Simon Says Stamp - Seasonal Color Palettes, Spring & Summer Edition

No cards for you today, but I made a little tool to help me in the craft room and wanted to share it with you!

I often struggle with picking colors for my projects and have a soft spot in my heart for ANYTHING that looks like a chart. So when I saw CZ Design Color Wheel from Simon Says Stamp, I knew I had to have it and knew that I wanted to make Seasonal Color Palettes!

My main inks are of course my Distress Inks and Oxides. As that color palette continues to grow, I am both thrilled to explore the range and sometimes intimidated to pick a color scheme for a project.

With over 60 colors, I thought that I could break up the range into four distinct seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The idea being that depending on the time of year and project and when I was feeling overwhelmed by the full range, I could pick my colors from those smaller groupings.

The 5.5" round Color Wheel Stamp is divided into 12 pie-shaped sections and I assigned a color to each section.

This is a great project to get yourself lost in when your crafty mojo is depleted, so consider setting aside an afternoon and figuring out what your Seasonal Color Palettes will look like.

Key Supplies

• Simon Says Stamp CZ Design Color Wheel Stamp

• Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Paper

• Simon Says Stamp Premium Ink Pad - Intense Black

• Ranger Artist Brushes

• Brother P-Touch Label Maker

• Brother P-Touch 1/2" Black Print on White Tape

• Ink Pads or Ink Refills of your choice

A full supply list is available at the bottom of this post.

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SELECTING THE COLORS:

The first step can happen long before you get to your craft space and involves deciding which colors go into which Seasons. Today we will tackle Spring and Summer. I will share the Fall and Winter palettes at a later date.

Remember, your color choices for each Seasonal Palette may be completely different from mine and that is perfectly ok and will make this even more fun! Here are my Spring and Summer colors:

SPRING

1. Spun Sugar

2. Kitsch Flamingo

3. Shaded Lilac

4. Victorian Velvet

5. Tumbled Glass

6. Weathered Wood

7. Evergreen Bough

8. Shabby Shutters

9. Cracked Pistachio

10. Twisted Citron

11. Squeezed Lemonade

12. Dried Marigold

SUMMER

1. Worn Lipstick

2. Picked Raspberry

3. Barn Door

4. Wilted Violet

5. Blueprint Sketch

6. Salty Ocean

7. Peacock Feathers

8. Salvaged Patina

9. Mowed Lawn

10. Mustard Seed

11. Carved Pumpkin

12. Sliced Marmalade

There are no big secrets here with my choices; the Spring palette is mostly pastels and the summer is bursting with bright colors. I tend to default to many of the bold colors in the Summer palette in a lot of my projects and I am hoping that this experiment will help me in exploring more shades or using the ones I like to much in different ways.

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MAKING THE CHARTS

I am placing my Palettes into a mini Binder that I use to store my color charts and so I they are stamped on Distress Ink Watercolor Paper measuring 5.5" x 8.5". Since the stamped image is ~5.5" round, you may elect to use a smaller piece of Watercolor paper to suit your needs.

Key Steps:

1. Ink the Color Wheel Stamp with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and stamp onto Distress Ink Watercolor Paper

2. Repeat for as many Palettes as you plan to create

3. Let the ink dry completely by heat-setting it or setting it aside for a few minutes while while preparing your colors.

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COLORING THE CHARTS

I used Distress Ink Reinkers to color my Charts as it allowed me to prepare a consistent intensity of colors across the Seasonal Palette. This was important for me to get a reliable representation of each chosen color.

Key Steps:

1. Add one drop of ink to each well of the Darice Plastic Palette or a Tim Holtz Distress Ink Palette. Add two colors to the center well at opposite ends of that well to separate the colors.

2. Add two drops of water to each color and mix with the Ranger #6 Round Artist Brush.

3. Paint each pie-shaped section of the wheel with each color until complete.

4. Label each color using the 01 Copic Multiliner Pen or other pigment ink pen.

Spring

Tip: Let each section semi-dry before moving to the next section to limit bleeding of colors.

Summer

Tip: Arrange your colors as your see fit, my rainbow starts with Pink and progresses in a clockwise direction. :-)

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COMPLETED SEASONAL PALETTES

Spring:

Summer:

Now that's a little bit of pretty!

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MORE TO COME!

Stick with me as I use these palettes in my next post to create some ink blends and color combos for my newest Distress Ink, Salvaged Patina, which I will then use in some new projects!!!

In late June/early July I will share my choices for the Fall and Winter Palettes.

I hope that you will give this a whirl and let me know in the comments what colors you would change in my Spring and Summer Seasonal Palettes. Full supply list below for your shopping convenience.

See you soon Lovelies!

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SUPPLIES:

I listed the products that I have used below. Please note that these are compensated affiliate links used at no cost to you. I really appreciate your support. Simon Says Stamps Born to Sparkle Release products were provided as part of my Design Team package. Click on the icons below each product picture to shop with SimonSaysStamp.com.