In praise of Color Coach

I laughed my leg off when I first saw Color Coach in the annual catalogue.

It's billed simply as a "Swatchbook with a card for every colour in our collections". What's the point of that? You'd have to be an SU fan of stalker-ish proportions to pay £13.50 for what is essentially an advert for more things you can buy from SU. 

Anyway, having now played with it, it turns out I was wrong. Color Coach is actually an immensely useful little tool, particularly if, like me, you're a bit 'chromatically challenged'.

I have a problem putting colours together  & the process can often take over an entire crafting session. I've got a colour wheel & a very good book on colour theory, but none of it has sunk in. I need a system which basically tells me what to put with what. Colour for Dummies. Color Coach is that system.

What you get with Color Coach is a swatch book, with a page for every colour SU currently features across its product ranges. The really useful bit is that when you flip each card over, printed on the reverse are 3 suggested colour combinations featuring that particular colour. So, if you've got a particular ink or DSP you want to work with but you don't know where to go next, Color Coach acts as your jumping off point.

You don't need to own the entire SU range to use it (imagine that, though...). If you've not got the colour specified on the card, try substituting a similar one. 

In the card below, I wanted to use up some green Old Olive paper from Polka Dot Parade DSP (126902). I wasn't seized by the colour combinations on the back of the Old Olive swatch card, so I flicked through the pack until I came to the reverse of the Pool Party swatch card.

This suggested mixing Old Olive with Crushed Curry & Pool Party. I didn't have any a crushed curry or Pool Party cardstock, but I did have Daffodil Delight & Coastal Cabana. They were similar enough to substitute &, after throwing in a bit of Real Red to make things pop, I ended up with a very pleasing colour combination that had taken minutes to put together. 

 

 

I won't need Color Coach for every project. But when I'm short on time & inspiration, I know it will guarantee great results in minutes.

Products featured 

Color Coach

Polka Dot Parade DSP in Real Red & Old Olive

Make a Cake stamp set (126742)

Ink pads in Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, Real Red

Postage Collection stamp set (happy birthday sentiment - hostess set)

Coastal Cabana DSP from 2013-15 in Color pack

Daffodil delight cardstock

Arrows textured embossing folder 

Decorative label punch

Scallop trim border punch (cut into snippets & used to frame label)

Word window punch (sentiment & pinwheel)

Mini book pics & a video

I finished my Mini Memories Simply Created album kit. It's a lovely little book. I've mainly used smaller photos (Pogo prints, passport side and Moos). The album covers were Kraft colour with a clear embossed pattern. I painted them in white acrylic paint then wiped it off while it was still wet, as I wanted white covers.

I used pictures from when my boys were little. It was lovely to complete. My boys are still children, but older now. It was nice to look back at a time when they enjoyed my company & would chatter away to me. These days they only communicate through a complex system of grunts, mostly based around wanting to know what's for tea.

If you currently have small children, do make sure that you photograph the living daylights out them now. Once they hit high school they'll start moaning about privacy and personal space and your pool of scrap-able photos will diminish rapidly. So until then, let them never have an undocumented moment!

Here's a video walk through of the album. (It features my usual high quality video production values, ahem)

And here's some close ups in my Flickr album.

If you want to buy the kit, you can find it here. Colourwise, it coordinates with Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Canteloupe (those are all 2013-15 In Colors btw), Read Red and Summer Starfruit, so you might want to pick yourself up some coordinating elements while you're there.  And this is the clearance rack Tulle I was talking about - £2.35. Bargain!

Scrapping with Stampin' Up!

Everyone* got very excited earlier in the week when it was announced that Stampin' Up! will be launching an exclusive Project Life range in the 2014/15 catalogue, but here's a reminder that SU already do really great scrapbooking products!

I'm currently working on my Mini Memories Simply Created album (133332). I'll post a video & some pics in the next couple of days. It's turned out really nice, perfect for small photos.

*that would be me. Yeah...sorry about that.

Weekly deals - 16 April 2014

This weeks deals are here

Whoop! Whoop! ALERT! ALERT!

The 2014/15 annual catalogue will see Stampin' Up! team up with Project Life!

More information here http://t.co/ss1JbcB9mY

And information from Becky Higgins, originator of Project Life, here

http://beckyhiggins.com/project-life-by-stampin-up/

The annual catalogue will be available in the UK from 1st July 2014. 

Decorative Label Punch tip

A quick tip on how to get a bracket shape from your Decorative Label Punch.

(the video features a page from the Mini Memories Simply Created Album, which I'll be sharing later this week. When it's finished, lol.)

Stampin' Up! UK weekly deals

From today until 29 April 2014 Stampin' Up! is offering weekly deals on different items. For one week a set of items will be reduced. This week's deals are: 

Click on the catalogue in the sidebar to buy them or anything else from my Stampin' Up! shop. And check back next Wednesday for a new package of deals.

Positively Chevron Hello card

 

I made this card and you can too! Just don't, y'know, SMUDGE RED INK ALL OVER IT LIKE I DID!!

Yes, I did get ink where it shouldn't be. But then I went and rescued it! 

Remember, stampers, there ARE no mistakes, only new opportunities to stick things over other things.

This is why I love papercrafts, You can spend ages on something & then make a mistake & still find a way to make it right :)

Products used:

Positively Chevron stamp

Chevron Border punch

Simply Stars stamp set

Simply Celebrate stamp set

Perfect Pennants stamp set

Real Red ink

Basic Gray ink

Basic Black marker

Whisper White cardstock

Smoky Slate cardstock

Sponge!!

A useful tool for applying ink to paper, edges and even stamps, the Stampin' Up! ink applicator sponges (101610) come in packs of three for £3.25. But you can cut them into wedges and make 24 applicators. You'll want to have a sponge for each ink pad colour to avoid contaminating ink colours. Trust me,  a blue sponge dabbed onto a yellow ink pad will give you nothing but a green stain and a seething hatred for the world!