Color theory in action

Altenew Color Your Day

Today’s card was an exercise in instituting color theory. The instructor in the Altenew Color Your Day class follows a simple formula to determine amounts of different colors: 70-20-10. The colors in the formula could be complementary meaning that they are opposite on the color wheel, analogous meaning that they are next to each other on the color wheel, or part of a triad meaning that the three colors form a triangle within the color wheel. Adding a neutral somewhere within the formula helps to balance the colors. For this card I used analogous colors yellow and green which are next to each other on the color wheel and balanced them out with a soft cool grey. Please read on for how I made this card today using color theory and Altenew’s Bold Blossom stamp set.

Selecting the colors

I wanted to use analogous colors which means that these colors are next to each other on the color wheel. To keep a soft look I wanted to use yellow flowers. The color next to yellow is green on the blue side and orange on the red side. I thought about stamping the leaves in shades of orange but decided to stick with the traditional green. To bring in a third color I wanted a neutral and decided on a gray background. For this card I followed the color theory formula set about by the instructor in Color Your Day and the card ended up being 70 gray, 20 yellow, and 10 green.

Building the elements

Now that I had decided on the colors, I had to figure out the layout of the card. I decided on using Altenew’s Bold Blossom layering stamp set but needed a place to anchor the flowers. I inked up the debossed side of  Cuttlebug Birds 'n Swirls embossing folder with Hero Arts Soft Granite Ink. Then I placed a piece of Neenah white paper into the inked folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug machine. Inking up the embossing folder puts down a soft layer of color in the background with out adding color to the embossed images. I then cut out a 2 1/2 inch circle from the embossed panel, a piece of white cardstock and a piece of fun foam using a circle from the Hero Arts Nesting Circle dies.

The flowers were stamped by stamping the outline image in Catherine Pooler Tiara ink. I then stamped the other two detailed images first in Hero Arts Butterbar ink and then Hero Arts Mustard ink before stamping the solid base layer with Distressed Ink in Squeezed Lemonade. By stamping the outline and the detail images first I was able to clearly lineup the images. I would recommend stamping layered image sets this way with the solid image last if you are having trouble lining up images on layered stamp sets. I stamped the leaves the same way using Memento Bamboo Leaves for the outline and Distress Ink Peeled Paint for the detail and following up with Memento Pear Tart for the solid image. I then used the coordinating diecuts to die cut out all the flowers and leaves I had stamped.

Assembling the card

On the white panel, I adhered the fun foam using Gina K connect glue. I then adhered the white panel and fun foam to a gray top folding A2 card base also using Gina K connect glue. By using liquid glue you have some give before it dries in order to make sure all of the pieces line up properly. I then took a piece of vellum and used Staz-on ink to stamp thanks from the Altenew Garden Hydrangea stamp set and then used Hero Arts clear embossing powder to give the sentiment some shine. I took the vellum sentiment strip and wrapped it around the leftover circle from the gray embossed panel. That circle with the sentiment was then adhered to the card base. Using Gina K connect glue, I adhered the gray embossed panel to the fun foam. Once everything was dry I added the flowers and leaves using both glue and a foam square. The foam squares allow the flowers to adhere to the cut out circle and the glue adheres the rest of the flower to the top layer of the card. Honeybee stamps rainbow rhinestones finished off the card. I also added some sparkle with shimmer spray to the background and Nuvo shimmer pen to the flowers.

Thank you for visiting my website. Let me know in the comments below your go to color combinations. Have a wonderful day and I hope this post helped to explain some basic ideas of color theory and inspired you to try out some different color combinations. Have a crafty day.