Color Wheel to the Rescue

Color is everywhere.  It sets the mood for many things even in our crafting projects.  Recently a fellow member of SOC, Sharon, posed  a thought-provoking question about using the color wheel for scrapbooking and card making.  Some may ask,"what is a color wheel?" while others might reply, "I never use it". I'll have to admit that even though I've had a color wheel for many years when I use to quilt; I never really learned how to use it properly back then.  Now that there is another use for it as I see in my papercrafting projects, I'm going to give it a try and make it work for me. The one that I own is also the EK Success Rainbow, pick point and match color selector.

Without getting into too much details, remember the color selector is a guide to help you choose color

combinations for your projects.  The first thing I do is find a color that is close to the color of my background cardstock if I am doing a scrapbook layout.  The holes on the color selector let you put your inspiration piece behind it and figure the closest color .

If I want just one complimentary color, I will place the black arrow with the star in the center on that section and go straight across to the other black arrow.  This will be my complimentary color. Within each section there is a shade and a tint of that color.  I can also choose any of those.

Here is my inspiration color(the pink on the left) and my complimentary color(the green on the right)

Now here is a layout that I am creating. (the same steps can work for cardmaking)The base color is pink and I used the green die cut leaf as a complimentary color.

So you really don't have to invent the wheel to create great projects.  Just invest in a color wheel to act as a guide and make your crafting a little easier.  I hope I helped some of you who have never used a color wheel before.  If you want some more "how-to"s let me know.

HAPPY CRAFTING!