Aftermath and a Colour Palette

If you're here for the Suddenly Spring Challenge, Please click here.

Aftermath

After the Suddenly Spring Challenge and all the lovely comments I received, I’ve been contemplating my crochet and jewellery making. I really love mixing including mixed media supplies in my jewellery making, it inspires me every time I walk into a store like Spotlight.

I was having a short break from the usual weekend stuff, strolling the aisles of  Spotlight and spotted some supplies in the haby section, where all the laces and ribbons are kept. Ever since then my brain has been in overdrive. I think I’m getting some ideas for a collection of bracelets and rings, mostly made from crochet. I won’t say too much, at least until I have some prototypes to testdrive, but I think I’ll be opening my Madeit store soon.

Colour Palette - Flower with Dew

Before I create any more jewellery I’d better decide on some colour palettes to theme my pieces around. This one might be a serious contender, it contains some colour similar to the Pantone Spring palette although I’m still not sure how this applies to Australia. I’m aiming for Autumn/Winter so I’ll have to take a look at those colours as well

Original photo from PublicDomainPictures.net

Again, I’ve played with this photo in Photoshop Elements, adding some adjustment layers and a grunge effect. I love how one of the filters added a slight pop of blue to the dewdrops.

There’s been talk lately about Pinterest and copyright issues, so until the situation is resolved I won’t be using Pinterest images for my colour palettes. It won’t stop me pinning though, it is after all primarily a bookmarking site that uses images to remind you of the website.

That’s why pining from Google and Tumblr is a problem, no attribution to the original website. I don’t know how many times I’ve spotted something interesting in my Pinterest feed and it sends me to a website that is not the originator of the image. Tumblr is the worst, in my opinion, so much lovely stuff and no original attribution .   OK that’s my rant for today :)

Do you pin? Leave your link to your Pinterest in the comments and Ill follow you, or follow me on Pinterest and I’ll follow back.

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Special Valentines Colour Palette - Colours of the Heart

Every week I share a Colour Palette created from images discovered on Pinterest or Royalty Free images manipulated in Photoshop. Subscribe (via RSS or email) to see new palettes every week.

Colours of the Heart

A few weeks ago I was surfing through Pinterest, looking for some interesting pictures to turn into colour palettes, and I saw this image of  a mosaic heart. Apparently this heart sculpture is by Lauren True and is part of a collection of heart sculptures in San Francisco.

Click on the image to be taken to the pin on Pinterest.

I love this heart!! I’d love to have a pendant or bead like this with bright colours and swirls.

Hubby and I don’t really celebrate Valentines Day, we don’t even take note of our wedding anniversary. It was quite funny really when my MIL dropped by in November with a gift for our 20th Wedding Anniversary. I’d completely forgotten about it, Hubby had mentioned it the week before and suggested a date night but we never quite got there. My birthday is the same, after all it’s just another day of the week, and I can never remember just how old I am (after stopping to think I’m 44) it’s only a number after all.

So, what about you? Do you celebrate Valentines Day? If you do, what did you do (or will you do) to celebrate the day?

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Colour Palette - In Bloom

Every week I share a Colour Palette created from images discovered on Pinterest or Royalty Free images manipulated in Photoshop. Subscribe (via RSS or email) to see new palettes every week.

In Bloom

Original image via PublicDomainPictures

This image has been manipulated in Photoshop Elements 7 (I’m waiting on a newer version to arrive from a seller on eBay) with some of my own textures.


It’s been a while since I’ve put together a colour palette. It’s even been a while since I’ve blogged (at least a fortnight), but between migraines, school going back and my eldest daughter waiting on university offers time on the computer has been hard to find. No excuses though, just life being “normal”, at least in our house.


Later on this week I’ll update you with my week 3 and 4 of my 52 Weeks of iPhoneography Challenge and more progress on my Projects 2012. I’ve just updated my old iPhone 3GS to a 4S and already appreciating the crisp screen and I can’t wait to take some photos with the 8MP camera. Week 5 of my challenge should be interesting being the first photo taken with me new phone.


Time to get back to my crocheting, It seems dragons don’t make themselves. Lol.

