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.

Enchanted Lantern - Creations by AR New Release Blog Hop

 

Hello and welcome to another New Release blog hop for Creations by AR!  This month's new release is the beautiful Enchanted Lantern, with 3 window options. All files are available in SVG and DXF format, as well as PDF for those of you cutting by hand! After seeing all of the beautiful things you can do with this file, I know you're going to want one of your own! And here's how you can WIN your very own:

• Leave comments on each blog
• AR FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Creations-by-AR/154314751303824
• AR PCP Group: http://www.papercraftplanet.com/group/creationsbyar

Comments accepted until Friday, April 19 (12:00 noon EST)
One random winner will be announced April 20:
AR FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Creations-by-AR/154314751303824
AR PCP Group: http://www.papercraftplanet.com/group/creationsbyar
AR Blog:  http://cbyar.blogspot.com

Now, who's ready to see some beautiful Enchanted Lanterns?! Here's my version:

I chose to make an elegant "garden party lantern" in soft colors. I even covered the inside of the windows with vellum (who remembers vellum?!) for a softer, romantic light.

I created my lantern using the Avonlea Paper Pack and Avonlea Canvas Shapes from Close To My Heart, and paper flowers and brads (for flower centers) from my stash. I assembled the lantern using Scor Tape and adhered the flowers using Liquid Glass.

 Here you can see my battery operated tealight. The lantern top conveniently sits on the lantern without adhesive, making it easy to remove and replace the tealight.

Here you can see what the lantern looks like "plain", on the back side. If I were making these for an actual Garden Party, however, I would definitely decorate at least two sides of the lantern. Wouldn't several of these look lovely as table centerpieces?

Now, I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what the rest of the DT has created with this file! Before we go, be sure to leave a comment to be entered to win.  (And I would love if you come back here on Thursday when I plan to have another version of this made.)  Here's the list of DT members you should visit this month:

Adela - http://cbyar.blogspot.com/2013/04/creations-by-ar-april-blog-hop.html

Amy - http://tethered2home.com/?p=10167 

Jak - http://www.jakheath.com/2013/04/enchanted-lantern-blog-hop-creations-by.html 

Julia - http://createwithjulia.blogspot.com/2013/04/creations-by-ar-enchanted-lantern-april.html
Lisa - http://www.lisasomerville.com/2013/04/enchanted-lantern-creations-by-ar-april.html
Lori - <<<<<<<<< YOU ARE HERE >>>>>>>>>>
Lyn - http://www.lynspaperpetunia.com/2013/04/creations-by-ar-new-release-hop.html
Sue K - http://suesstampingstuff.blogspot.com/2013/04/creations-by-ar-new-release-lantern.html
Sue M - http://www.suessentiments.org/2013/04/creations-by-ar-april-16th-release-blog.html
 

Heart 2 Heart Sympathy

I am honored to be the Guest DT member at Heart 2 Heart Challenges this month, as I was picked as June's "Top Chick"!  The first challenge for this month is sympathy cards, and I thought the new Avonlea patterns and colors were perfect for the theme.

I started with a 5" x 7" card base and covered the entire front with the small circle pattern.  I then cut a panel from the medallions paper at 2 3/4" x 4 1/8", matted it with Avonlea Teal CS cut at 3" x 4 1/4", and adhered it approximately 5/8" from the right and flush with the top.  Next, I cut the medallion shape on page 56 of the Artiste Cricut cartridge handbook (Accent 1), sized as indicated on the Pirouette stamp carrier sheet, from Avonlea Green CS.  I then stamped the Pirouette stamp in Versamark ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I also cut the double-ended banner on page 68 of the Artiste handbook (Shift-Accent 4) sized at 3/4", and stamped it with a sentiment from the new Words of Comfort stamp set in Chocolate ink.  I adhered the medallion shape to the left side of the card, then attached the sentiment to the back of a small metal medallion from the Brocade Assortment, and attached both so the metal medallion was centered in the CS medallion.  I added two Durables Round Studs to the matted panel and the design was complete.

I hope you enjoyed my card, and I hope you'll leave a comment and play along with us at Heart 2 Heart Challenges this month.  If you're interested in any of the products I used here, simply follow the links above.  If you are interested in other products, current specials, or seeing how to receive this awesome $50 bag when you join my team, just visit my website!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope to see you again soon!