Hues that Make You Swoon!

Hello peeps! Are you ready for a nature-inspired color cue that's just begging for you to pick up and use? Goodness knows I am! It's Tuesday, so let's cue up the latest round of....

When Marcella spotted this amazing swirl of color, she was at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in our nation's capital. This, my friends, is Tight Malachite and as Marcy said when she first set her sights on it, "Dare you not to swoon!" Well, I did indeed swoon and then I decided this would be a wonderfully fun color combo for.. HUES TO USE!  I'll admit, it's a bit tricky at times to pull off monochromatic color combos. But, you know what? I know you can do it! And, I can't wait to see how you pull it off!

HOW TO PLAY ALONG WITH US: To play along with us, simply use these three colors to spark a bit of creativity in your crafting space and then, when you're done, link up your creation using our linky below! Sweet & simple! 

Want to see how I took these colors for a whirl?

For starters, I picked up Power Poppy's Succulent Singles and Prairie Cheer stamp sets (for the sentiment). I stamped two of the smaller leaves directly on my decorative paper and then, stamped a bunch onto white cardstock to cut out later. Actually, I could have used the Succulent Singles Die Set that goes with this stamp set but I had a lapse in judgment and forgot to do that! EEK!  

Now, here's the fun part. I decided that instead of letting ink play a prominent role in my creation, I would heat emboss. I dug deep into my drawer of embossing powders. Deep! I have so many embossing powders and many of them are more than 15 years old -- so underused! Take a look at the three powders I picked. They are from a company called BMuse. The company is still around but no longer makes these amazing colors of embossing powder. I have Copper, Aged Copper and Bronze. Here's a peek at what they look like, pre-emboss.  

And, because you really shouldn't use Copic Markers with embossing powder (I hear that it damages the tip of your marker), I decided to reach for my Distress Markers and picked up these colors below. I never color directly onto my image when using Distress Markers. I scribble them onto a plastic palette or even a large acrylic block and then pick up the marker with either a blender pen or water brush. This time I used my Dove Blender pen. I love how this allows you to add color gradually and almost with a watercolor effect. 

And here's a close up of how those embossing powders turned out! It's so hard to photograph the metallic sheen but they are really quite fun in real life. The Aged Copper has that bit of navy in it, which picks up on the navy in the base portion of my card. I love that blue tint, the distressed bronze and the copper. LOVE! 

And here's a little better shot of the coloring! I love the almost dreamy wash on each petal. And, to be honest with you? I just scribbled on the color -- didn't really spend a ton of time on it! Isn't that the best?

And that, my friends, is it! Now it's your turn to take these colors and put our own spin on them! After you're done, don't forget to link up your creation below and let us all see your take on this color combo challenge!

And remember.... if you would like to be a guest hostess and share the weekly Hues, all you need to do is play along with us. We grab all of our guests right from the weekly link lists! So get those fingers inky and let’s see how you put these Hues to good use! Until next week!

~Julie

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