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Colour Palette - Citrus Tang

When Pantone announced their colour of the year as being Tangerine Tango I’m afraid I let out a massive groan. This shade of orange is very difficult to work with. I’ve yet to make any jewellery using this shade and to be quite honest I probably never will.

Of all the colours in the Spring 2012 forecast I personally prefer Bellflower (it’s a purple after all) and Margarita (soft green). I definitely see myself throwing some Margarita cushions or throws around the Living Room, and combining Bellflower lucite with silver or gunmetal chain.

Citrus Tang

I am trying very hard to appreciate Tangerine Tango, which is why I’ve put together this  weeks palette. Although none of my selections this week are that colour, they are from the same colour family.

Image via Pinterest. Click to be taken to the original pin.

On a side note with any luck you might see a “"Pin It” Pinterest button below, if not please let me know which browser you are using. I’m not sure if I’ve inserted the code correctly.

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Colour Palette - The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker

There are two decorations I have a weakness for at Christmas, snowmen and Nutcrackers. I have a nice “little” collection of snowmen statues, but only two Nutcrackers. Seems they are just a little hard to find, which is why I was so happy to find this image on morguefile.com.

The original Image is quite crisp and new, so I applied a few textures and finished it with a grunge layer.

Original Image via morguefile.com

Nutcrackers always remind me of the ballet “The Nutcracker” (of course!), I remember seeing this ballet in the eighties with The Australian Ballet and later in the nineties with The Australian Children’s Ballet. It’s one of my favourite ballets mainly because of the music, and a DVD of the ballet gets played at least once every Christmas.

And, speaking (or writing) of DVDs, on Friday I’ll be giving some lucky reader a chance to win a Gift Card from Quickflix giving you two months of free Unlimited DVD or Blue-ray rental valued at over $45. I’ve been using Quickflix to rent DVD’s for years (at least three years, it might be even longer), they have a selection of over 50,000 movies and TV series with free postage both ways, best of all no late fees!



From the Quickflix website -
To subscribe for Quickflix services, you must be an Australian resident, at least 18 years of age, have a valid credit/debit card or Pay Pal account and an email address. This is to verify your identity and account information.

On Friday I’ll post the competition details and how to enter info (comments and follows), giving you the week-end to enter. I’ll ask my youngest daughter to draw a random winner out of the hat on Monday. Don’t forget to give me a way to contact you (preferably email) on Monday evening for a mailing address and will post out the Gift Card on Tuesday morning.

There you have it, two free months of DVD rental (without a trip to the DVD shop) for the Summer School Holidays, perfect timing! See ya Friday.

Thanks for Reading,

Karen  -  Over the Moon

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Colour Palette - Christmas Baubles

Christmas Baubles

This post started off originally with the title “Christmas Balls”, but I thought I’d better change that.



I’ve spent most of the past few days fiddling with our Christmas tree. It’s quite a funny situation really, we’ve had our current tree for 5 years. It was a spur of the moment purchase about a month before Christmas, two metres tall and cashmere tips, I couldn’t resist. Especially since our old tree (1.5 metres tall) was looking flat and squished from storage in the roof. It’s quite hot up there and the branches were starting to melt. The really funny thing was that Hubby never noticed the “new” five year old tree until today, he finally realised it was not the same old tree! I couldn’t resist playing with him for a bit, when he asked if the tree was new I said “No, its the same tree we’ve had for years” (five to be exact). I did fess up though, and the girls and I had a laugh at how observant their dad was.

We decided to go overboard with the tree decorations this year, the fattest tinsel I could find and two giant boxes of baubles in red and gold, nary a branch without multiple ornaments. But not one single snowman, they’re reserved for shelves and table tops, but I think I’m missing some though, must be another box of decorations somewhere. I try to buy a new snowman every year, so my collection is quite large.

What about you, do you collect a particular type of ornament or decoration? How does your family feel about your collection? My daughters fight over who doesn’t get to inherit my snowmen!

Thanks for Reading,

Karen  -  Over the Moon

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Colour Palette - Rudy Reindeer

As some of you might be aware, the Madeit site was experiencing some problems on the weekend. As I usually write my Monday post on Sunday evening this stuffed me up completely, especially since Monday was such a busy day for me. This of course means that I owe you all a Monday on Madeit post, so I hereby rename Thursday to Monday.

