Monday Hues: Fish In a Pond

Beat the Monday blues with the Monday Hues! Today's color inspiration comes from fish joyously swimming around in the pond at the La Quinta Civic Center Park.

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~ Dio

Monday Hues: Pink Florals

Today's Monday Hues come from a beautiful floral arrangement that sat on my kitchen table all through the weekend. Hope today's color inspiration livens up your day, the same way the actual flowers livened up my home.

~ Dio

Easter Color Inspiration

Often times when I sit at my drawing table and bring out all my markers, I feel overwhelmed. So many colors to choose from, which ones should I use? Well, little by little through the Monday Hues collection, I am building a library of color swatches, a "go-to" place that can be accessed anywhere via internet, not only by me, but by my readers as well to solve this problem.As the weeks go by and my library continues to grow, I'm hoping that the Monday Hues not only help you chase the Monday blues away, but also inspire you to play with these color combinations in your wardrobe, your next party, social event, or the next time you need a little color inspiration for your a craft or home decor project.
With all that said, I present to you a non-traditional Easter color palette. Colors were picked from a picture I took last year of my daughter, nieces and nephews coloring their Easter eggs.
Enjoy, my friends, and have a beautiful week filled with inspiration and color all around.

Xoxo,
~Dio

Color Inspiration from a DIY Gift Tag

Monday Hues: In honor spring, today's color inspiration comes from a flower I drew on scrap paper, and eventually turned into a gift tag. One of the things I like to do, is find the hidden colors within an image, rather than gravitating towards the obvious, which in this case would have been pink, blue green and yellow. Instead, we ended up with a palette which consists of plum, orange, mint green and chartreuse.

DIY Doodle Gift Tags
*Please note, affiliate links to some of my favorite drawing supplies are provided in the paragraphs below  

Supplies - below is a list of the supplies I used o create the gift tag:
• Black Sharpie Pen*
• 2"x3.5" piece of scrap card stock
• Metallic*, Moonlight* and Glaze* Sakura gel pens
• Washi Tape*

The Process
First I drew the flower with a black sharpie pen*, then I added color to it with different types of gel pens. While the pink Moonlight pen* is what gave the drawing the flat pink strong color, the yellow Glaze pen* gave the image its highlights with a bit of dimension and shine. The ink from the Glaze pens tends to dry raised and shiny, making your piece look as if it were embossed or treated with thermography - I love that! As a final touch, I trimmed the bottom edge with washi tape*, then punched a hole at the top to draw a string. And just like that, with a bit of scrap paper in hand, gel pens, and washi tape, I was able to create a gift tag AND draw color inspiration from it for future projects.

Happy Monday, my friends!

~Dio

Succulent Monday Hues

Happy Monday! Today we are beating the Monday blues with a beautiful color inspiration palette pulled from a picture I took in the summer of 2014 at Sea World, San Diego. Here's only a glimpse of the beautiful succulent and floral gardens you'll find throughout the park.

~ Dio

Monday Hues: Warm and Bright

Happy Monday everyone! Wishing you a delightful week full or color and inspiration, starting off with this delightful palette of buttercream, peach, cocoa, peacock blue and raspberry.

(Image by Jean Claude Winkler)

Monday Hues

Beat the Monday Blues with today's Monday Hues featuring a lovely combination of white, teal, mustard and chartreuse. Now if you want these gorgeous vintage set of cups to complete your event decor or inspiration, you can find them on Etsy.

Enchanted Tea Set

I've been wanted to host a mother's day tea party for a couple of years now, and for one reason or another I just haven't. I started browsing looking to buy a few sets of vintage tea cups, however right in the middle of my search I came across this "Enchanted" collection. What can I say? The vibrant colors and contrast have me...well, "enchanted". Oh, what would this world be without color? I dare not imagine. On another note, apparently this tea set has a bit of history. It was chosen by Country Living Magazine to help decorate their House of the Year.

Monday Hues

Today's color inspiration comes from a photo by Marite2007 on Flickr. It's a beautiful image of a balcony in Gaios, Paxos Island, Greece. The bright colors and angle of the photo really caught my attention. I think these colors would be great for any spring or summer wedding, baby shower or birthday celebration. ~ Hope today's Monday Hues scared away the Monday Blues. Have a bright and colorful week, full of peace and inspiration.

Warmly,

Monday Hues

Today's Monday Hues were inspired by Dave Richards Photography. This photo was taken while photographing a wedding in Palos Verdes. The angles and shades really caught my attention, but I became even more drawn to it after seeing the results...a gorgeous bride, with a natural glow.
Visit Dave Richards' blog to view the rest of the pictures for this lovely wedding. ~ Happy Monday!

