Hello everyone and thank you so much for stopping by today to celebrate Altenew & My Sweet Petunia Blog Hop (more on that below).
As I sat down to create a card I’m featuring in this post I struggled with the perfect color combination. And this is something I often find difficult when I create cards. I have a few go-to color combos that I use often and consider to be my favorite, but when I come across new colors I often become puzzled as I have no clue how to combine them to have beautiful color combinations on my cards.
Like this project? Pin it and save for later!
A few years ago when I stepped away from scrapbooking and started doing a lot more Clean & Simple cardmaking I created a Color Guide for myself to use; I still use it almost every time I make a card.
I believe I’ve mentioned it briefly in one of my videos a few years ago, but I wanted dedicate a separate post to it as I really find it to be a very helpful tool especially when it comes to stamping. So hopefully, if you are also struggling with selecting colors for your handmade cards you’ll also find this useful.
VIDEO TUTORIAL
I filmed a video tutorial where I talk about my Color Combo chart in detail, you can watch it below or on my Youtube channel:
Like this video? Please give it a big thumbs up and share with a crafty friend! Drop me a comment too, I love hearing from you!
UPDATED TO ADD
I’ve had a few people ask me how to make collages with 4 color palettes (instead of one) to print. I made mine in Adobe Photoshop and printed from Photoshop. But there are a lot of free online apps that can be used to create similar collages. I’ve filmed a quick screen capture video to show you how you can make a collage in this app (I just googled “create collage online” and this was the first one I found, but there are many others out there). I hope this will be helpful to those of you struggling with printing several images onto one sheet.
COLOR COMBO CHART
It is actually very easy to make a color combo chart like I have here. Go to Pinterest and search for Color Palette. The search will return a huge amount of various beautiful images along with color combinations pulled from those images.
Its usually the image itself that I look at first, rather than the actual colors. If I find the image inspiring and if I think the colors shown there are colors I can see myself using on a card, I save the image onto a folder on my computer.
Once I have a decent amount of images saved I go ahead and print them. I use photo paper rather than regular printer paper to print these so that I get true vibrant colors and so that the paper is a little bit more durable. I use the cheapest matte photo paper available as I don’t think you need to spend a lot of money on high quality photo paper to print these, the cheapest option works for me.
I printed and trimmed mine to be 6×6 inches as this is a nice size for my desk. Usually anything bigger is a bit too overwhelming for me and takes too much room, so this size works for me. But you can print these in whatever size works best for you. You can also cut these up and put on a book ring so all images stay together or in a file storage system. I keep mine loose on a pile, this way I can easily and quickly flip thought my collection.
CARD DETAILS
For the card I’m sharing today I was inspired by Peach and Gray color combo. I don’t think I’ve ever used it before, so it was definitely a fun one to try. I added a hint of Rose Gold by using Rose Gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and I think that helped to warm the card a bit as otherwise it was rather cold.
I used Altenew’s Vintage Flowers stamps with matching dies to stamp and die cut the flowers and the leaves. MISTI ended up being very helpful in terms of aligning images and spending less time stamping these. I used the following colors on ink from Altenew (all linked below): Blush, Peach Perfect, Rouge, Crimson, Paper Bag, Dark Chocolate.
To create the sentiment I heat embossed “On This Special Day” using Platinum embossing powder from Hero Arts, the sentiment is from Thinking of You set.
GIVEAWAY
There are TWO mini MISTIs from My Sweet Petunia and THREE $30 gift certificates from Altenew up for grabs. Winners will be picked randomly from the comments across all of the blogs in the hop. Winners will be announced on the My Sweet Petunia and Altenew blogs on July 3, 2016.
BLOG HOP
If you arrived from Ilina Crouse – you are on the right track as I am the last stop on this hop. You can also start at the beginning at Altenew blog.
