Color secrets revealed

I'll tell you a secret, I don't know what I'm doing sometimes. Whenever someone askes me about my color combinations and if I use a color wheel, I have to say no. It just feels natural to me which colors go together and I am not concerned about matching. I like to use similiar shades (monochromatic) or contrasting colors together. But usually, I pick similiar colors like orange and pink or green and blue. Right now, my favorite combination is pink and green.

Nicole made my day yesterday when she wrote in her blog about my color choices and designs. I usually stick to 2-3 colors but occasionally will go a bit wild and crazy and use every single color I can. For those who want to experiment with color, go through a magazine or color catalogue and pull out things that look interesting to you- design, color, ads, etc. And then start finding the patterns of what you picked out. Did you pick out classic color combinations like red, white and blue or "different' combinations like fuschia and purple? I find inspiration in bright colors like lime, orange and bright pink. One of my favorite things to do is to tweak traditional color schemes for holidays. I might do pink and light green (yum!) for Christmas or bright colors for Easter (instead of pastel yellow and lavender).

I keep a book of magazine tear-outs I've saved and will go through it periodically to be inspired and re-inspired all over again. What I make might that night might not actually be a duplicate of colors I looked at but I often am invigorated to start from that point.

The other day, I had thrown my orange towel and blue pajama pants into the laundry hamper. I thought, "hmm, I love this color combo. I don't use it enough." That night, I made this card. If you look closely, the colors are blue and orange but there's also dashes of green, white and black. These colors almost appear neutral because of the main colors.

Summer's a great time to experiment. You never know when inspiration may strike you. A yellow tennis ball and green grass (like yesterday's card) might find its way to your stamping.