Severnista

This is my third attempt at using a selection of Concord & 9th color combo’s by various crafters working in conjunction with C9. When I see these types of pins on Pinterest it motivates me to use them as a guide in my cardmaking. Do they work for me? Does it push me out of a routine of producing a certain style card? Is it too restrictive? How do I make the colors work? Usually it leads to somewhere else. Here is my original selection of colors to try in upcoming cards:

Card # 3 is based off this color combo from Concord & 9th. I choose this one because it uses colors from all three releases of Concord & 9th’s dye ink line, mostly recently from spring 2024 which includes Creamsicle, Watermelon and Rainforest. In addition are Lilac and Parsley. I also have cardstock for four out of these colors and had intentions of using it with a new botanical die set that I have.

When I invested in Concord & 9th’s dye inks in summer 2020, I bought them as my first full set of inks AND matching cardstock. I had never bought inks in a full set like that before!! 22 “traditional and trendy” colors in the collection plus cardstock to match each ink. It was a big investment but also small in terms of how many other inks are out there to choose from. It was a good size portion for a beginner but also a card making lover like me. I had been making cards for over ten years at this point and had only tried out various inks. Having a complete collection and the cardstock to match was like being Cinderella at the ball!

When the 2024 release came out I purchased five out of the six inks, all but Grasshopper. They also had these assorted cardstock packs available with two of each color which made getting your hands on just a few without investing in larger packs, easily done. I quickly found my favorites, one being Rainforest, featured in this color combo.

A couple months ago I started using a new die set that I had purchased from Altenew, Floral Doodles Die Set. I absolutely love it. I made two cards featured in this post here. I knew I wanted to return to using this set because I loved the results and decided that being part of the C9 color combo challenge would fit.

This card features Watermelon background florals with Creamsicle outlines and one tulip die (tucked under) in reverse. I used Parsley for some of the leaves from Floral Doodles and Rainforest for others. I also used leaves from Papertrey Ink’s die set, Into the Blooms: Christmas Sprigs (which, without it, I wouldn’t have half the cards that I’ve made this year 😉 ).

The background is from Ellen Hutson’s Sprinkles by Heather stencil set. The inks used are C9’s Ballet Slipper and Sorbet. The Sorbet looks a lot like Watermelon in the photo but they are very different and it’s probably my lighting that makes them look identical. Sorbet has a darker, richer tone than Watermelon which is a bit poppier in color.

I didn’t use all of the colors in this combo on one card so I went ahead and made another. This card has a Lilac background applied through the Sketched Lines Stencil from Altenew. My greenery is die cut from Parsley and Sprout cardstock using Christmas Sprigs die set. My flower backgrounds are cut from C9’s Eggplant cardstock. So now it looks like I’m reverting to more of the #2 Color Combo Card colors. I just don’t have Fig cardstock, which might also work well here. But I certainly didn’t miss it and simply love the bold, rich Eggplant in contrast with the white cardstock outlines. I really love how these turned out and I have more backgrounds and die cuts on the work table.

I didn’t exactly get all the colors onto one card and that’s something to think about when I move on to my next two sets of colors for this challenge. I’d really like to add more C9 cardstock colors to my collection and have taken the time to see what I’m going to use in the most applications. I try to be a thoughtful and thrifty crafter.

These are also not finished cards. I haven’t added sentiments yet and am still working with what I currently have in my craft stash to fit in with the balance of the overall card cover bouquets. Mostly I want to move on making more of these in various color combos using the paper that I already have and some backgrounds that I already started. I don’t want to get hung up on sentiments 😉 . Putting these colors together is just so much more fun!

Hope you’ve set up your own Color Combo Card Challenge by now! There are so many places to draw on for color inspiration. What card challenges out there do you participate? How do you draw inspiration?