Good morning! Welcome to this month’s color installment! Today I thought we’d have a little Christmas in October feature. I craft a lot for the holidays, often in the traditional red and green or shades of green with a small pop of red. But my favorite Christmas colors are what I like to call candy-colored Christmas. Or merry and bright, heavy on the bright!
Red and green play a part – it doesn’t seem Christmas enough without a small touch of one or the other – but I like to bring in pink, light blue, and lighter shades of green as well. Since the overall look is a bit lighter and brighter, grays are my go-to neutral for sentiments and other elements. Within this larger color palette, I can mix and match the colors to create smaller pairings for cards and projects that will coordinate nicely.
First up, I paired Pure Poppy with Limeade Ice and a small touch of Pale Peony. A lighter green with a strong red is a playful take on the traditional red and green. Rather than repeating one of these colors on the sprinkles, I opted for pink.
The specific shade of pink here coordinates with both colors nicely – similar in lightness to the green, and basically a lighter shade of the red, it’s the perfect third color from my candy-colored palette.
Next, I’ve added Hawaiian Shores to the fairly traditional red and green combo of Pure Poppy and New Leaf. I could’ve stuck with red and green here, but I’m partial to an offbeat element whenever possible and the Hawaiian Shores offers that.
It gives the card the slight modern edge I was going for, and a little pop of extra color! As you know, color makes me happy, especially bright color!
And speaking of bright color, for my last and brightest card, I’ve combined Hawaiian Shores, Pale Peony and New Leaf, with a small pop of Pure Poppy added to all three.
I’ve always loved the look of candy-colored Christmas trees and create them with different tree stamps whenever I can. I think it reminds me of pastel tinsel trees or the tree lot Charlie Brown goes to. And the look is perfect with any phrase that has “bright” in it.
So there you have it – a clean and simple, candy-colored Christmas! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of the best things about stamping is that you can stamp in any color that floats your boat – creative license is everything! Do you have a favorite Christmas palette beyond the basics? Please share in the comments so I can try it, too!
Have a colorful day!
? lexi
Supplies:
Merry Mug card
STAMPS: Merry Mug
INK: Limeade Ice, Pure Poppy, Pale Peony, Weathervane
PAPER: Stamper’s Select White
DIES: Merry Mug, Shape Shifters: Square 1
OTHER: MISTI, foam tape, 2-way glue, sequins
Be Merry card
STAMPS: Glorious Globes: September
INK: Pure Poppy, New Leaf, Hawaiian Shores
PAPER: Stamper’s Select White, Soft Stone
DIES: Glorious Globes: September, Mix & Mat: Confetti, Bold Borders: Yuletide
OTHER: MISTI, 2-way glue
Calm and Bright card
STAMPS: Winter Fox, Corner Adorner: September
INK: Hawaiian Shores, Pale Peony, New Leaf, Pure Poppy, Weathervane
PAPER: Stamper’s Select White
DIES: Winter Fox, Mix & Mat: Confetti, Double-Ended Banners
OTHER: MISTI, foam tape, mini star sequins
Krillsister says
Love those Christmas color combinations. Just in time for my holiday crafting to begin.
TracyL says
The trees in Charlie Brown Christmas inspire me also!
Peggy says
Fun colors to bring into Christmas crafting. Bright colors are always a cheerful addition to the holiday season.
Your cards are always samples of artful pleasure!
Becky Green says
BEAUTIFULLY DONE, Lexi! I LOVE the colors you’ve chosen & I LOVE the name you’ve given them too, “Candy Colored!” It fits SO NICELY! 😉
Catherine Milne says
Lexi, you are the Queen of Color Explanations. I always always always learn something from you. I love your Color Ambassador posts.
Marcia Hill says
Fun colors, Fun cards, and a wonderful post Lexi! LOVE all your color combinations…can’t wait to try them out!! :0)
merryf says
Lexi, I love all of these, especially the third retro-looking card! That color combination is going to be just perfect for my Christmas card this year!
Any thoughts on some fun color combinations for a Hanukkah card?
Thanks!
Greta H says
What a great color post, Lexi–thank you! I’m not very adventurous in personality, so tend to stick with usual color combos in my cardmaking unless I see something done by someone else. That’s how I started using red & aqua together for Christmas. Way back I did find that I like red & purple together with the right images including for Christmas. I’ve never used Limeade Ice with red, but I do love your first card, so gotta try that. Never would have thought to use Hawaiian Shores for the bow–love it! The trees have my heart, though–adore everything about that card! Love that you added red dots to all 3!