April Blog Train Planning

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April Blog Train Planning

Everyone seems to be enjoying the blog train, so I thought we should get started on the next one. Please share your thoughts on the following:

1. Color palette and theme suggestions
2. Any ideas or suggestions to improve things from previous experience

Great work everyone! I always look forward to seeing what great things people make.

I think the system in place is working great. As far as themes for April, just off the top of my head, "April Showers" which could be broadly interpreted in terms of theme and color.

Oh I loved the blog train. I'm excited for another one. I love the theme @Tina said "April Showers". That sounds like a cute one.

Well, we don´t need necessarially to relate to weather/seasons/holidays (well, we have Easter if we want to). I guess one of the reasons Retro Kitchen BT is being a success, apart of you all being really really talented, is that´s not a common theme for a blog train.

Here are some of my suggestions:
-Pets themed BT (more or less the color palettes of this or this photo)

-Nerdy is the new cool;

-India/China/Japan (pick one)

-TV and movies/Going to the movies/Cinema festival

-New baby/Toddlers

Yay to another blogtrain! I love the April Showers idea, I see fresh springtime colors with that theme. I found this while googling 'april showers', I like the blue, green, yellow and light greyish colors, with a spot of orange:

But maybe Lorien also has a point; April may already be full of springtime, april-themed blogtrains. I do love the Nerdy-geeky kits too...

Suggestions to improve? The only thing is that it might be nice for the blogtrain-followers to have a next and previous on each blog. Or at least a link back to Pixelscrapper (which by the way I completely forgot to do smiley)

Well... here is my really not helpful comment: I love all these ideas. Generally, I agree about the April Showers thing except that it could include wedding-ish type stuff because of "showers" and I do love the vintage look of the Good Housekeeping cover.

I would also love to throw the idea of Art Journaling into consideration. We could each do a mini around a prompt of our choosing or just do a general art journaling train... Also, being the social deviant I am, we wouldn't have to share a color palette... the theme could be the tie that binds...

@Moly: Fantastic Ideas

@Melouise: Nice picture!

For Nerdy is the new cool theme I´d like to have a color palette from the traditional LEGO colors + black and white. I tried to find a picture, but failed smiley

Edit: Found a better example of the color palette I´d like to have:

I'd like to participate in the next one, so I'm pretty much up for anything. Just tell me when, where, & who and I'll show up. smiley

Easter!

I really like things out of the norm... no holidays... it will be soooo overdone by everyone else. I will find at least one or two blog trains for the holidays and share them here for people to fiind. (Actually a great idea right now for that) I will start a thread for Holiday Blog Trains... and anyone can share those in this one thread I create for any holiday trains. smiley

As far as here, I like that we keep things a little different, that's what kept me here, not... "the same o, same o"

I like several of the ideas mentioned by others already:
-- Nerdy/Geeky
-- Art Journaling
-- TV, Movies, Cinema Festivals
-- April Showers (I do like this idea, very vintage color scheme & there could be a spin put on it. Something like April Showers, May Flowers with a dreary, sultry, subdue appeal & then a warm, fun, gleaming appeal on the flip side... not necessarily flowery and springy if that makes any sense)

As far as the primary color scheme... I think it's a hard one for most people to use. It's a very specific use that is required at least how I see it, but I'm definitely NOT a designer (as you all know). I bow to y'alls authority and talent. It just tends to lend it's self to children, & overly playful in my own mind's eye. smiley

So, all that said... I have an idea or two to add...
- What about a Jazz/Musical/Etc theme? - What about a "time" theme, like clocks, watches, etc? - What about an era theme like the Roaring 20's, the Psychedelic 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, etc? Well, that's about all I got for now.

~ Wedding Theme - I know that June is the typical wedding month but I've noticed that a muted/vintage/antique color scheme may be a nice addition to what is already on the site. The kit pieces could also potentially be used for genealogy type layouts.

~ Baby/Young Child Theme - There's not a specific kit dedicated to babies/children. A vintage baby/child theme would be a blast. I'm thinking 40s/50s Dick and Jane type stuff.

~ Word Art - Another area that doesn't have quite as much choice here on the site.

~ Basic Templates - I've found that creating basic templates can sometimes be time consuming (i.e. bunting flags, scaloped edges, frames, etc.). I love learning how to do it...but at times would love to be able to just have a bunch of customizable templates (the kind where you use a layer mask to fill in the specific color/pattern/paper) at my finger tips. Hopefully that makes sense.

Oh, and I'm probably not the norm here, but I love primary colors. I'd especially love to do a baby/child kit in primary colors vs. stereotypical pastels.

My vote would be for travel as preparation for the travel season. You could pick travel in an earlier era, like steam trains and ships and use steampunk style.
At the moment I am totally into steampunk. I just supported a steam punk ABC book on Kickstarter and it is in print at the moment looking stunning.

Have a look Steam punk book and maybe you agree with me it's gorgeous!

You could do a search for steampunk color palettes on http://www.colourlovers.com/ and search Google for 'What is steampunk' smiley

if you're not into steampunk than maybe the elegance of travel in the 20's to 40's for instance on cruise ships would appeal yto you.

