Fruity Inspired Hues to Use!

Hello peeps!  are you ready for a color explosion ready to hit you right through your screen? Well, we are ready to deliver and we have a fun guest hostess this week to help us get the job done! More on this fine designer in a minute but first, let's take a gander at this week's Hues to Use! 

Are you ready? These color cues are delish -- literally!

While the fruits shared in this little snapshot aren't exactly all about fall, the color scheme sure is with those hues of rich plum, chartreuse green and rich olive. That's why we had to pick up what Marcella was laying down when she posted this little number over the summer! Just in case you wondered, these were the fruits from the labor at Ivan's Fig Farm -- just one of the gems you can find at the Tower Grove Farmer's Market near Marcy's abode.  

HOW TO PLAY ALONG WITH US: It's as easy as 1-2-3! All you need to do is incorporate all THREE of these colors into your card or creation. Once you're done, just link up your project below so that we can all see and gaze with wonder on your fabulous creativity! You never know -- that card just might land you a spot as a guest designer for an upcoming Hues to Use Challenge! 

Now to that wonderful guest designer I was telling you about! Let's all give a warm welcome to....

"My name is Heidi, I'm from the Netherlands where I live in a small village with my boyfriend and his 15 year old son. Already as a child, I loved colouring. Back then, I only had coloured pencils. When I discovered card making a few years ago (and mixed media more recently), it was an opportunity for me to share my colouring (using all kinds of mediums) with others! That's why I‘m very excited to be sharing a project with you today. I love the beautiful stamps from Power Poppy! All their stamps have a lot of detail and there is a lot of variety to choose from!

There are a couple of things that I would like to show you today. First,  I would like to show you how different colouring mediums  can change the effects you want to create. Second, how cropping an image (digital or with a die) can change the outcome of your project and make your stamps a lot more versatile then you would think. Third, I would like to show how a different colour paper gives you a lot of variety in your colouring experience. It’s so much fun to colour on a different underground once in a while. If you never tried you should! And lastly, I would like to point out that you can do more with these beautiful stamps then just put them on a card. In my example, I created an art journal page with the gorgeous Hellebores digital stamp, of course from Power Poppy! 

Lots of ground to cover today, so let’s get started.

Since this is “Hues to Use," after picking my stamp, I started sorting my colours. What colours would suit the “Hue” board and also the flower best? I put those on my desk to start knowing that I might add a few more colors down the road to create the desired effect.

Card 1

I printed the image on Canson 1557 paper in black/white scale (makes the lines more grey, to create a no line colouring base). Then I coloured the image with the following coloured pencils: Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils in the numbers 135, 133, 166, 168, 173 and 102. And, Holbein Artist’s Colored Pencils in the numbers OP222 and OP127 (both from the Pastel Tone set that you can find on Ebay). I didn’t have any prior experience with no line colouring so this was a lot of fun to try!

After the colouring was done, I die cut around the image using a stitched square die and then I used a ruler with a craft knife to cut part of the white paper off and then fussy cut around the bottom part of the image with my Fiskars scissors. I also used the knife to cut around some of the leaves and one flower to create a pop up effect in the white area. Because this adds a little dimension, it will make the card more interesting.

You might notice that after colouring and cutting around the bottom flower, the vase the flower originally stands in is no longer there!



I also die cut a stitched square panel from some olive green linen textured card stock. I edged both panels with first Memento “Olive Grove“ ink and then Archival Ink in the colour “Leaf Green“. I put some foam tape behind the popped up area’s and then adhered the white panel with the flower onto the olive green panel. I stamped one of the sentiments from the Power Poppy clear stamp set called “Azalea“ onto the olive green panel using Versafine “Onyx Black“ ink and my MISTI.

Next, I die cut a slightly larger square panel from some matching dark pink card stock and this panel I edged with "Plum" Archival Ink.  

I created my card base in the form of an easel card. This is very easy. (You can check out a tutorial for a step-by-step HERE on Splitcoaststampers.com). I finished the front of the card with some Pretty Pink Posh “Sparkling Clear Sequins“ in different sizes that I adhered with Ranger Medium Matte. 

For the inside of the card, I printed the quote that comes with the “Hellebores“ digital stamp onto white paper (edging this small panel with the same green inks), and matted it on the same dark pink card stock (edged with the same plum ink colour). I adhered to the inside of the card using foam tape and now the easel can stand on it’s own!