Purple Has its Charm

Being a Latina, when I hear someone has chosen purple as their wedding color, I immediately get images in my head of all the Quinceañeras I've been to in the past (that's the Latina version of a Sweet 16, celebrated at age 15) where it seemed like the actual color purple exploded upon the world. Some were done in good taste, but others were overdone to the point where everything was purple making the event look too dark, and I'm more of a bright and cheery kind of girl.

Now thanks to the web and all those amazing blogs out there, I've been seeing more and more of what I like to call "booster shots" where I find lovely images of beautifully coordinated tablescapes and wedding decor. These shots "boost" my enthusiasm for all things purple and serve as the antidote I needed to cherish and appreciate the color's charm.

Oh, and I'm a sucker for wedding day footsie shots too!

Click on the pictures to view more images of this Frank Sinatra Palm Springs Estate wedding, shot by Christine Arnold.

Monday Hues: Cool Meets Warm

Today's color inspiration comes from ara133photography. I enjoy bold feeling and harmony created by combination of warm and cold colors displayed in this image. Even though I only selected a few, there are more colors found within that you can add or substitute, such as gold, silver, mauve, teal, aqua, orange and more. Enjoy, have fun and be inspired!

Monday Hues: Warm Shades of Pink

Today's color palette was inspired by HoneyTree's fine art photography. These warm summer tones are very feminine and ideal for a summer event for a bride or birthday girl who loves all shades of pink.

Monday Hues: Refreshing Summer Palette

A while back I had started posted a series of color inspiration posts. Then the deadlines started pouring-in and blogging was put on the back burner for a while. Today, I'd like to bring back my color inspirations posts with a title, from now on to be know as the "Monday Hues". Some people have the Monday Blues, but not here baby, we've got the Monday Hues. So, on Monday mornings when you're having a hard time adjusting to being back at the office, or you just need a little inspiration to get you motivated, come on over to my blog for a little color pick-me-up.
Today's Monday Hues were taken out of this lovely image by Etsy seller KnockKnocking. They have some amazing wreath creations over in the shop, each one with a rich color palette of it's own. I picked this design for it's cool summer colors. Just looking at it reminded me of the sweetness of citrus and a cool ocean breeze. Today's the first day of summer by the way, so the palette ties in nicely.
So, if you're planning a summer soirée, may I suggest a color palette of powder blue, sun kissed yellow, sea foam green and eggshell white.

Winter Berries, Color Inspiration # 4

Found this beautiful image via Anna Maria Horner blog. I instantly fell in love with the colors which lead to me create this week's color inspiration palette. The Palette consists of a deep shade of Cranberry, Hot Pink (Fusia), Silver and only hints of moss to add a nature feel. Last but not least, lots of White to make the colors pop.

Color Inspiration # 3

This week's color inspiration comes from a photo image by Life Love Paper (found via Simply Hue). I typically don't think of pink as a holiday color, but after being awed by such beautiful blend of complimentary colors which lifted my holiday spirit, I found myself inspired and eager to share.

Color Inspiration # 2

In browsing my favorite blogs, I came across this photo at My Favorite Things. Just like Molly, I too really, really want this purse - I love owls! I also liked the color composition of this photo which inspired me to create a this color palette to share with you today. Happy Colorful Monday!

Color Inspiration # 1: Soft Vintage

Color Inspiration # 1: Eggshell, Cement, Sage and Dusty Rose

There have been times during a design consultation for custom wedding stationery, when my clients express that they haven't yet decided on a theme or color scheme for their event. A side of me is always surprised to hear this for about a second or so, but then the logical side of me completely understands that planning a wedding can be a little overwhelming. If the couple hasn't hired a wedding coordinator they may need a little guidance as far as where to begin, and I'm always happy to help.

The truth is that selecting a color scheme for your event is one of the first things you should do. Once you select your color palette, it will be much easier to decide on your bridesmaids and groomsmen attire, the cake, linens, favors, stationery, etc. It will all be much easier because you will know exactly what you're looking for, and everything will seem to come together in visual harmony.

Other couples I have worked with have been under the impression that they can only use one or two colors in their wedding decor, such as white and red or black and white. The truth is, that there is no limit to your color palette nowadays. The richer the palette, the better!

Inspiration can be found anywhere! From browsing magazines with images of other weddings, your favorite book cover, a pattern in your favorite purse, your comforter, grandmother's dress or your favorite picture!

If you are just now starting to plan your wedding, stay tuned for more weekly color inspirations.