People with Skills - Kate from Stripes and Polka Dots

As you may know I started a recurring post about people with skills. Don't know about you but I LOVE reading about all the fantastic things our fellow human beings are capable of. After Melissa's art, we now have Kate who is an incredibly talented (blog) designer. Here is her skill:

I am so excited to share some of my inspiration sources with you guys!  I have a confession: this is my first guest post ever!  And I couldn't be happier to be doing it here at Cake Memoirs.

A little bit about me: I have three blogs.  Stripes and Polka Dots is my first and "biggest" blog, and it's where I write about whatever I feel like writing about.  These days it's a lot about food and pictures from my life.  In November I started an art blog called Sketch and Wash, where I blog about photography and art.  I also blog at Katelyn Brooke Designs, my web design site that I also launched in November.

Let's back up a little.  I graduated from college in May of 2011 with a degree in architecture.  While I was studying architecture I fell in love with graphics and Photoshop.  After I graduated I got married in August and moved to the small town where my husband attends law school.  There weren't very many opportunities for creative employment there, so I started substitute teaching and decided to pursue some opportunities online.  I already loved blogging, so when I saw a class for blog design, I jumped on it and was totally hooked!  In November I launched my site, and since then I've been designing blogs and trying to grow my business.  Today I'm going to talk a little bit about my process when I design a blog.

For me, the most important part of the process is gathering inspiration.  Without the spark of an idea, I would be completely lost.  I'm constantly collecting inspiration.  There are three major things I look for when I need to be inspired.

links: Oh Joy!, Design*Sponge, Hello, Friend, Oh Happy Day!, Made by Girl

I am constantly bookmarking other sites as sources of design inspiration.  You have to be really careful because obviously it can't be too close to another design, for both legal and ethical reasons, but other sites are where I get a ton of ideas.  I'm always admiring this menu bar or those social icons, and thinking about how I could change them to make them my own or make them fit with a client's site.

links: Pugly Pixel, Makin' Cute Blogs, The Blog Designer Network

Much like art, sometimes the process of a new method can be really inspiring.  I often come across new tutorial and try to think of a way that I could use it in a design.  This happened for my most recent design of Stripes and Polka Dots.  I came across a tutorial on Pugly Pixel how to make glitter in Photoshop and knew that I had to try it on my blog.  There are so many great tutorials out there; it's pretty amazing how generous people are about sharing their knowledge for free.

links: Pinterest color board

Color is so inspirational.  A great color scheme can really make a design.  Pinterest is a great source for finding great color boards.  Other sites that are great for color schemes are Adobe Kuler, Design Seeds, and Color Collective.  It's rare that I find a color board that works for a project but often times I will take colors from boards to make my own color scheme.  The world of color is so broad that sometimes narrowing it down is really helpful.

I hope that these sources help inspire you to create something awesome!  I want to thank you readers and Lot for having me here today.  Now go make beautiful things!

Thank you so much for sharing this Kate. I have loved reading this and learning a bit more about your life.