Rudy Reindeer Colour Palette

Original image from PublicDomainPictures.net

Apparently, my kids think you are very lucky that I haven’t inflicted you with a snowman photo for a colour palette yet. This is because I have a large-ish snowman collection, a bit strange really since we have Summer Christmases here in Australia. So instead I give you Rudy Reindeer, I found this picture on Public Domain Pictures and gave it a tweak or two in photoshop. I really prefer the vintage look for Christmas.

A Little More About Monday on Madeit

Anyone who has been featured in one of my Monday on Madeit posts can grab a “Featured in Monday on Madeit” buttons. I’ll be contacting previously featured Madeit sellers so that they can also get a button.
Ok that’s it for today, come back tomorrow for my Monday on Madeit post (on Thursday) all about one of my favourite stocking fillers.

Thanks for Reading,

Karen  -  Over the Moon

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Colour Palette - Vintage Christmas Decoration

Colour Palette – Vintage Christmas Decoration

Original Photo via Dreamstime

Another quick Christmas palette to share. I’m making Christmas decorations myself this week with Kaisercraft products, inbetween putting up the Christmas tree. Honestly, there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. I haven’t even started pressie shopping yet, let alone writing out cards. I’m usually much more organised than this.

How about you? Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

Thanks for Reading,

Karen  -  Over the Moon

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Colour Palette - Christmas Gingerbread

Christmas Gingerbread Colour Palette

Original Image from PublicDomainPictures.net

Have I made you hungry yet? Can you smell the gingerbread? One of my first Christmas memories is really a olfactory one (that’s the sense of smell). I remember the distinct smell of pine and gingerbread.

My mum used to bake piles of gingerbread in the morning and after lunch mum and I would decorate the biscuits while my father would go and fetch a freshly cut Christmas tree. I must have been 3 or 4 years old because my dad passed away when I was almost 5. After then we had an artificial tree, but we still had gingerbread. Most recently gingerbread houses, forests of gingerbread trees, gingerbread Christmas trees even a Santa’s Sleigh made from gingerbread!

I don’t make gingerbread myself, I’ve blown up far too many kitchen mixers trying. My job is to come up with “the concept” for each year and to draft the pattern to construct my idea. The kids (my two daughters and my niece and nephew) job is to decorate and try very hard not to eat the icing and lollies, lucky mum always bakes extra gingerbread to keep the troops going.

I have no ideas for this year yet, we might have to re-do the gingerbread Christmas tree. If you have any suggestions for this year’s gingerbread creation please leave a comment below.

Thanks for Reading,

Karen  -  Over the Moon

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Colour Palette - Sunset Pier

Sunset Pier

I’ve noticed lately that quite a few of my palettes are coming out darker than I intended. I’ll have to make a conscience decision to select a wider range of colours. This palette is probably too dark for my taste, I might re-do it again at a later date. I do love the light reflection on the water, and the slight ripple in the water from the breeze. It feels like a summer evening to me. 

Image from PublicDomainPictures.net

This photo reminds me of the area where our family goes on summer holidays.  The Yorke Peninsula here in South Australia is a lovely  summer spot with great swimming and fishing opportunities. In fact hubby’s dad keeps his boat permanently in the area. Unfortunately for me the beaches are quite bereft of sea glass, I keep looking but I still haven’t found any yet.

That’s enough typing for me today. I spent the past week hammering copper wire and my wrists are telling me all about it. I’ve patina-ed the wire with boiled eggs and with any luck I’ll have something to show you soon.

Thanks for Reading,

Karen  -  Over the Moon

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Colour Palette - Spring Roses and a White Fence

Spring Roses 

Image from PublicDomainPictures.net

Firstly, a disclaimer. This is not my garden! I don’t have a white fence and my roses don’t look this good. Now that’s out of the way, I can say I wish this was my garden.

We have a predominantly native garden, although I have been able to sneak in  a rose or two (Carpet roses and a very nice Bonica). Aussie native gardens (at least mine) aren’t photogenic. We planted mainly drought tolerant and low maintenance shrubs, although I’ve discovered most of them are also excellent fire retardant plants. If I had a choice of garden styles I probably would have preferred a formal cottage garden style, roses and small hedges with daisy and butterfly bushes. Very high maintenance, and quite ironic since I hate gardening, but love visiting gardens. One day I’ll share some photos of my mother’s garden, you’ll love it!

