Colormusing’s Palette of the Month for August is Seaspray, inspired by this beaded bracelet that blends iridescent silver, emerald green, and ultramarine blue into this amazing ombré bracelet:
Shady Business: My Ombré Bracelet Beading Chart
tutorial
Tutorial: A Palette Changes its Stripes
As much as I love my colorful stripe-y palettes (and I do), even I am occasionally in the mood for something a little fancier. Here’s one of my favorite ways to change those stripes:
Read My New Article: Color in Your Closet
Just published in Colette Patterns‘ sewing magazine Seamwork: My latest article on using color palettes in real life! It’s called Color in Your Closet: Discover (and Use) the Palette Within.
Features:
- How to coax a palette out of your existing wardrobe;
- Identifying your primary colors;
- Ideas for using your palette to create new outfits;
- Tips for using accent colors in unexpected ways;
- Using your palette when you shop!
Want to see sewing stuff from Colormusing? Check out myBratelier (lingerie sewing, including bras!), and Changing Your Clothes, which covers everything from repairs & alterations to dyeing and remaking thrift-shop finds. And don’t miss all my newest projects, including sew-alongs, at the brand-new SewColormusing blog!
Click on the dots above to visit my mother ship, Colormusing.com, where you can also sign up to receive Hue News, Colormusing’s own monthly e-mail newsletter!
Catch the Wave: Alter a Palette for Fun!
In my last post, I introduced you to the idea of easily expanding the color range of a basic color palette by using the Mosaic filter in Photoshop. Now, starting with that expanded palette, we’ll take it to another level to create The Confetti Wave Palette! And when we’re done, I’ll show you some of my favorite ways to use this super-fun new version.
Let’s start with a new palette, with a sneak preview:
Expansion Plan: An Easy Way to Add Colors to your Palette
Here’s something I recently discovered by accident (isn’t that always the way?): Starting with one of my color palettes, which typically have a maximum of 5 colors, I can expand that palette into 8-1o colors— and it’s super-easy to do!
Let’s start with a palette that’s divided evenly into 5 colors:
The Big Hang-Up: Creating the Perfect Gallery Wall
Have a lot of artwork to hang? It can be awkward, particularly if they’re all different sizes; arranging them to make the most of each work, not to mention your wall space, does take some creative planning that’s well worth the effort—unless you really want 132 extra nail holes.
Help is on the way! I just discovered this great video tutorial on Refinery29, which shows you the easy way to get a professional art-gallery look. The key is in creating a template (using newspaper— hey, you’re upcycling!) before pounding a single nail. Have fun creating your very own gallery-style display!
Photo courtesy of Refinery29
Silk Purses 2: More Easy Options
After I finished the Silk Purses photo-montage tutorial the other day, I thought of some other ways to combine the same 2 photos. These are even easier, since there’s no masking involved; it’s just the rose photo layered in between or on top of the 2 lettuce layers. (If that sounds incredibly strange to you, you’ll want to check out the previous tutorial.)
Step 1: Get your background layers ready
Once you’ve worked your way through the first step, where you make 2 copies of your background photo and apply separate effects to each of these 2 layers, you’re ready for this project! You’ll just need your main photo; in this tutorial, I’ll use the same rose photo as before, to show you how you can get many different looks from the same 2 photos. We’ll just combine them a little differently.
Tip: You can use just one layer for the background, but it’s still a good idea to have a copy of the original layer.
Another tip: I’d advise a Save As here, using a different name. You may want to use those background layers later, with another photo. Continue reading
