SU blue shades
 

I am putting my Christmas cards together and I am having a hard time finding blues that go well together for that "snowy" look. I have a white base and then Soft Sky for my background but I need a color for behind my white stamped image. Right now I have layered my image with a very light grey but it's just not quite right. What blues coordinate well for a snowy wintery look? Soft Sky is the lightest blue I have but I am not dead set on it so if you have any ideas, I am all ears! Current or retired is fine; if it's retired, I can check here in BST or on Ebay :) Thanks in advance

PS I saw a picture of an owl done with Bordering Blue and Bashful Blue together and those looked kind of nice...I am going to visit the blog of the lady that did it and see how it looks close up.

Pool party and Island Indigo
Soft Sky and NQN
Soft Sky and Marina Mist

I actually kept all the blues that I loved retired or not so I have cool carribean and soft sky and bermuda bay to play with

You could go a frosty rout with soft sky and pink pirouette

See, now when I put my cool carribean with my soft sky, the cool carribean looks too green :confused: Maybe I am color challenged :cry: I was thinking of the sky when it snows; that sort of greyish blue white kind of thing. I went to the blog with the owl but it does not say which blue is which...here it is...what do you think? And do you know which is which?

Stampin' with Irina: October 2010

It's the 2nd card post on that page

The darker grey tone blue is bordering blue.

When I use blues on my holiday cards I always go brighter crisp air feeling. But that's because we don't have snow here lol

I just did a card today for a SAS using Pool Party as a base, Raspberry under the i8mage panel, Gumball Green as ink and accent.
Next one is crumb cake, cherry cobbler, black and champagne glimmer paper

Baja Breeze is a similar grey toned blue. Maybe that and Marina?
Baja and soft sky?

I have to tell you, sewsplendidstamper, when I think back to the times I post with questions, you are always there for me. Thank you so much for helping me out!! You are a gem!

A gem. Quit! People will get the wrong idea of me ;)

Instead of using your soft sky as your background, what if you used a soft gray, and then used your soft sky as your snowy scene? Would that work?

Thanks, Karren99 :) I have a blue paper floor in my craftroom right now! I think I have about 6 different blues and even a few purples just to see what they look like! This particular card I did differently than all others that I have made and I fear it may have been a mistake. It all started with one silly stamp that says "In the meadow we can build a snowman" and then I was hell bent on having a snowman and THAT STAMP on my cards this year. I searched the world over for the perfect snowman, stamped out probably 50 of them, spent weeks coloring them in just perfect and now I am struggling with the rest of the card. If my mind and my hands worked better together, I would be a genius! haha!

I don't know what Sky Blue looks like, but do you have Bashful Blue? Bashful Blue is a the lightest blue of the current cardstock colors.

Once you have finished this card, you know we will all be waiting for you to upload it, so we can see how this one turned out!! Can't wait.....

I hear you, Craftymel... I have gotten myself off on a direction and then gotten stuck and refused to go backwards, just driven myself nuts getting it figured out! I love the image of your blue floor, it reminds me of my own studio floor during some of the color challenges!

If you feel like it would help, why not post thumbnails of the color combos you are considering and people can take a look and make suggestions? It sounds like you have a great card idea and have invested a lot of work in it already. The perfect BG color exists, you just need to pin it down!

I am going to try to upload a picture of what I came up with last night...fingers crossed, it will upload and not be HUGE like the last one I tried!!

[IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/2h4i1ht.jpg[/IMG]

Hard to tell in the picture but the berries are sparkly and the eyes and mouth are black sparkle like coal...the snowflake was traced over with a clear glitter pen...he really does look fabulous if I do say so myself :) In the pic, he just looks like your average old snowman!!

I love your snowman!

I agree that the gray and the blue (although both beautiful colors) are perhaps too similar in intensity to make that snowman pop. Maybe the secret is to change the mat under the snowman and that will either make the current blue work or give you another inspiration for the BG. How about a much darker mat?

Or maybe you need to emboss the mat in an allover texture to give it pop. Sometimes it's texture that makes the difference.

I could also see a darker BG with the sentiment embossed in white to echo the BG of the snowman panel.

Okay, I'll shut up... let's see what others might say!

ooh, that could work to emboss the matting behind the snowman...I could give that a try. And yes, that sentiment that started it all is giving me problems as well :( I tried cutting out a piece of lighter paper and layering it like the snowman but it did not look right. UGH!

Now that you've shown us your card, how about using Night of Navy or Almost Navy in place of the gray...whichever one matches the ink color you used to stamp the sentiment.

Your card is beautiful and I love the snowman, your coloring is excellent!

Ok...this is sad that I am so obsessed...I had an idea. I have TONS of Crumb Cake...I wonder if I went in another direction entirely and went with CC and some sort of blue accent? And maybe instead of embossing, I could put snowflake die cuts on the card? I am going to go into the lab and experiment. Thanks so much for the input...maybe I should change the name of this thread to Evolution of a Christmas Card?? hahaha!

