Stacy Croninger - Digital Managing Editor
Hi friends!
When I create, there are two things that stall my creativity. Deciding on the colors to use and the layout’s design. The problem with colors is that I naturally gravitate to certain ones that I love, which is fine until they show up on every thing I create. It can get rather boring.
To help with this issue, I spend quite a bit of time finding and recording colors and combinations that inspire me. Probably my best resource is the web site Design Seeds. This web site takes beautiful images and creates color palettes from them. For example, this one called Flora Palette:
I love the greens with the amazing pop of blue. I use greens quite a bit with pink, but the blue is what makes this color combo.
Another favorite for me is Pinterest. I love looking at actual projects to see the combinations used. For example, this bright and colorful layout from Laina Lamb (Creating Keepsakes Dream Team member) on the Creating Keepsakes Pinterest boards:
I LOVE yellow but seldom use it with orange and blue. Plus, the variety of patterns on the paper provide a second inspiration point for me.
The other place I find a lot of inspiration is in magazines – especially the cover design and ads. Magazines are eye candy for me as I stand in line at the grocery store and are often impulse purchases, which I’m sure makes several magazine companies very happy. These items are hard to capture online so I save them in my inspiration journal. The advantage of this method is I can easily carry my journal with me to wherever I am creating and have the colors available even when I don’t have my computer.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that struggles with color combos (if I am, please don’t burst my bubble, it is Monday afterall and I need to start the week off on a positive note 
). So where do you find your inspiration? What are your favorite color combos? Leave me a comment – I’d love to know how your creativity is sparked!
I hope your week is full of color and creativity. Have fun creating!
I love to play with color–and use different mediums from markers to paint to crayons and pastels. I get my inspirations from magazines–even ads! I also get it from nature–I try to take photos of a unique color inspiration, the other night coming home from a night out, the moon was just starting to ascend, it was huge, low in the horizon, I felt like we were going to drive right into it. I tried to take a photo on my phone, but the street lights kept interfering. It was the most brilliant orangey yellow grey color, all mixed together and it was gorgeous! I think I’ll try to make my own “moon” themed project soon.
I like using shades of the same color, like a variety of blues or reds, but I’m kinda fond of 80s color combos. Pink and teal, black and aqua, neon pink and yellow.
Great ideas from you blog entry today, Sheri K and chark (above)!
I’m a fan of 3 different ideas: 1. Kuler.com – allows you to pick one of your own photos to load in and it automatically chooses select colors from your photo or you can move the sliders around your photo and tweek them. 2. Color Index – a very small book that’s packed with RGB and Adobe color swatches. These are great for those of us who scrap digitally! You can find this little gem at the library! 3. Turn a photo upside-down! I learned this trick from a fabric magazine. When the photo is upside-down, the eye sees colors instead of shapes. It’s easier to put together a color palette. Try it on any photo you see: magazines, calendars, junk mail, your own, etc!
Great ideas ladies! Thanks so much for sharing them.
My inspiration is almost 100% internal. I have trouble with color combos and probably never go outside the box. All my Christmas layouts are red and green. All my Cal layouts are blue and gold. Otherwise I try to use paper collections so that all the colors match.
That is a fun website. i’ve been there a few times. it’s a great place to head if I get stuck with some color combos.