Shannon Berrey Design Blog

Great.ly excited!

Monday, April 14, 2014

There is a brand new exciting site on the horizon and it consists of some of my favorite bloggers and makers. Great.ly is launching in May under the creative direction of the one and only, Danielle Krysa, also known as The Jealous Curator. This is how she explains the site:

'On GREAT.LY it’s the tastemakers that have the shops and do all of the selling, so that the makers only have to worry about doing what they truly love doing… making! And for the tastemakers – they spend their days searching the world for beautiful things to write about, but rarely get paid for those discoveries {selling ads only goes so far}… so we’re aiming to make this a win-win-win situation! Makers make and earn. Tastemakers sell and earn. Buyers get one, clean, curated, non-cluttered market place filled with amazing products from all over the world brought to them by the tastemakers that they already follow.'

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Pretty cool, right?? And just to get you more excited, here are some of the folks already on board:

If you want to set up your own boutique on Great.ly, they are searching for Makers! Visit The Jealous Curator for all of the details.

(images via The Jealous Curator}

Snowlogged=waterlogue

Thursday, February 13, 2014

We got snow!!! About 1/2 a foot fell all day yesterday and last night. Is there anything prettier than falling snow?? Especially when you don't lose power {which is so rare!!} I think not.

The sun is out today and it is melting pretty fast, but we are still homebound at least for another day. This gives me plenty of time to play with my new favorite app, Waterlogue. If you follow other blogs, I am sure you have seen bloggers displaying their 'painted' pics. It really is a fun thing to play around with and the learning curve is super easy.

'Natural'

'It's Technical'

There are 12 pre-set effects to choose from. You can also select the size of the brush stroke and how light/dark you would like it. Simply upload your image and it it immediately starts sketching and then starts 'painting' in the layers of colors right before your eyes. This is really my favorite part, watching the process!

With people pics, I like using 'illustration' {left pic above} or 'technical' {right} or 'fashionable' because it adds a little outline and gives a bit more definition to details like the eyes and the nose. {Although 'technical' has an overall grid, which, I don't like.} I also increase the size of the brushstroke because it creates more details {With the brush size -- if you were actually doing a watercolor painting, the smaller number would be equal to a really wet brush stroke and the bigger number would be a drier brush}

The pics above and below are done in 'natural'.

Both of these images are from the wedding I worked on last summer.

And just to show an example of the same pic done 2 ways -- this carriage ride pic from Emma's wedding on the left is 'natural' and the one on the right is 'bold'

Our Jackson county Courthouse

So, tell me, are you using Waterlogue? Are you as addicted to this app as I am??

Why Pinterest and barn wood walls are awesome

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

OK, so stick with me here.... I started reading Ree's {aka 'The Pioneer Woman'} blog long before I ever saw her TV show on The Food Network. {remember this post??} She has a great writing style, a charming wit, a rambling ranch, great photography tips, and an impressive ongoing remodel of a town landmark.

I have also been a long time follower of blogger Kara Paslay. I first discovered her when she was blogging about her job as one of Anthropologie's creative merchandising and display team members. She has since teamed up with the talents of her creative carpenter husband and they have reno'd an industrial loft as well as designed several TV sets. You may remember them as guests on the old Nate Berkus show. Oh, and Tim started a side biz of super cool wooden bowties {Two Guys Bowties} that I blogged about here. They are currently working towards their own TV design show.

Now, Ree's bestie, Hyacinth, wanted a barn wood wall in her guest room. She did exactly what you are supposed to do, and took to Pinterest. Here, she discovered a barn wood that wall she loved, clicked through, saw it was done by Kara and started reading her blog. Excitement set in as she discovered that Kara and Tim were in a nearby midwestern city. She called Kara and soon, Kara and Tim found themselves redoing Hyacinths room.

Ree wanted to showcase the beautiful transformation and shared posts about the redo on her blog.

I love how this rustic wall turned out.

They started with a sketch which they digitized.

Then they set up their computerized router to translate the design into the barn wood.

I love the contrast of the 'clean wood' next to the aged grayed wood.

They added a Z Gallerie steer head and created a frame and a plaque with the year the house was built.

Ree also loved how it turned out and wanted to meet Kara. She asked Kara to give her set/lodge a little more 'oomph'. So, Kara got busy.

In the back of the set, color was added to the backsplash by using blue egg crates. And a hanging rope shelf was added above the stove.

Temporary redo's that can easily be changed for future seasons.

So here's the moral{s} of the story:

1} post your awesome stuff to Pinterest

2} you never know who is friends with who

3} the internet makes the world a much smaller place

4} you might end up on the set of a TV show

5} Ree is a FANTASTIC cook. watch her show

{images via Kara Paslay}

Beauty: Sevenly

Monday, January 06, 2014

Sevenly was started in 2011 by 2 guys who wanted to lead a generation towards generosity. They do this by supporting a new cause every week and selling awesome products from their site and donating $7 of every sale to that weeks cause.

They have super talented in-house artists that create artwork to support the specific cause and they are limited editions, only available during the week of that particular sale. So, if you love a shirt, buy it! Here are some of my faves from past campaigns.

I discovered this site back when their weekly campaign was 'teens battling depression'. And I fell in love with the Beauty baseball shirt.

Guess who else fell in love with it over winter break???

It's like the trifecta of great style -- 1) your money goes toward a wonderful cause 2) you are advertising the cause when you wear it therefore creating awareness, and possibly conversation that can lead others to participate and 3) you get to wear a beautiful shirt created by an artist! It's lovely enough to even grace your walls.