Friday, October 12, 2012

How do you do color challenges??

This has always baffled me, and i've tended to shy away from color challenges, because i'm primarily a kit user- I like to buy coordinated kits and save the brainwork of coordinating everything, and besides, how can you resist all the GORGEOUS kits out there?! and furthermore, why would you want to?

I'm off on a tangent.  Anyway, so when i saw the challenge at the Color Me Scrappy blog I knew i had to do this challenge! what a beautiful color combo!!!!



Right?? its awesome! 

BUT, the thing about color challenges, is that they don't always neatly fit into a ready made kit's scheme.  Usually, there's another prominent color that isn't in the color challenge, or the kit has most but not all the colors in the challenge...   A dilemma indeed.  

But i found a solution to this problem and thought i'd share in case anyone else had the same conundrum.  


Step 1:  flip through your kit stash and try to find kits with at least a few of the same colors

Step 2:  If that fails, or produces less selection than you'd like, take your remaining kits and try to pick out the specific colors in the scheme.  Pull the cardstock and/or patterned paper out, and set it aside.  

Step 3: narrow down the papers you pulled for the most attractive combination of colors and prints.  I like to choose a dominant color, a secondary color and then a couple of detail colors.  I also try to have some solid colors, big prints, small prints, etc.  so there's variety.  

Step 4: flip through first the kits with compatible colors that you set aside, and if needed all your other kits, to fish for embellishments.  I only pull out the ones i'm pretty sure i'll use, as pulling out all that patterned paper has created mess enough!  

Step 5: put it all together, and clean up the mess! Voila! you have a color challenge!!!  


Here's what I created with these beautiful colors- (sorry about the cruddy picture, I was too impatient to wait for sunlight!)  And because i am JUST that much of a nerd- i even used the color grid itself as inspiration for the design of this page! 




8 comments:

Mrs. Weddle said...

love your brake down of collecting stuff to fit the challenge. I have the problem all the time, usually I end up with enough paper to make 10 layouts and its a pain to clean up after. love the layout and how cool to use the swatch design in it. thanks for playing along with color me scrappy :) hope to see you in the next challenge too :)

Nathalie said...

I also tend to shy away from color challenges because of the same reasons you have given. I like your approach though. That's a good idea! Great page too!

marianne said...

I love the grid pattern of your layout. Thanks for playing at Color Me Scrappy!

Patricia said...

Great job Rebecca! Loving how you used the color grid as an inspiration!

Christina Collins said...

This is just perfect! I love all the photos. Thanks for playing along with CMS!

Angela said...

Love the grid! It's a great design and you did fab with the colors. I like that combo too.

Sandy Ang said...

i find even with a kit there may be papers with spots or little bits of colour that's what i need. so i just cut them out and use little chunks. your LO looks wonderful !

Viji Siddharth said...

Love the photos! Perfect papers! Thanks for playing along with CMS!