SUPPLIES
I’m listing the products I used below. Click on the link to go directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
 EK Success Craft Tweezers Shop at: SSS |
 Neenah 80 Solar White Paper Pack 250 Sheets Shop at: SSS |
 ScraPerfect Perfect Crafting Pouch Multi-Purpose Craft Tool Shop at: SSS |
 Versamark Watermark Emboss Ink Pad Shop at: SSS | HA |
 Spellbinders Artisan X-plorer Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS | SC |
 Hero Arts Platinum Embossing Powder PW117 Shop at: SSS | HA |
 Pretty Pink Posh Sparkling Clear Sequins Mix Shop at: SSS | PPP |
 Ranger Glossy Accents Glue Dimensional Adhesive Shop at: SSS | SC | PPP |
 Pretty Pink Posh 4MM Clear Droplets (small) Shop at: SSS | PPP |
 Altenew Red Sunset Crisp Dye Ink Pad Pack Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Blush Crisp Dye Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Crimson Crisp Dye Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Evening Gray Crisp Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Moon Rock Crisp Dye Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Morning Frost Crisp Dye Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Rouge Crisp Dye Ink Pad Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Thinking of You Stamp Set Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Spicy Yogurt Cardstock Shop at: SSS |
 Fenstone Decorative Element Shop at: AN |
 Altenew Paper Bag Crisp Dye Ink Pad AN166 Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Dark Chocolate Crisp Dye Ink Pad AN196 Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Peach Perfect Crisp Dye Ink Pad AN190 Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Warm Gray Oval Set Crisp Dye Ink Pads Shop at: SSS |
 Crystal Ninja CRYSTAL KATANA Mixed Media Pick Up Tool Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Vintage Flowers Stamp Set Shop at: SSS |
 Altenew Vintage Flowers Die Set Shop at: SSS |
 Pretty Pink Posh 6MM METALLIC ROSE GOLD Sequins Shop at: SSS |
 Mini MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS | SC |
Love the soft colours of your card! Fabulous!
Just stunning, you are rather clever to think to do that. Love the color chart idea for inspiration.
LOVE the layers! Great for so many occasions!
Such good ideas. I have the vintage flowers stamp set and am having a hard time choosing color. This is a big help.
Thank you for linking to your Altenew color chart! Right now all my color combinations are on loose scrap paper floating around my desk…
Great color combo. TFS
What great color combo.
Beautiful card.
Love this color combo, so beautiful!
Your card is soo beautiful!! And thanks for sharing your color charts with us! Really helpful 🙂
Wow are you ever organized. Another idea to file away.
Thanks so much for sharing your color concepts. Sometimes I just get stuck in a rut with color and you have given me some ideas to expand my color palette.
Just watched your video and what an awesome idea to print out the color pallets, I have many save on Pintrest and now to back and get them. Your is gorgeous as usual, you never disappoint me!
Great idea and beautiful card! I”m off to look for color palettes on pinterest!
Hi Yana 🙂 Thank you for your great ideas – so helpful. Your card is beautiful!
You are an exceptional artist. Thank you!
Absolutely beautiful as usual. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you. I really like the idea of having color charts to refer to for inspiration 🙂
Thanks for the chart. I have a tough time with choosing colors. This will help out.
Gorgeous colour combo Yana! Love your work!!
Very pretty, love the layers. Thank you for the color charts.
Another stunning card Yana! Love the soft colours and beautiful layering. Thanks for the inspiration and tips on choosing colours for cards.
Beautiful!
Great idea, love this color combo
Lovely color combination.
Thanks for sharing your tips and great ideas. Your video was very informative and your card is beautiful!
Beautiful card! I love to hear and see your thought and design process!!!
Love your layering and colors! Thanks for the tips – color combos are a challenge for me 🙂
Such pretty and soothing colours. Lovely card.
Gorgeous card! Thanks so much for the video!
Pretty card; lovely, soothing colour scheme.
Thanks for sharing your tool
I really like your soft color choices!
Elegant card! I love the pretty color combo and the layering! Thanks for sharing your creative process!
your color combo charts are a fantastic idea – thank you! and of course your card is grogeous (as always!)
Thank you so much for sharing your creativity and tricks with us. As usual, your card is awesome.
What a great idea to come up with new color schemes! Thank you!
wonderful card
Lovely soft color combination.
Oh My Goodness! I love your suggestions for color combos and inspiration. This card is fantastic and thank you for taking the time to inspire us.
I really love your card.. The colors are soft and beautiful.
Beautiful care! Thank you for sharing your color chart info. That is something I struggle with too. Sometimes I’ll go to my local home improvement store and get a bunch of their paint sample booklets for color inspiration.
Beautiful card, thanks for sharing!
Love your card but I especially appreciate you sharing how you collect and reference color combinations. What a fabulous idea and one that would save me so much time! Thanks so much for sharing this great method!
Very lovely card. So elegent and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the tips for choosing color combos. Very helpful.
Wonderful card Yana!! I do love the color you picked!! I have a lot of these color swatches saved on Pinterest but never thought the print them out!! What a wonderful tip!! Thanks so much for sharing all the information on how and what paper to use on the color swatches!!
Really Gorgeous card!
LOVE the soft pastel colors and those beautiful flower images on your gorgeous card, Yana.
Thank you for the color combo tips too.
Yana I just assumed your talents you were born with and just oozed out your pores. Didn’t know you struggled with colors too. Thank you so much for sharing what you’ve learned yet again. So lovely.