I recently splurged on a crafting treat for myself on a non-Stampin’ Up! tool to help me with creativity. There used to be a color challenge blog that I loved that had color combination inspiration to kick-start the creative juices. Unfortunately, the owner of that blog stopped adding new content for a number of very good reasons; and I’ve felt the void of that sort of inspiration. There are challenge blogs that occasionally include a color challenge, but it isn’t the main thing that they do. A couple of weeks ago I was watching a crafty video and I learned about this cool color inspiration set of tools called “The Color Cube“. The color combinations aren’t exclusive to Stampin’ Up!, but the format is similar to what I loved from my old favorite challenge blog. There’s an inspiration picture, and color swatches that are in the picture; I was intrigued and decided to give it a try. I have a cardstock sampler and I found that it was very easy to compare the cardstock to find something pretty close to the colors on the card. There are colors that aren’t in the Stampin’ Up! palette, but there are enough cards that will work that I’m excited to try more out. I’m really happy with how my first experiment worked out with card #5; it’s bright, cheerful and just what I need on a cold January day!

Here’s the color combination that I felt matched card #5 (I picked lighter, corresponding shades for the main body of the flowers):

This current sketch was another source of inspiration for my card. I used hexagons instead of the three squares on the left and hand-cut the black mat behind them so that I could have a tight mat to separate the layers more clearly. I used the stitched greenery die in the background layer to add some visual interest and some retired sequins to add the final touches. I’ll be making a batch of these to get some cards out to folks who made a purchase recently. I hope that they enjoy the pop of color when they open the cards as much as I did creating them.

Product List