Color confidence: the Color Coach cards

Stampin' Up! 2020-2021 Annual Catalog

I have finally looked at Every. Single. Page of the Stampin’ Up! 2020-2021 Annual Catalog. Isn’t the cover beautiful? And that tree trunk slab is quite gorgeous. But aside from the cover, is there anything else you notice?

Yes, I’ve color coordinated my sticky notes to the cover. Compulsive? Maybe, but I think it’s an indication of just how much Stampin’ Up! has influenced me over the past 15 years. I am aware of colors all the time, whether it’s hiking in the autumn prairie or watching a storm approach. So often I think about how I might interpret that using paper. Wow. Am I an artist?

When you open the cover of this new catalog, I think you’ll smile at the way the Stampin’ Up! colors are presented. This company knows color.

I’m not an expert. But if working with colors is a struggle for you, maybe I can help. This week I’d like to talk about — and show — how to make color decisions easier.

Color Coach card

To begin, let me share with you a resource from Stampin’ Up! The Color Coach is a seven-page pdf. Print it on good (Whisper White!) card stock. When you cut along the lines, you’ll end up with 2¾” x 3⅝” cards with three suggested color combinations for each of the 40 core colors in Stampin’ Up!’s four families. This is what one card looks like.

When I’m stuck using the same color combinations over and over, I reach for my stack of Color Coach cards (I clip them together with a giant binder clip) and find something a little offbeat — something that’s not really “me”!

Now just a little advice: Just because this card shows Melon Mambo, Mango Melody, and Pool Party doesn’t mean you have to — or should — use them in the same proportions. (In fact, you might find that rather jarring.) I learned the “gallon/quart/cup” rule of proportions. That’s a big dose of color #1, about a quarter as much of color #2, and a quarter as much of that of color #3.

Try using the Color Coach to prod you into using something different!

Find the Color Coach cards here.

This entry was posted in Color and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.