We have a confession to make...  We have a bit of an addiction to browsing home decor on Pinterest. But instead of adding to our already over flowing “dream home” board, this week we decided to channel our energy into some shareable content!

If you love day dreaming about how you're going to decorate your house, this little collection of "Home Sweet Home" moodboards is just for you!

Victorian

During the Victorian era, plain jane décor was a major faux pas. Burgundy, burnt orange, and teal hues create a modern spin on the classic style. 

Ranch

For this color scheme, we were inspired by golden fields of wheat and rustic simplicity.  

Colonial

Our collection wouldn’t be complete without one of the most popular American styles. Lemon zest, forest green, and robin’s egg blue add a nice contrast to a black and white canvas.

Cottage

We know it’s cheesy, but we’ve always loved Miss Honey’s teeny tiny cottage in Matilda. For this shabby chic palette, we chose muted shades reminiscent of tea roses, ivy, and aged stone.

Spanish

For this rich scheme, we combined warm hues like papaya and goldenrod with a bold hint of sapphire.

What’s the style of your dream house? Share it in the comments!

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Creative Services & Graphic Design in Greensboro, NC

In a creative slump? Take a break and leave it to the pros! Whether you’re looking to spice up a lackluster landing page or create a lookbook for your brand, Hue & Tone can add an artistic touch to any project.

Hi all, Camille (the new intern) here!

This week I’ve decided to try my hand at making a mood board. While looking for design inspiration, I'd been seen tons of inspiration mood board. Not only did they look fun to make, I felt like they were a perfect first project for Adobe Illustrator! I’ll preface by saying, I've never made a mood board before. I decided to walk you through the step-by-step process of creating my first one!  I should also mention that I am a beginner with Adobe Illustrator, so this is all a learning process for me. So...*finger’s crossed.*

My first real step was to find pictures, but before that -- a theme! Pinterest is always my go to for inspiration of any kind, especially pictures. I chose to do a summer theme (because who doesn’t have summer on the brain right now?) and I love looking at bright, colorful colors... so, that’s the theme for the day!

STEP ONE: PINTEREST BOARD. First, I made a summer mood board on Pinterest, and began to search “summer” items. I pinned about 19 images to this board (I got a little excited!)

I planned to only use about 10 of the 19 images, but it’s always great to have extras. I was looking for images that not only had a common theme, but that had similar colors so that they would mesh well together for the final mood board.

STEP TWO: CHOOSING IMAGES. I chose about 10 images that I thought was the most “summer inspired” images   

STEP THREE: MOOD BOARD TEMPLATE. I found a few mood board templates to use here here and here. If you’re ever in need of a template these are great to use! I used one of these template to get started on my board.

STEP FOUR: PLACE IMAGES. ‘File’ → ‘Place’ → Locate images.

STEP FIVE: IMPORT TEMPLATE. Repeat the same steps above to import your template! (This one was perfect for me because it even came with instructions!)

Step Seven

STEP SIX: LAYOUT PHOTOS. Next, I spent some time playing around with the position of the images.

STEP SEVEN: CLIPPING MASK. Once I had the images all lined up with my template I clipped them to fit the space. Just draw a box over the image → select the image and box → ‘Object’ → ‘Clipping Mask’ → ‘Make’. This will crop the image to fit in the box you just made.

STEP EIGHT: REPEAT. I continued to do this with all of the images, and felt like I was starting to get the hang of it! At this point, it was looking better than I had thought it might… and so far it was even easier than I expected.

Borders!

STEP NINE: BORDERS. I could see the finish line at this point! Now that all the pictures were imported I wanted to put white borders around each picture. Not going to lie, I had to Google how to do this. It turned out to be pretty simple -- just not very intuitive to a first time user. For my first attempt, I added a border around each of my images, but this ended up making the lines uneven. Some of them were overlapping, or uneven.

So, I pulled all the borders off and drew regular lines in the pattern of mood board. This made a much more even end result!

STEP TEN: VOILA! Finished product. My first ever mood board, complete.

Sources: One  |  Two  |  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |  Six  |  Seven

The best part of this process was definitely pinning the pictures and watching the whole thing come together. Who knew a bunch of random pictures I pinned on Pinterest could form into something so cohesive? Something that could actually inspire a project?  A lot of googling was involved, but I know I’ll remember what I’ve learned and be able to build off of it for next time.

Thanks for following along, until next time,

Friday links to keep you inspired for the weekend and the week to come!

One  |  Do you ever feel in a creativity slump? Check out these tips to destress, and get back to bursting with ideas for your work!

Two  |  Want to know more about different resources to create a better blog? Here are 15 resources to help your improve your website or the design of your blog.

Three  |  Make a statement on your blog with a statement graphics! Look at these tips to make an eye catching design!

Four  |  Think you're ready to try your hand at creating your own logo? With the help of these guidelines you can push your new logo to the next level. (Not so design savvy? This is also a great resource to help you develop some sketches for a designer.)

Five  |  Easter is right around the corner! If you’re needing a little inspiration for social media posts, check out these social media campaigns to stay festive during the holiday.  

As always, have a great weekend, and see you next Friday for another link roundup!

Here's a visual representation of where my mind is lately: 

Constantly focused on the wild risk and dare of running a business. 

Accentuated by bold color and pattern (in complementary combos, of course).

All topped off with a hint of sparkle.

Hue & Tone Creative - 'she who dares, wins' mood board

Sources: One | Two | Three

The thing about doing creative work for a living is, there's no such thing as waiting around for your muse. You can't take a break while you wait for an idea to hit. Your work should be inspired, but you can't sit around and wait for inspiration. 

That's not to say that you can't seek out inspiration, though. Making a point to consume good work created by others keeps me inspired and ready to create, whether it's digital and print design, visual art in a gallery...really, any work done passionately and well.

Along those same lines, I can't say I don't enjoy a good inspirational quote or two. If you're a maker for a living, and find yourself in need of inspiration, here are a few of my favorite quotes about creativity and design.

Hue & Tone Creative: Favorite quotes about design and creativity

"Everything is designed. Few things are designed well." -Brian Reed

"Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful." -John Maeda

"Design is the application of intent - the opposite of happenstance, and an antidote to accident." -Robert L. Peters

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." -Maya Angelou

"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality." -Charles Eames

"Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity." -Marina Abramovic 

"An artist paints, dances, draws, writes, designs, or acts at the expanding edge of consciousness. We press into the unknown rather than the known. This makes life lovely." -Julia Cameron

"If no one's doing the creative work that you want to do, do it yourself." -Kate Baldwin

"Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up." -Tate Linden

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected." -Steve Jobs

What are some of your favorite quotes about creativity? Where do you turn when you need some inspiration in your work? Let me know in the comments below.