Another style that is very popular at the moment is Kraft and Veneer. Maybe something like 'Back to Basics'? And use a lot of Kraft and veneer and other wood items?

Another topic that is a favorite of mine for a long time and I have asked the question in other forums but no one was interested, is n around the world theme. We have so many designers and members from around the world and Marisa and Jordan have been everywhere, it would be so nice to design a kit that is related to your own country or State.
I could do something about Holland/the Netherlands that isn't just windmills and clogs.

The ideas I like are:

Vintage April Showers (yellows, teals, grays)
Cinema / Theatre (reds, blues, blacks)
Travel (browns, creams, greans, blues)

How about vacation? April is school vacation time... People tend to go to warm, tropical places or amusement parks like Florida, Disney, Hawaii & what not...

Lorien, I found your legos, lol

I found this here

Love love love all of your ideas!!!

Quote:
My vote would be for travel as preparation for the travel season. You could pick travel in an earlier era, like steam trains and ships and use steampunk style.
At the moment I am totally into steampunk. I just supported a steam punk ABC book on Kickstarter and it is in print at the moment looking stunning.

Have a look Steam punk book and maybe you agree with me it's gorgeous!

You could do a search for steampunk color palettes on http://www.colourlovers.com/ and search Google for 'What is steampunk'

if you're not into steampunk than maybe the elegance of travel in the 20's to 40's for instance on cruise ships would appeal yto you.

Another style that is very popular at the moment is Kraft and Veneer. Maybe something like 'Back to Basics'? And use a lot of Kraft and veneer and other wood items?

@Tina: LoL, too cute... actually might like those muted lego colors myself, now. smiley

LOL Tina!

For one hand, I really like Christine´s idea of steampunk - I need to let you know that the ABC Steampunk made me smile - But, on the other hand, I think we shoud go in a more contemporary (is it the word do refer to things that happen at this time?) theme, because the last one was a retro one.

The theme of last year´s April STS blog train was April Showers, but their color pallette was different (see here). There were also a very tiny blog train with this theme in 2010 (with these colors). I guess we need to take this into consideration that it´s not an original theme if we really deceide to go this way.

We also have to keep in mind that April Showers aren´t a phenomenon all over the world. I started to research it to see if it relate somehow to the brazilian expression "Águas de Março" (March waters), that also become popular after a song. The whole expression on the song is "The March waters, ending the summer", and they are a bit destructive kind of rain. But seems that April Showers are more gentle, or am I wrong? If we go this theme, we could also get an orange (and maybe a brown) in our colors, to become easier to relate to this too.

However, this won´t be my first choice of theme. I´d still go with cinema/theatre, travel, geek or baby.

Actually April Showers have some of the connotation that it is destructive. Creeks and Rivers flood, Dams overflow, house sometimes ruined... I don't know if it was a nursery rhyme to remind you of the happy side (or silver lining) is that the flowers always grow because of it (all the rain) that can seem miserable sometimes. March/April is more of the beginning of Spring/Summer time here in the US. Don't know about other places... probably different months for each country though, because some people/places are experiencing winter when we have summer. smiley

First of all I love all of your brilliant ideas!!! But someone mentioned having a blog train theme of your country or state. I think that is a fantastic idea! I'm Italian but I live in the United States. However if I were to do this as a blog train I would pick Italy because I am Italian.

Love all of your ideas everyone. I am happy with whatever you all decide. smiley

http://img2.etsystatic.com/000/0/5617226/il_fullxfull.305346282.jpg

I personally love the colors that are in the picture (link above) very fun and could be used for a lot of different themes or layouts. A gender neutral theme would be great!

@Melouise I love that Good Housekeeping image, very sweet and retro.

I think everyone has some great ideas...I also remember seeing so many great ideas in Marisa's "Design Requests" thread...maybe we could use some of these colors along with some of the themes from the other thread to come up with something spectacular. What do you think?

https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/forums/digital-scrapbooking/digital-scrapbooking-discussion/design-requests

Love those colors Emily...but I'm a sucker for vivid colors!

Shawna I like both of your additional ideas. For the era's one, possibly each person could take a decade and then the theme would be Through the Years?

@Christine- love steampunk!!! All your ideas are wonderful! But I did laugh at the idea about doing where we live- my kit would be about corn! LOL

Actually, I can think of a lot of ideas for Indianapolis....

@Emily - love the colors in the picture you pointed smiley

I am excited by so many of these ideas!!! I especially love pets and nerdy is the new cool, era themes such as the 20's or the 60s, Steampunk, and the theme "Around the World." I would love to participate in a train about something other than a holiday. You guys are so brilliant I do not feel the need to add any more ideas to the mix! smiley I really hope to participate this time. Oh, and for the record, I ADORE bright primary colors AND dark untraditional colors both as a designer and as a scrapper. In terms of palettes, I can live with most anything. But I grumbled for the entire month when an STS palette had TWO shades of grey in it. The whole time I was designing, I was thinking, "Seriously? We need two shades of grey?" (Biting my tongue on the 50 Shades of Grey jokes...)

"For the era's one, possibly each person could take a decade and then the theme would be Through the Years?"

@Molly

I Love the idea you have!

my idea is these two pallets together and the theme "NEW BEGINNINGS"

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