Hi everyone, hope you had a great weekend!  This will be our first full week with the new look blog and we’re super excited to get started on a new challenge! Are you ready?  This week we will be focusing on monochromatic color palettes, and the Hero Web Artists will be here all week long to provide inspiration!

Let’s start with the definition of monochromatic. The word itself can be broken down into “mono” (one) and “chroma” (color), providing a big clue to it’s meaning. A monochromatic color palette includes different shades, tones or tints of of a single color. Here is one example of a green monochromatic scheme:

In addition to focusing on monochromatic palettes, we will also be highlighting some wonderful Hero Arts accessories this week — felt embellishments, Shadow Inks and matching notecards,  gems and pearls, and art flowers. Did you know many of these accessories have been newly added to our shopping area? Click HERE and look in the “Accents & Tools” and “Ink & Papers” categories on the left hand side. Lots of new additions worth checking out!

Today’s two monochromatic cards both feature our self adhesive felt embellishments, an accessory first introduced in our 2009 catalog. They lend a unique warmth and texture to all sorts of paper projects, and are just plain fun!

Now, onto the inspiration! First, take a look at how Web Artist Kandis Smith used a monochromatic palette on this gorgeous thank you card. Love this color — it pairs beautifully with many others but also makes a statement standing on it’s own. Kandis says, “I love the drama that the color teal takes on all by itself. Reminds me of warm summer days at the beach. Add touches of Diamond Stickles to your dot pattern to add a little more bling!”

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Thank You Sayings
• Four Leaf Grid
• Raindrop Background
• Summer Felt Flowers
  
• Summer and Neutral Card Buttons
• Teal Gemstones
• Pool Notecards
• Soft Pool Ink
• Ranger Diamond Stickles
• Other: corner rounder, linen string, machine stitching

Next, Jacki Jones found inspiration in the aisle of the home improvement store, transforming a monochromatic paint sample into a lovely work of art. She shares, “When making monochromatic cards, I often use paint chips. I just happened to have some purple strips left over from when I was choosing the perfect shade for my kitchen.” The purple tones are so soothing, and I love Jacki’s addition of the ribbon to the Hero Arts felt button.

Supplies:

• Artistic Butterflies
• You Inspire Me
• Soft Lilac Ink
• Memories Black Ink
• Spring Felt Buttons
• Other: white cardstock, lilac cardstock, Fiskars paper trimmer (Tiara edge), circle punches (1 3/4, 1 1/2, 1 1/4)

Thanks for the great ideas Kandis and Jacki!

So let’s explore the wonderful world of color! This week’s challenge is to create a new stamped project (card, scrapbook page, or other) with a monochromatic color palette. Lots of variations of the main color can be included, and you may add black, white, and neutrals to your projects as well. Kraft is considered a neutral. Each project should feature at least one Hero Arts stamp. Please submit your creations to the Hero Arts Flickr Group by 11:59 pm PST on Sunday, July 26 and tag them “monochromatic”.  We will award the following prizes:

• Fresh Face Winner (someone who has not yet won a contest): $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• Scrapbook Page Winner: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 1st Place: $50 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 2nd Place: $25 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog
• 3rd Place: $15 of new Hero Arts stamps + a 2009 catalog

We can’t wait to see what you create! Here’s to a rainbow of a week…

P.S.   We’ve announced all of last week’s prize winners below — just scroll down to see!

Filed under: monochromatic

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 4:30 am and is filed under Motivation Mondays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.