Color Confusion Made Clear!

Do you have color confusion? Are you intimidated by that color wheel? Today I'm here to help! I do get compliments on my colors, and I thought "it's really not that hard", but then I realized one thing. That color wheel can be darned confusing! There's no way to memorize all the possible combinations, and you might just sit there saying "what are all these shapes in the middle for?"

Now, there are many different versions of color wheels available, but this is the one I have:

This is the one I recommend, and it you can probably find it in the art supply section of your nearest craft store. You use the holes in the center of each color grouping to help you decide which one your paper matches best. (Obviously this wheel can't cover an infinite range of colors.)  The center spins, as you can see in my video, to help you choose the combination of colors for your project.

I forgot to mention analogous color schemes in the video. this is just a group of 3-4 colors in a row along the color wheel. So perhaps you might use yellow-green, green, blue-green(turquoise), and blue. Or a monochromatic scheme where you use varying shades and hues of the same color.

You can see the color wheel in action in this video here:

If you want details on any of the layouts in that video, here they are:

Note - All of my layouts started with a sketch. My go-to sources are Scrapbook Generation and Close To My Heart, but some come from other sources and I also draw my own.

 

This layout started with the die-cut paper, and I had some scraps of the stripe, both from The Girls Paperie Vintage Floral line.  I pulled the blue from a small portion of the stripe for more contrast, using Frosted Teal cardstock from Bazzill as my bases. I added the green pattern from The Girls Paperie Vintage Travel line and the pink pattern from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie line.  Title was cut with the Cricut Artiste cartridge, brads were from my stash, and all other embellishments are The Girls Paperie Vintage Floral line.

I wanted to capture the feeling of a Creole plantation with this layout, reflecting the colors of the house itself. A perfect choice were these papers from Graphic 45's Olde Curiosity Shoppe collection. I added a journaling sticker and chipboard tag shape from the same collection. I used some felt flower shapes in my stash with the Epiphany Crafts Round 25 shape studio tool and bubble caps, some stickers from the collection and CS scraps. The title was cut with the Silhouette Cameo using Times New Roman and Black Jack fonts.

This layout began with leftover items from this month's promotional Cloud Nine card kit from Close To My Heart. (I made 1 set of 5 cards instead of 2 so I had large pieces left.)  All of the embellishments and stamped title shapes are from the same kit. I added White Daisy CS for my bases, along with Lagoon, Cranberry, Sunset, and a scrap of Honey CS.  I added stamping from January's stamp of the month, Cross-Stitch Wishes for an arrow border and a few tone-on-tone hearts in the background.

This layout started with a discontinued kit from CTMH, Avonlea. My color wheel declared Ruby red the winner of the add-a-color contest, so I added a few CS accents and some embellishments from the kit and the Ruby Mini-Medley Accents collection. The title is stamped with some discontinued stamps.

This layout uses the ProPlayer kit right out of the package - the experts know what they're doing. But, you CAN add other colors if you choose. If you didn't watch the video yet, you can see there how to add more colors to this combination. The titles and gears are all cut from the Cricut Artiste cartridge.

If you have any other questions about using a color wheel, feel free to ask them right here! I'm happy to help out.

Meet Pemberly - Sneak Peek and a 3-D Stamped Flower Tutorial

Today I'd like to introduce you to a pretty girl named Pemberly, a brand new collection from Close To My Heart coming February 1, 2012.  This beautiful collection features florals in blues, yellows, tans, and creams; it's sure to make your projects look great!  Here's my first project using my favorite collection in the new catalog:

I based my card design on the 6"x6" Diamond Stack pattern in the Originals card design book, and modified it for the papers and stamps I chose to use.  I created the flower focal image using an easy technique requiring only a pair of micro-tip scissors and a craft knife. 

Here's a video tutorial showing how to do it:

Here is some more beautiful artwork created by the creative artists at Close To My Heart.

