Happy Family Day! My husband is one of the unlucky few that has to work today, so it feels more like a PA day with the kids at home than an actual holiday. Truthfully, I don’t mind because this missed day off is scheduled for Christmas holidays instead. He’d rather get the extra day off then than now. So, I’m at home with 3 kids today. Well, it’s more like 1.5 because one is hiding in his cave working on homework and another will be leaving for the rink soon. The third one will hang with me in the basement, helping me with my March Shadowbox Sampler. It’s more than half finished, and I want to be able to post a picture tomorrow. Part of the difficulty with the layout was choosing the overall colour scheme. I thought I had it nailed down, then realized that I was designing May’s flower sampler. Back to the drawing board I went.
Many people find choosing colours to be the hardest part of creating a card or project. I tend to surround myself with quick-look resources to help me put colours together, and thought that I would share three of them today. They are all easy to create, and are good starting places when you can’t decide what you want to do. The first is one that I created late last spring, when the 2017-2019 In Colours were first released. It has a piece of each of the current colours of cardstock, but ordered according to colour, not colour family.
I have created something along these lines before, but they have been sheets of each colour family with a swatch of cardstock, a stamped image, and a bit of Stampin’ Write Marker scribble. I like them, and may recreate them again when the 2018-2019 Annual Catalogue is released, but I need to find a way to have them all on one piece of bristol board. Speaking of markers, the next resource that I have is a piece of cardstock that has been scribbled with each of the Stampin’ Blend colours.
To give myself a sense of the dark vs. light ratio of the markers, I have each colour listed with the light on the top half of the paper and the dark on the bottom. It’s kept in the basket with my Blends, so I always know where it find it. If Stampin’ Up! releases more colours in the future, I’ll probably just create a larger chart with the new colours on it – very easy to do! There is another similar chart in my collection that has scribbles from each of the Chameleon colours that I own. It resides with those markers so that it can be easily found when needed.
Today’s last resource is the first version of a Brusho chart. There are many colours on the market, but we have only started with five of them. The good news is that three are primary colours. Theoretically we should be able to create oodles of different colours. This chart was created to begin exploring this possibility.
To begin, I tapped colour onto my dry mixing palette. Each colour has been mixed with water to achieve the colour on the paper, with its “recipe” written below. The original five colours are on the left side of the top row. The key here is that this chart will be different for everyone. The size of the hole in the lid of your Brusho will determine how much of the powder comes out with every tap/shake of the container. The amount that comes out will play a big part in your final colour combination.
Two more resources that can help you with your colours are an artist’s colour wheel, available at any art supply store or the giant M. These wheels help you mix colours, and determine which work well together.
Finally, we have the SU Color Lab, a website that has been created to help people put together workable Stampin’ Up! Colour Combinations. It’s fun to try and come up with pretty combinations as well as those that are totally out there! You can visit the site HERE.
There’s still lots of time to take advantage of Sale-a-Bration! Earn free goodies with every $60 purchase (+tax/shipping). Place a $120 order (+tax/ship) and you can choose an upgraded item! This year’s entire selection of freebies can be found here!
Add the February Host Code to your $50+ online order, and I’ll send you FREE Project Helper Guides at the end of the month. That’s pretty easy to do during Sale-a-Bration! Don’t forget to mark this down on your Flamingo Rewards sheet too!!
It’s cloudy with a lot of rain on the way. Seems like a good time to go to the stamp room! Until tomorrow, happy Stamping!