Kerri Miller
Card Design Handbook week continues here at Paper Crafts. Susan, Kelly and Julie have already covered composition, balance, and style. Personally, I find it helpful to think of these rules as where to put things on your project, how to put things on your project, and what kind of things to put on your project. Today I’m covering color and how it creates a mood for your project.
Picking the color for your project is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. There are a lot of things to think about when choosing color, but the areas I will focus on today are seasonality, mix and match, and the gallon/quart/pint rule.
Seasonality
Wait, what? You can now wear white after Labor Day, but its called Winter White? Just because you see pastels in the spring and reds paired with greens around Christmas, doesn’t mean you can’t use these colors throughout the entire year. However, choosing the right shade of color at the right time of the year can really make that card or project bring to mind a wonderful seasonal mood. Using a golden yellow card base, Cristina Kowalcyzk creates a perfectly cozy autumn feel with her Oh Happy Day card found on p. 87.
Mixing and Matching
Everyone can mix and match colors, but any mother of an independent three-year old who insists on dressing themselves can attest that not everyone can mix and match colors well! One surefire way to ensure some semblance of good mixing and matching is to check out the saturation of your colors. In other words, keep your bold colors together and your soft colors together; nary the two shall meet on your project. Angeline Yong Jeet Leen does a remarkable job of mixing a variety of colors with the same saturation to make a fun and bold card, found on p. 97. While you may not think to match purple, teal, green, and orange, the saturation of these colors make them blend beautifully.
Gallon/Quart/Pint
Have you ever wondered how many colors to use to create an interesting combination without overdoing it? The gallon, quart, pint rule is simple solution for mixing just the right color quantities. Chan Vuong does a wonderful job of mixing colors by using a lot of orange, some pink, and just a pinch of green in her Orange Birthday Card from p. 107.
The next time you sit down to make a card, don’t forget to think about the mood you’d like to create with your card and then decide on the colors you want to use. Often my mood is what dictates the colors I use. I guess that works too!
Moody with color,
P.S. Don’t forget to check out today’s challenge at Moxie Fab World and we have a giveaway today too! I have here Crate Paper‘s new collection, On Trend, which with its florals, animal prints, stripes, type, and tribal prints, all in a plethora of colors, is a great example of mixing and matching. We also have Echo Park Paper‘s the Apothecary Emporium, which is a great example of seasonality—perfect for Halloween, which is coming up sooner than you think! Lastly we have My Mind’s Eye‘s Follow your Heart 6×6 paper pad, which goes along with our Gallon/quart/pint lesson—gallon is pink, quart is light blue, and pint is yellow! One winner will win all three of these plus a copy of Card Design Handbook!
Just make sure to leave a comment by Monday, August 27th at 5 pm MDT for your chance to win!
I am learning so much with the card design tips. These cards are all beautiful and the gallon/quart/pint tip is very good rule for me to remember.
Love that EP Halloween collection!
Thank you for sharing the helpful hints to be aware of the seasonality and design rules. As many crafters I’m driven by their intuition, but want to learn more.
Oh wow, all these cards are gorgeous! I really love the gallon/quart/pint tip.
These are wonderful and thank you for the colorful tips! I love all that I am learning this week!
What a great lesson! I never thought about using color according to the gallon, quart, pint rule before.
I pick colors based on mood as well or based on the person the card is for. This is a great post reminding me that there are color schemes I haven’t worked with and go out of the box. Thanks!
Sigh, that Halloween paper is hauntingly wonderful. Thanks for the chance to win such an amazing prize.
Love Christina’s O Happy Day card. Thanks for the chance to win.
craftymom205 at yahoo dot com
Fabulous cards! Love them all! I’m learning so much from this issue! Thanks for a chance to win some goodies too.
What a wonderful design tool, hope I win!
The cards you featured all look so great but I have to say that the one with the flowers is my favorite. I love the colors and that the creator chose yarn to craft with on this one.
Thanks for all of your hints! They are very useful! Thanks for the chance to win!
I love all of the inspiration that has been shared-and thank you so much for a chance to win-I have been dying for a chance to get my hands on the On Trend collection!
I love that autumn card – the color is perfect and the white is unexpected but perfect!
I love these simple yet striking cards! Thanks for sharing! And thanks for the chance to win this awesome prize!
Thanks for all the helps.
The information contained in the Card Design Handbook is fantastic! I love having it all together in one spot. I’d love to try out the wonderful sets in this giveaway and pass the Card Design Handbook on to a friend since I just could not wait and bought my own copy yesterday!
Love the color tips! Thank you!
Color, to me, is the thing that pulls me in to look closer at a card, but I still don’t think I understand why a certain combination works over another, I just know what looks good to me………I think I need to read the handbook
)) Thanks for a chance at it and all those fun goodies up there!
Thanks for the tips on color. It is my biggest struggle in card-making. I keep trying to step outside my color box – sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
Great tips! I am learning so much this week and loving it. Thank you for the wonderful information and samples.
I am learning so much this week. Crate Paper and MME in one prize package — I love them both!
Great ideas! And love the fun colors that were used on the cards!
What a fun giveaway I’d love to dig into that Halloween collection and those Thickers are so awesome. Thanks for the chance.
I am really enjoying these card design and color tips!
I’m loving all the posts this week relating to the Card Design Handbook. The tips are fantastic! I hope to participate in some of the challenges. Great examples demonstrating the design tips!?
I appreciate the lessons on using color on our creations. I just love the card samples you’ve shared. Thanks also for a chance to win an awesome prize pack!
Enjoyed the color lessons and great cards. Thanks for the
chance to win such a wonderful prize pack.
Really love the mixing and matching card today. But they are all great.
Thank you, this was very helpful. It will be easy to remember the gallon/quart/pint rule. Thanks for a chance to win as well.
Great tips xx
Seriously…this is the first time I have heard the ‘gallon, quart, pint’ rule! I am learning so much from the posts on Papercrafts Connection & Moxie Fab World. I am definitely going to purchase this resourceful publication!
You guys are always so full of ideas, now all I need is the time to play.
Gallon quart pint is probably one of the most useful tips I have ever read! I am terrible with color and this is so helpful in not overloading a card with too much to look at.
All the cards shown are beautiful. This lesson in color is just what I needed, sometimes you start making a card and the colors seem perfect but when done, it just turns out all one big mess. Thanks a million for teaching these invaluable lessons and the chance to win such a fabulous prize package!!!
Most of my time spent making a card is choosing the colors! Love the gallon/quart/pint rule! Thanks for the tips and chance to win!!
All these cards are fantastic. I love all the colour combinations and designs.
Thank you for sharing and the chance to win such a wonderful collection
Great cards and great crd design tips! Great giveaway too!
Great week of tips. Fabulous prise. I’ve been lusting after On Trend for awhile now.
I have been learning so much this week. It’s great to see the examples and have them explained. Thanks!
Oh, how I love those cards! Great examples. Great giveaway too!
Thank you for sharing so many beautiful cards and ideas! I never get tired of learning new tips!!
Beautiful cards! I’m learning lots of new tips this week, thanks for sharing this with all of us.
Great tips on mixing & matching. Love that Halloween collection. Thanks for a chance to win it.
This looks like a must have issue:)
Thanks for all the tips! Beautiful cards too and thanks for a chance to win.
lafaellis85@twlakes.net
This is why I stop in almost everyday,to learn something new and get some great ideas. Thanks again for the info and inspiration!
THANKS for sharing all these tips!!!! This book appears to have a wealth of information…an awesome opportunity to win, thank you!!!!
All these card design tips are so helpful! I am always looking to improve – and these are exactly the tools that I need – thank you!!