I’m off to the Adelaide Craft and Quilt Fair on Thursday and I think I’ll try and hunt up some lampwork beads and some Christmas presents for my family. My mum retired this year and she’s after some crafty goodness too. Hopefully we won’t blow the budget but I can’t guarantee it! If I spot some yummy lampwork I can’t be held responsible.

Thanks for Reading,
Karen –- Over the Moon

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Colour Palette – Autumn Leaves Fall

Autumn Colour Palette

Remembering that our northern hemisphere friends are in the midst of Autumn (or Fall, depending on where you are) I put together this palette.

Autumn and Winter are my favourite seasons. Spring here in Australia can often be quite cold, depending on whether its and El Nino or La Nina year. Autumn is usually much more predictable, cool nights and sunny days .The occasional frosty morning tells me its going to be a beautiful day, and to fill up the copper with wood to burn in the pot-belly in the evening.

I realised after putting this palette together that these are some of my sisters favourite colours to wear, all it really needed was a lovely sage green
.
Original Image via Pinterest, please click on the image to be taken to the pin on Pinterest.

Some of you may have noticed that there was no Madeit on Monday this week. I had a lovely post that linked in nicely with last weeks Colour Palette – Tutu Over the Top. Not sure what happened to it, I think Live Writer and Blogger aren’t playing nice with each other. Since I didn’t save a draft on my computer I’ll reconstruct it and treat you to two Monday posts. One (hopefully early morning) and another in the early afternoon.

Thanks for Reading,

Karen –- Over the Moon

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Colour Palette – Tutu Over the Top

TuTu Over the Top

Spring weather has finally reached us and the temperatures are hovering around 27⁰C (80⁰F). The weeds are growing like mad, so to avoid gardening I put this palette together.

There’s a bit of a story behind my choice of photo for this palette.

The Story

When I was born I had a problem with my ankles, and spent the first couple of year of my life with my legs in casts. The doctors suggested to my mother that I should take up a sport (when I was older) that would help strengthen my ankles. Mum chose Classical Ballet.

My dance teacher was a real professional dancer. She was a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet on tour back in the 60’s and when she retired she married an Aussie and opened a ballet school. “Miss H” as we called her firmly believed that everyone of her students should take part in the end of year concert and dance on stage in costume.

I took ballet classes and exams for 13 years, danced in over 60 on stage performances, broke more pairs of pointe shoes than I care to admit. A little side note here, pointe shoes may look beautiful but they’re hell on your feet. No amount of padding can stop the blisters (shudder). Enough of that!

What I really was going to talk about was tutu’s. Did you know that the average tutu is made from a pair of ruched knickers? Just ruined the illusion didn’t I… Nothing like pulling on a pair of stretchy knickers with metres and metres of netting sewn to it, awkward. ..OK I’ll stop teasing now.

I wish I’d worn a tutu as colourful as this one, but mine were all boring white or blue.



Todays palette inspiration comes via Pinterest. Click on the image to be taken to the pin.

Thanks for reading,

Karen –- Over the Moon

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Colour Palette – Where’s Spring?

Where’s Spring?

Today’s Colour Palette is inspired by the complete and utter lack of Spring weather here at the moment. When I woke this morning the temperature was a cold 5^oC (40^oF?) and the expected top of 14^oC (57^oF). Brrr… far too cold for me.

The colours of this palette reminds me of Spring, greens of new growth and blues of Spring skies. Of course the cute little clown fish and anemone are usually seen in the Great Barrier Reef here in Australia. Usually this would make me think of Summers at the beach but the Reef is close to the equator and today I’m feeling very close to the south pole, so Spring it is.
I’m seeing quite a lot of these colours floating around the clothing shops at the moment (not as much of the lilac though). Throw in a bit of watermelon/coral tones and this will probably end up as my Spring/Summer wardrobe.
Original image via Pinterest. Please click on the palette image to be taken to the pin on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading,

Karen –- Over the Moon

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