There are two options for supplies I used to create the card.  The new Pemberly items and stamp set will be available beginning February 1 on my website; other items are currently available.  Option 1 is what I bought for myself, or already owned:

• G1033 Pemberly Workshop on the Go kit, $29.95 (contains the paper packet, Bouquet Assortment floral embellishments, Bitty Opaques pearl adhesive gems, exclusive workshop stamp set, and instruction booklet - see above video)
• C1494 Card Word Puzzle stamp set, $13.95
• craft knife of your choice - try Z1252 Cutting Knife, $4.95
• Z534 Micro-Tip Scissors, $9.95
• 9032 Originals Card Confidence Program, $21.95

Option 2 is only the exact items used on the card:

• X7148B Pemberly paper packet, $9.95
• Z1707 Bitty Opaques pearl adhesive gems, $2.95
• C1494 Card Word Puzzle stamp set, $13.95
• craft knife of your choice - try Z1252 Cutting Knife, $4.95
• Z534 Micro-Tip Scissors, $9.95
• 9032 Originals Card Confidence Program, $21.95

Note: Other products are also available which coordinate with the Pemberly collection, including MyStickease adhesive cardstock embellishments, ribbons, and more.

Hope you enjoyed meeting Pemberly as much as I did!  Thanks for stopping by today; I hope to see you again soon.

Balloon Craze Layout With Make The Cut

UPDATE: the Balloon Craze SVGs are no longer free.  Select files are free for a limited time on Lettering Delights, so if you see something priced $0 make sure you "buy" it and download it ASAP!  Balloon Craze is now $5, which IMHO is still a good deal - there are 15 super cute images included in the set!
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Well, THAT took longer than planned!  I was honestly hoping to have this layout done by Thursday but I had a small technical issue and an almost 6-year-old who refused to let me work for more than 10 minutes at a time.  Add in some errands that I will only do while he's in school, and my perfectionist nature, and this has dragged into a 4 day affair!  But oh was it worth the wait.  Here's the "outside" of the finished layout:

The entire layout was completed using the Splendor paper packet and additional cardstock from Close To My Heart, and uses the One-Way Mirror pattern from their Magic scrapbook sketch pattern book.  All of the designs were cut using the (currently free) Balloon Craze SVGs from Lettering Delights and Make The Cut software, and the title was cut using some True Type fonts and Make The Cut.  I also added some Glam Rocks using my I-rock tool from Imaginisce.

Here are some detail shots of my layout, followed by a little tutorial for cutting detailed images like this in smaller sizes.

This is the right page of my layout, opened up.  I had more pictures than would fit in a normal layout, so I made it interactive using CTMH's Flip Flaps 12" Assortment.  On the base layout, I cut my pictures 4" tall and created a 2x11 journaling area above them.  Then I cut a 6x12 piece of cardstock and duplicated the papers from the base layout on both sides.  I decided the position of my remaining photos and trimmed them to size.  The entire thing is then placed in a 6x12 Flip Flap, and the Flip Flap is then adhered in place on the outside of the Memory Protector holding the base layout.

You can really make your cuts "pop" with a couple of simple things.  After cutting your different colors, use coordinating ink and a sponge dauber to edge all of your pieces; this gives them a little extra dimension.  Add a little bling or shine to details, like my added Glam Rocks here, or some Stickles, rhinestones, etc.  Finally, pop up an entire assembled design like this balloon, or just a portion of a design.

Don't limit yourself to the entire design in an SVG file.  I made this pennant border using a portion of one of the balloon files.  I deleted all the other pieces from my virtual mat in MTC, then using the remaining pieces I made copies, mirrored images, and welded the base pieces together to create the entire border.

Create a more lifelike scene using the appearance of perspective.  I repeated the balloon imagery on the right page in a smaller size to give these balloons the appearance of being farther away.  You can skip the details like inking edges on smaller images because you don't see those things when you're farther away.

Smaller images with details like this can be a challenge to assemble, but I have a method I use to speed things up a little and make it considerably easier to assemble.

There is a great feature in MTC where you can change the color of the pieces you are going to cut.  Make sure you click the item, then right-click and choose Change Color/Texture > Select Color.  Then pick a color - I like to choose colors close to the actual paper colors I will be cutting.  Since I was cutting 3 images, I made three rows of pieces, keeping the pieces with the image they came from.  (Except the black & White, simply because I didn't have room to put the extra color on the same line, and those are easy pieces to tell which design they come from.)  Next I move the pieces around within the row, so that each color lines up in a single column.  (Note: I moved the light blue pieces up because I had a smaller scrap I needed to use.)  Finally, I got out my mat and put my paper on it following the colors on my virtual mat.

That means load the mat into the Expression once, and cut once.  WAY easy!

After cutting, I leave the pieces on the mat and just remove the "outside" cardstock scraps.  The pieces don't get lost because they're stuck on the mat.  I just peel them off one at a time to assemble the images.

I hope this helps you speed up your assembly of paper piecings!  Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think.