Try the crumb cake, but I was thinking of replacing the gray with the color cardstock of the words you stamps your message. Is it navy, or pacific point? I would go a deeper blue? But certainly try that crumb cake. You can just lay it down, before gluing it down.

I like the idea of a darker mat to match the ink used in the sentiment.

My other idea would be to use a darker blue with the snowflake embossing, the mat in silver glimmer paper and the sentiment in white or heat embossed in silver. but, I really like sparkly. :D

I will be very curious to see the next version - Snowman 2.0!

[IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/20a8o6a.jpg[/IMG]

Ok, went with the Not Quite Navy on the Crumb Cake. Woah, completely different look, eh? Switched up my layers to make them smooth instead of scalloped. My only thing now is that large layer...it seems too...I don't know, just CUT. BAM. Does that make sense? How would I get it to not be so drastic? Is it just that there is no transition in color? Does it need another layer in between the CC and the NQN? So glad y'all are here...so so glad :D

I love the second version, I think it looks great! My new favorite blue is Midnight Muse which is different than NQN bu deep along those lines.

I LOVE YOUR CARD!!!

Oh, thanks binkiemonstermom!! :mrgreen: I like this one much more...here I was set on the lighter and the darker made such a difference I think!

Big difference for sure! The colors now pop and the Snowman stands out! I don't think you need another layer between the large blue BG and the CC. I think it would be too much. It looks great just as it is.

I think using CC was an inspired idea because I find that CC/kraft tones tend to "de-formalize" a card, and your Snowman is a very friendly and informal fellow! Your sentiment font is also very informal and "handwritten" looking. So the CC is just right for the whole feel of the card.

And CC, dark navy and white are a terrific combo any day!

http://i47.tinypic.com/2n87q00.jpg[/IMG]

For giggles, I flipped the card over to use that Soft Sky which I just seem to go back to...this poor snowman has been through the wringer! I keep pulling him off and sticking him on something else!! DH says he likes them both but I have to admit, as much as I like the softer look, the darker seems to draw me in more. Darker or lighter?

PS...this is the stamp that I mentioned in another thread...he had a longer nose with a bird on the tip. I whacked off the bird because I just did not like it there. Bye Bye Birdie!!!

Love your second version!! but they all are terrific!! Love the crumb cake one tho!!

I think they all LOOK good but I had to pick a winner.....I like the darker version. I think the stamped snowflakes pop and really look good! What type of ink did you use? It looks like the new SU illuminate ink somewhat but then it looks silvery too. Whatever it is, it looks GREAT with the dark color!!
Crumb cake is my favorite base for cards. It is such a great neutral. I think the last 5 cards I have posted on my blog have been crumb cake bases.

I love that you didn't like the bird so off he went!!! If it doesnt work for you, why keep it right???

Can't believe the difference in the two cards. I really like the darker paper background, as it makes your snowman image and the saying really pop.

I also like the darker version best!

Well, I guess it's the darker version then! Thank you for your kind words, I feel so great that I was able to make a card that I like...and so so happy you all were here to guide me!! I will tell you that after posting that last one, I pulled it off the CC and stuck it to some white and it looked good like that too! I might just make a few different versions of it...same card but on the different backgrounds to switch it up a bit :)

The snowflakes on the NQN cardstock is from Color Box and it is the pigment silver. I do like the way it stamps and is pretty quick to dry as well. First time using it and I am quite happy!

Again, thanks for the help!

I think it would be hard to put two blues together. I love blue and pink for Christmas. I'm using dsp from two years ago for my cards this year. I think the colors are baja and pretty in Pink or Pink Pirouette.

So now you have a few options and mixing it up will be more fun when you make your cards.

I am going to get that Colorbox pigment silver! It really stamps well on the dark CS!

So happy you were able to pull your card together so that you feel happy with the look! Fun for me to be part of it!

CraftyMel....who is the snowman stamp by? I love him, and I'd too, remove the birdie from his nose!! But what company is he frome? thank you!!

I vote for the darker version, too.

Love the snowman and the sentiment and would appreciate your telling us which company produced these.

Thanks everyone! The snowman is from Inkadinkado...here is a link to what he looked like before I altered him:

SNOWMAN Snow Friends CHRISTMAS Wood Mounted Rubber Stamp INKADINKADO New | eBay

Gosh, Ebay was the only picture I could find...I wonder if they don't make him anymore? Not sure...I paid $7 and got a Halloween stamp as a bonus from the seller!

He's great. i have put the ebay one in my watch list. I will chop the bird off too, if I decide to bid on it. Thank you for the info!!

I vote for the darker version as well. I think it looks great the way you made it, and the straight edge of your dark blue against the CC base does not bother me at all.

If you wanted to make it slightly less "layer heavy" the only thing I'd change would be to stamp the sentiment directly on the dark blue paper and emboss in either silver or white. Then add a smaller die cut or punched out snowflake near the bottom right of the words. Like between "build" and "snowman" with a sparkly rhinestone in the center of the snowflake to help draw the eye and give the words a little extra "oomph" without the extra card stock layers.