The party continues! As you may have heard, this month is our celebratory Craft the Rainbow month, to honor two years since publication! Hopefully you kicked off celebrating with us by following along with our rainbow search challenge, perfect for kiddos and quarantine! Or, perhaps you perused through Part 1 of our handy publication guide (again, still perfect for quarantine, while you write that next great American novel). Any way you slice it, Craft the Rainbow month has been a great celebration so far!
Continuing with our anniversary theme, today we are letting loose Craft the Rainbow-inspired Phone and Desktop Wallpapers! And the best news about these is that they are FREE. That’s right folks, we are so excited about these desktop wallpapers that we are putting them up as free downloads! Each wallpaper is a colorful page of craft supplies in every color, as per Craft the Rainbow implies, constructed to create inspiring photos in every shade! You’ll definitely want to take a look-though, and decide which wallpaper inspires you the most.
Materials:
Free phone wallpaper downloads
We loved creating these free downloadable wallpapers just as much as creating Craft the Rainbow. If you haven’t read it before, you’ll want to! As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s the ultimate stay-at-home companion, which is something we all might need right now. And now, for the first time ever, it is available for your Kindle for super cheap too I might add.
Quarantine boredom is no joke, but what better solution is there than crafting? We created these downloadable wallpapers as we were inspired by Craft the Rainbow, so who knows what you could be inspired to? Let that simmer in your thoughts as you look through each colorful wallpaper, and choose what speaks to you the most. Inspiration can be found in the darndest places, and here at Lars, sometimes it’s a sweet background photo.
These were one of my favorite parts of creating the book with my friend, photographer Chaunte Vaughn. We spent A LOT of time making them. Ha! I wanted each chapter to show the love I have of it through finding all the beautiful craft supplies in that color. Some of the beautiful objects were provided by friends and crafters from around the world including Ruth Ribeaucourt of The French Muse, who sent me a huge supply of beautiful objects from Provence. To me, they made the book!
Chaunte was so patient making these with me. We shot it in January when we had shorter light to work with so we had to RACE to get them done.
Free desktop wallpaper downloads
Check out these new wallpapers as soon as you can, and let us know which one was your fav! Unless all of them were, in which case you’ll want to download them all! Look through the shop today for the free downloads, and let Craft the Rainbow keep inspiring you for the rest of the month (or maybe the rest of your life!)
The artist behind these rainbow wallpapers
These beautiful background canvases in each the images were created for Craft the Rainbow by artist Rachel Kiser Smith. She added so much texture and vibrancy that we’ve been using the backgrounds for shoots ever since.
We love her work so much and wanted to introduce her to you! Here amazing use of color and texture fills the pages of Craft the Rainbow and we couldn’t be happier about it. Read through her interview below to get to know Rachel, and to see more of her process while creating for our book!
What do you consider yourself? Example: Artist, designer, illustrator, maker, business person etc.?
Artist, creative, dabbler
Who helped you “become” who you are?
My Mom always had a creative project going and supplies to share. As an adult, friends who are also making art have been important to me. And can I say authors? I love reading anything on the creative process.
Do you feel like you’ve arrived at what you set out to do?
Yes and no. Perhaps the heart has secret dreams that will always keep me from feeling like I’ve arrived. But just starting to make work and share it on Instagram (after years of hiding) was an arrival of sorts. I remember the thrilling feeling when I realized that I was working with people I’d admired for a long time.
What more would you like to “become”?
Speaking of secret dreams . . . ha! I want to be a children’s book author and illustrator!
What did you study? Did you go to school specifically for what you do?
I took a bit of a meandering path in college and ended up with a double major in Spanish and Visual Arts. Spanish may seem inapplicable, but I think reading, analyzing, and writing about beautiful works of literature has had as much influence of my creativity as the art classes I took.
What’s your work space like?
When we moved into our house, we turned the formal living room into a creative space. It has a wall filled with art supplies and another with books. Usually the whole family shares a big table in the middle, but since having the kids home full time for distance learning, we’ve brought in another table just for me. That’s been a game changer.
Did you always have an ultimate plan?
No, and I still don’t! When I begin on a project or painting, I just have to start making stuff. The ideas come as I begin. I think careers can be like that too.
What piece of advice would you give to someone starting out in a creative field?
Protect your creative time from yourself. Part of you will come up with any excuse to not create. Commit to editing and researching later.
What’s inspiring you lately?
Amy Merrick’s book On Flowers, Gabriel Garcia Marquez novels, reading The Wind in the Willows to my kids, and watching the caterpillars in our yard.
Where you can find Rachel’s other work
@rachelkisersmith on Instagram
Her work for sale on Minted
Shop the Rainbow
Many of our Craft the Rainbow items, like journals, our guided journal My Life in Color, and more are still on sale! Shop the entire rainbow here and gear up for your quarantine creativity!
Comments