Lindsay Ballard, Author at Makely

I am always surprised with the comments I get on my blog after I post photos of a boldly painted wall or brightly painted piece of furniture. For the most part, I hear the oooohs and ahhhhs that I say to myself when I finish a project. But sometimes, I hear, “I love it, but I don’t think I could pull off a bright yellow dresser.”

Why not?

How many of you feel scared to add color to your home? What if you paint a wall blue and don’t like it? Well, what if you paint a wall blue and love it? It’s just paint after all.

So, for all of my friends who are a wee bit nervous to take the dive, Glidden has created a new online community called My Colortopia. Today, I am pleased excited overjoyed to announce that I have joined a field of jaw dropping home decor bloggers in contributing color inspiration and how to ideas on the My Colortopia blog. Seriously. It’s the big dogs – Centsational Girl, Brooklyn Limestone, Ana White, Making it Lovely, The Inspired Room, In My Own Style – and little ‘ole me. My first how to, Choosing the Right Brushes and Rollers for your project, has just been posted to the blog.

The folks at Glidden have big plans for My Colortopia. Right now, the site is a fabulous blog. Very soon it will transform into a source of inspiration, a community of home decor enthusiasts, and a place to get your color and painting questions answered by people like me who never can never seem to get all of the paint washed out of their hair. Go ahead and bookmark it now. I’ll let you know when the fun goodies have gone live.

So, tell me about you and the color choices in your home. What’s the one color you’d love to add but you feel nervous about it? Blue? Pink? Orange? Charcoal Gray?

I have partnered with Glidden/ Akzo Nobel Paints to participate in the My Colortopia program but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I am the world’s worst gift wrapper. I see beautifully wrapped gifts all over the internet, and then I look at my sad little gifts wrapped in paper I picked up at Target. You would think that someone who thrives in creativity, such as myself, would be super excited to wrap a whole room full of gifts. Instead, I see it as a chore, and I’m pretty sure my wrapping reflects that – this is the first year that I’ve actually tied a ribbon around the gifts! I’m telling you, my gift wrap leaves A LOT to be desired.

As I was taping and cutting and folding last week, I began to think of ways that I could make this easier on myself. I decided that a few big rolls of brown kraft paper would be the way to go, since I could be creative in the way I embellished each package. That seems more crafty and fun to me than the boring way that I traditionally wrap gifts.

I sought out some creative gift wrap options using brown kraft paper, and here are five of my favorites:

1. Felt Embellishments – I can’t decide which of these embellishments I like more, the holly topper, the scarf wrap or the Santa stache. By Lisa Storms of the Fiskars craft team.

2. Christmas Tree Silhouette – Leave it to Martha to come up with such an ingenious and simple embellishment. By Martha Stewart.

3. Toothpick Flag – Toothpick + Fabric Scrap + Kraft Paper = Awesome. By Sally Shim.

4. Hand Drawn Design – Talk about quick and easy! This designer recommends using a pencil to first draw your doodle if you are too nervous to just go for it with a silver pen. By Kate at Mini-Eco.

5. Raid Your Craft Supplies – Jessica used felt, glue, yarn, thread and pom poms to create these embellishments. She says they are so easy that even your kids can help wrap. By Jessica at Two Shades of Pink.

How are your wrapping skills? Are you already a wrapping pro or could you put some of these ideas to use? Personally, I’m feeling a little bit better about the rest of the gifts I need to tackle!

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad {Color} Wolf?

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String