What's Up With Teal?

Seafoam, Aqua, Robin Egg, Turquoise, Peacock, Teal... no matter what you call it, it's just differing degrees of that combination of blue and green.  Because GiGi calls any and all forms of this combination Teal, that's what I'm gonna do for this post.  And in all it's forms, it's obviously one of my favorite colors (and GiGi's too)! 

About 5 years ago I started thinking about Teal... not the dark version that I had always considered the real Teal, but that middle ground - turquoise is what I've always called it; somewhere between Aqua and Teal. I started thinking about it as I was considering new furniture.  And I realized that this color was more neutral than even cream.  Think about it, what color doesn't work with "turquoise", that middle bluegreen color?  Red, check.  Pink, check.  Yellow, check.  Orange, check.  Green, check.  Blue, check.  Brown, check.  Black, check.  It works for every season - spring skies, summer water, winter snow.  It's the perfect color.

It suddenly occurred to me that Teal has taken over my scrapbooking.  I know that it's normal for all of us to scrap around our favorite colors; or, at the very least, to sneak in small aspects of that color.  But it seems the scrap world went crazy for Teal!  I mean, obviously - it's available everywhere.  And we scrappers have eaten it up.  No more strictly red and green Christmas pages, teal works well there too.  No more strictly pink and red Valentines - those colors look so well with a dash of teal.  No more pastel blue when we can use that beautiful aqua color.  Summers look great with a dose of teal.  That true teal, the dark side, looks great with the browns and golds of fall.  Baby boys are teal and brown.  Baby girls are pink and teal. 

And do you know why?  Its not just the neutrality of  the color but the fact that it truly makes us feel happy.  When GiGi moved into the spare room of my mom's house, it was a Disney room.  There were lithographs, snow globes and canvases of Disney all over the room - and still are.  The colors were yellow walls, royal blue curtains, and red comforter.  The first thing we brought into the room was a teal bedside lamp.  That looked so pretty, we bought a teal curtain.  Then a teal rug.  Amazingly, I found a throw at WalMart that had flowers of teal, green, red and some striped pillows of the royal blue, red, yellow and one teal stripe through the middle.  Then there's the owl canvas and owl hooks.   This room is lovely.  But mostly, its happy. 

I still receive the only scrapbook magazine left - Creating Keepsakes.  It's a good mag (my fave was Scrapbooking, Etc. which went out of publication this year).  I love mags, they're soooo portable and that's important while sitting in the car waiting for cheer practice to end  and you forgot to charge your phone.  At any rate, I skimmed through my new mag last night and realized that 8 out 10 layouts had at least one itty bitty hint of teal in it.  That's amazing with the variety of creators, subject matters, manufacturers that composed those layouts.  So I went back and looked at the layouts I've created over the past 6 months and yep, theres a whole bunch of teal in there.  Here's the last 4 I did previous to the ones shown in the last 2 posts:

Cardstock:  Paper Studio; Patterned Paper:  American Crafts; Stickers:  American Crafts;  Flowers:  Paper Studio; Embellishments: American Crafts; Gems:  Queen&Co; Brads:  Paper Studio, Recollections; Punches:  Martha Stewart, EK Success; Other Buttons, Thread, Tag.

Cardstock:  Paper Studio; Patterned Paper:  Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon; Stickers:  American Crafts, My Minds Eye, EK Success, Cosmo Cricket; Journaling Spot:  Colorbok; Brad: Hampton Arts; Stamps: 7 Gypsies, Hampton Arts; Punch:  Ek Success; Other:  Buttons, Thread.

Cardstock:  Paper Studio; Patterned Paper:  American Crafts, Studio Calico, Echo Park; Flowers:  Prima, Making Memories, Creative Memories; Brads:  Hampton Arts, Paper Studio, Sassafras; Stickers:  American Crafts, Doodlebug; Punch:  Ek Success.

Cardstock:  Paper Studio; Patterned Paper:  Pink Paislee, American Crafts, Sassafras; Journaling Spots: K&Co; Stickers:  American Crafts, Echo Park, Colorbok; Flowers: Paper Studio, Prima; Brads: Sassafras, Hampton Arts; Embellishments:  Colorbok, American Crafts; Punches:  Ek Success, Fiskars.

 

In fact, looking back, only 2 of the last 14 layouts I've made have not had some shade of teal somewhere in them.  And trust me, that's a totally unconscious creative decision.  Well maybe not totally unconscious... Obviously in the case of my brother's layout and my Nonna layouts they are predominately in shades of aqua with a bright partner color - something I remember actually doing on purpose when I had those papers all spread out on my table.  But conscious or subconscious it's all fine with me.  I do not plan to omit any Teal in the future if it happens to come into my layout.  I will never make a conscious decision to just leave it out.  Because honestly, of all the layouts I've made over the past 13 years, these are my favorites.  They just give me a smiley feeling when I look at them.

 

So what are your feelings about all those shades of bluegreen? 

 

I have signed up for the Scrap Remix class at pretty paper.true stories that Shimelle starts tomorrow.  Excited as it will be my first ever class!  And only the 3rd time I have ever been involved in any kind of joint scrapbooking (crops, etc.).  So we'll see how it goes and if I can hang with the class.  Luckily I know that if I'm not able to keep up, the class will always be available to me.  Gotta love Shimelle!

 

Also, hopefully I will get GiGi's computer repaired soon so that I can have my laptop back fulltime and catch up on what's going on over at my favorite blogs... right now I just feel fortunate that she's out of the house so I can jump on my own blog!  But know that I still love them all and so miss being able to check out everyone!

 

Have a great Monday!

 

Cheerio!

 

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."  - Pablo Picasso