December’s color palette inspiration is here to help you colorize your holiday paper crafts, winter wreaths, Christmas decorations and more. It’s based on my favorite Christmas decoration: Wooden German nutcrackers.
I bought my first wooden nutcracker in Rothenburg, Germany on a post-college European trip with my good friend, Sarah. It was our first trip to Europe and our requisite Eurail pass took us through France-Switzerland-Germany-Austria-Italy. My mom’s German grandfather stowed away on a ship to America when he was 19 so I was excited to see the Fatherland first-hand.
Each month I share an original color palette using Astrobrights Papers who I’d like to thank for sponsoring these posts. All color palettes and opinions are mine.In the past I’ve been inspired by fall leaves and sugar skulls and baseball games and vintage quilts and spring flowers and lemonade and wild berries and beach toys.
So back to that trip: Sarah and I both bought wooden German nutcrackers and ornaments and carried them in our backpacks the rest of our trip through Austria, Italy and France and back home to Chicago.
This month’s palette inspiration is all about holiday family traditions. Now that I have my own children, I’m trying to establish some traditions of our own. Luckily, we live in Chicago that has a healthy German population. Growing up we had lots of wooden German ornaments on our tree. I have a weakness for them, and I’ve hooked in the kids by taking my kids to Chicago’s Christkindl Market to pick out a new ornament each year.
December’s color palette inspiration is Re-Entry Red™, Blast-Off Blue™, Sunburst Yellow™ and Gamma Green™ from ASTROBRIGHTS® Papers. I like that it features bright primary colors that feel like childhood joy.
My German nutcracker collection inspired December’s holiday color palette with these Astrobright Papers colors, from top to bottom below:
Re-Entry Red™
Blast-Off Blue™
Sunburst Yellow™
Gamma Green™
You can get your own pack of Astrobrights Papers here. Choose all 25 colors, or one of their many assortment packs, or a big pack of one color (includes affiliate links):
See my past color palettes to help inspire your own:
- November: Fall leaf hunting in the city
- October: Dia de los Muertos and lost family members
- September: Cubs post-season color palette — now World Series Champs after 108 years!!
- August:Summer-y color palette based on sandy beach toys
- July: Wild berry picking color palette of blues, reds and blacks
- June: Cheery school’s out summer palette of yellow and red
- May: An ocean of violets in bloom purple and green palette
- April: Spring color palette inspired by a Nashville quilt
Check back next month to see the next set of color palettes for more inspiration on how to Colorize™ throughout the year.
And be sure to tell me in the comments below: What family tradition do you celebrate at Christmas?
Thanks to Astrobrights Papers for sponsoring this post and sending me their beautiful colorful paper. I only share brands that I really love and use myself like on these paper Father’s Day tie bunting and napkin rings, how to make DIY paper Easter baskets, and paper heart bracelets for Valentine’s Day.