning Peeps I've loaded up the collection of photos on a Pinterest board for you to share.

Gender Neutral, Color Not So Neutral - Our Latest Baby Nursery featured in Parade of Homes Tour

The Clark County Parade of Homes is host to my latest baby nursery project.  The homeowner settled into a gender neutral theme awaiting the baby's confirmation of sex.  The room features many of my studio's custom items.  Be sure to follow me here on my blog or join me on Facebook for the latest update and room details coming soon.

A sneak peek at my latest gender neutral nursery featured in the Clark County Parade of Homes Tour 2012.  The show is open September 7th - 23rd.

Here We Go! A boy's transportation nursery mood board for the little traveler.

With summer winding down, the road trips and expeditions are coming to an end.  To keep your little traveler imagining the world around him, I've designed this mood board with an on-the-go attitude.  Featuring one of my latest wall art pieces, the American Byways American Map, the room flies, drives and rails its way into a classic transportation motif.  The combination of rustic woods, a soothing fresh color palette, retro chic goods and a hint of a modern are a charming touch that will grow with your lil' man from infant to adolescent.

My art, available nationwide, and through my online boutique, brings together the look of old travel related signs, vintage elements and reclaimed wood within a U.S. Map.  It's available in two sizes, fit for a boys room or within your home.

If designing a nursery, kid's room or teen space has you searching the map for design directions, let me help you keep your vision on the road to success.  I offer e-consultations, accommodate travel and have a fantastic network of retailers who can help us create your dream space.

All the details are on my website.  Or if you prefer, give me a call for a no-obligation phone consultation, as to how we can help.

New Wall Art and Decor by Aaron Christensen- Perfect for Boy's Rooms

Introducing the American Byways Collection

I'm happy to announce new additions to my wall art and decor line.  The collection explores the ever-popular transportation theme in a nostalgic, vintage way.  With distressed and reclaimed wood imagery in wood tones, turquoises and teals, the pieces are on trend with a color palette and textures popular in kid's rooms.   Featuring a U.S. map and forms of transportation, the collection offers a timeless look that has terrific value being able to transition from toddler room decor to art for adult spaces.

Hopping from cornfield runways to small city airports the American
Byways Prop Plane piece brings to mind the joys of small aircraft travel.

While Hot Air ballooning is no longer a current form of transportation,
the image of a balloon evokes thoughts of traveling amongst the clouds and
soaring the skies in days bygone.

Hitting the dusty back roads in a Pick-up truck, visiting every small
town in-route is inferred in this nostalgic piece.

Clickety clack, clickety clack.  The Locomotive image reminds us of
the glamour and intrigue of transcontinental railroad travel.

With it's road signs and vintage ephemera, the American Byways map pays tribute
to the cross country road trip.

The American Byways Lampshade/Lamp set coordinates with the collection.

My new introductions are only available, for the first six months, artist direct through my website or exclusively through brick and mortar stores that carry my line.  This gives Main Street America a chance to present and sell the pieces before the online retailers.