We’re back!

Greetings, gentle readers!  I am pleased to announce that it looks like Classy Splashy came through the server troubles unharmed and is back online!  Thank you so much for your patience and have a blessed day!

 –Classy Splashy

Server Troubles–My apologies!

Hello, gentle readers!  I would like to extend my humblest apologies for those who have not been able to reach http://www.classysplashy.com .  There seems to be some server troubles that I hope can be resolved soon.  In the meantime, I do have a backup site at http://www.freewebs.com/classysplashy/index.html

Again, my apologies, and I hope the troubles will be resolved soon!

–Classy Splashy

Color Selection and Web Pages

In the beginning, there was a web page.  It was without color, and void.  And Classy Splashy said, “Let there be color!”

Okay, so maybe that’s not how it happened.  My apologies for the mildly irreverent humor, but there is a lesson behind it.  You have your web page, and sure, it’s got great content.  But where’s the visual interest?  Images work wonders, yes, but the most basic and simple change anybody can make to their web pages is color.  The question is–which ones to use?

Now, before we get into anything else, let me lay out a refresher on basic color theory.  For some of you, this is probably old hat, so thank you for bearing with me.  For some of you, this might be new material, or from so far back in your memory that it might as well be new.  But either way, it is intended to be useful and helpful information.

In basic color theory, all colors come from combinations of your primary colors:  Red, Blue, and Yellow.  These can’t be derived from any other color.  Then there are your secondary colors:  Orange, Green, and Violet.  They are created from combinations of the three primary colors.  And finally, when you combine your primary and secondary colors, you get tertiary colors:  Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, Blue-Green, Yellow-Green, Red-Violet, and Blue-Violet.  “Complementary” colors are those that are dead opposite on the color wheel (ex. purple and yellow, or red and green).  “Analogous” colors are those that are adjacent to, or next to each other on the color wheel (ex. Red and Red-Orange, or Blue and Blue-Violet).

It’s probably easiest for beginning web page designers to work with a favorite picture, maybe a nice background image such as something from IconBazaar or another favorite site.  Look at that image closely.  What color seems to predominate?  There is a good color for you to start with.  Try finding that color or its close equivalent on the color wheel, and see which ones are analogous, and which ones are complementary.  Analogous colors tend to blend, while complimentary colors tend to make one another stand out.  Finding a harmonious mix of blending and standing out is the challenge.  My personal recommendation for a beginning web page designer is find that one color from your focal image.  Work with that one color in a few different shades for your table background colors, etc., and pick one or two colors that are complementary to it for your text and hyperlinks.

When in doubt, K. I. S. S.–Keep It Super-Simple!

About.com has a wonderful article on color theory and color harmony, which might be of some help to you.  It can be found here.

Well, that’s it for this article.  Thanks for stopping by, and happy designing!

–Classy Splashy

Just a little thank you note!

Hello again from the splash pool!  I just wanted to take the time to write a quick thank-you note to all the people from all over the globe who have taken the time to visit my site so far.  It is truly a joy and a labor of love I am sharing with you, and it’s heartening to see that people care enough to stop by.  THANK YOU!

Next time, in the Splash Pool–tips and tricks for color selection for your webpages!  (and this is coming from a die-hard quilter, so it’s less technical and more artistic)

–Classy Splashy

Splish, splash!

Welcome to The Splash Pool!  Swimming caps, goggles, floaties and kickboards are over in the corner, all swim times are family-friendly!  Heh, I couldn’t resist a little humor.  It breaks the ice, you know?  But anyways, I’d like to welcome you all to the Splash Pool blog, for Classy Splashy.  The site started as a way to host my affiliate link splash pages.  But then I realized that hey, if I needed classy splash pages, so will others.  So why not expand it into a splash page creation service?  Enough of the in-your-face advertising out there, it’s time for something with a little class, not crass!

For a while, I hosted my site on Freewebs.  It’s a good free hosting provider, very nice for a starter site.  I have nothing but good things to say about them!  Now, I have my own domain and have moved over to Mango-Hosting.  So far, so good–I can’t complain one bit.  The service is great, swift replies from customer support via e-mail, unlimited hosting and bandwidth, FTP access, unlimited databases, Cron jobs, mailing lists… the list goes on!  Even though I’m on a limited income, I was able to manage their Gold hosting plan at $20 a year.  It’s worth looking at.  Try it, you might like it!

I would also like to start a newsletter, and would enjoy feedback on what you as the reader would enjoy seeing for content.  Feedback either via e-mail or blog comments would be welcome.  Please keep it family-friendly–that is what the site is intended to be.  I will not post, create, or promote anything that I would object to a 5-year-old child seeing.

That’s all for now.  Thanks for stopping by, and please tell your friends about Classy Splashy!

–Classy Splashy