Card 2

For my second card I printed the “Hellebores" stamp onto Copic friendly paper and die cut part of the image  with a circle to create a different look on my card. I started colouring the image with my Copic Sketch markers.  I don't have all of the Copic colours, so I had to manage with what I had to create a nice blend. I used the following colours: Y000, Y11, Y04, RV91, R83, R89, RV99, G40, G43, G94, BG75, N2, B0000, B21, B91 and B95. I also used a Sakura Gelly Roll Pen to add back in some of the details that I lost. When the colouring was done, I matted this circle image on some matching dark red card stock to create a bit more definition. 

Next I started working on my sentiment: I printed one of the sentiments from the Power Poppy digital stamp called “Easy Breezy Coneflowers."  I drew a banner shape around it using the outside edge of one of my banner dies, and cut this out by hand. Then, I made a mat for this banner using matte gold coloured card stock.

I choose a white card base, some matching patterned paper and some blue paper that matched the colour of the vase in the image. From both papers I die cut a square, one slightly larger then the other. I edged the blue mat with Archival Ink in the colour “Cobalt“ to make it stand out a little bit more. I wrapped some yellow ribbon from my stash around these combined panels and adhered to the the back using regular tape.

To finish this second card, I adhered some Cartwright’s Sequins in the colour “Satin Pearl“, in different sizes, using Ranger Medium Matte.

This card came out totally different then the first one, which one do you like best?

Art Journal Page

We give a lot of the things we create away and that is why I feel it sometimes is nice to just create for yourself -- to have fun and be able to look at it in a couple of months and enjoy it again or maybe wonder how much your creative process has changed, how fast you have grown!

For this art journal page I first printed the “Hellebores“ stamp onto Strathmore “Toned Tan“ paper. Then I started colouring the image using my Faber Castell Polychromos/Holbein coloured pencils. The challenge with colouring on coloured paper is that you have to think in reverse a little: you have to create your highlights instead of leaving the paper white. For this I really like a Caran d ‘Ache Lumiance “White “ pencil: I first map in the highlights lightly and then start colouring the rest, working in layers until I like the end result.

I used the following colours (next to the mentioned white pencil):  Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils in the numbers 135, 168, 173, 103, 180, 177 and 146. Holbein Artist’s Colored Pencils in the numbers OP222, OP434 and OP134 (from the Pastel Tone set that you can find on Ebay).

After colouring the image, I went over some of the lines that I lost with a black Copic Multi Liner (0.1), you can use any marker you like, but use one with a small tip. Then I used a large stitched rectangle die to cut around the image.

Next it’s time to start working on the quote. I took my Strathmore “Toned Tan" Art Journal (14 x 21.6 cm in size) and penciled in the quote that comes with the Power Poppy Hellebores stamp in my own calligraphy handwriting, first with a pencil and when I was happy I went over the lines with the black multi liner (you can of course use any journal you have or even an old book (in that case you just have to prepare the pages). When the ink is dry, you can erase the pencil lines. Of course you can also print the sentiment from the stamp set in a larger size and use that!

For the background I choose to keep it simple. I first applied VersaMagic ink in the colour “Key Lime" and then partially Distress Oxide ink in the colour “Peeled Paint“ over a The Crafter’s Workshop stencil called “Kitchen Tiles" (TCW751s) using a foam applicator tool and when that was dry, I splattered on some COLIRO Pearl Colors by Finetec GmbH in the colour “Blackberry“.

When the splatters are dry, I edged the die cut panel with the flower image and the journal page with Distress Ink in the colour “Vintage Photo“ and to finish this art journal page I adhered the flower image on the page.

Wow, that’s a really long post! I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you Power Poppy for giving me this opportunity. I had a lot of fun while creating this project! I wish you’ll a creative day!

~Heidi

Thank YOU Heidi! All three projects are absolute treasures! I should mention, if you want to see more of Heidi's amazing work, all you need to do is visit her blog - Make Your Life Colourful HERE! 

Now peeps, it's your turn to take this week's Hues to Use and see what fun cards you can whip up using this fun-filled color recipe! Once you do, don't forget to link up your creation below. It's a never-ending linky, meaning you can enter your creation at any time! And as we always say, your creation could spark an invitation for YOU to be a guest designer for one of our upcoming Hues to Use blog posts! We put you in the spotlight and you get a fun new digital image to create with. So, as I always say, Get those fingers inky and play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by! We can't wait to see what you create!
~Julie

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