Mixing and matching colors can be tricky for some. And honestly, it's about half the battle when it comes to paper crafting. 

As a paper crafter, color is a key ingredient. It's often one of the first, if not the first, thing that I consider when working on a new project. 

If you struggle with choosing colors, having a better understanding of how different colors work together can really help you create more cohesive and eye catching projects. You can use color and color stories to create contrast, play on subtleties or evoke a particular emotion. 

Color harmony is when colors look good together. But what exactly looks good together? It's a question we often struggle with. That's where color theory comes in handy. Color theory is a set of rules for creating color combinations and it is these particular color combinations that you can use to create a particular look or feel to your projects. 

There are 5 different color combinations to choose from: complementary, monochromatic, analogous, triadic and tetradic. You can use the Canva color wheel tool to explore your own color combinations!

Complementary colors are colors that are on the opposite side of the color wheel. This particular combination provides high contrast and together, the colors appear brighter and more prominent. For example, blush pink and mint, are complimentary. 

Monochromatic colors are two or three shades, tones and tints of one base color. This combination provides a more subtle look and is very versatile, making it easy to apply in projects. 

Analogous colors are three hues that are side by side on the color wheel. While this combination is versatile it can be a bit overwhelming if not done right. To help keep your colors in balance, choose one dominant color and use the other two as accents. An example of analogous colors are blush pink, coral and orchid. 

Triadic is a color combo that uses three colors evenly spaced on the color wheel. This combination provides high contrast, though a little less than complimentary and creates bold, vibrant color palettes. Continuing our example with blush pink, this combo would also include spring green and lavender. 

Tetradic color combos are four colors evenly spaced on the color wheel, creating a bold palette. Like analogous, this combination can become overwhelming if you don't choose one color to be the dominant color and use the others as accents. 

Now let's apply color theory to using Tim Holtz Distress colors in your projects.  Most of these color combinations will require the use of different colors across the palette. But let's look specifically at monochromatic. There are three ways to create a monochromatic look with Distress colors. 

The first is to use different shades of one color. For example, this would be Distress Ink in kitsch flamingo, worn lipstick and spun sugar. 

The second is to use both Distress Ink and Distress Oxide in the same color (or more if you want to use multiples). In this example, you would use kitsch flamingo in both Ink and Oxide. This is one of my favorite ways to use Distress colors because you get the unique properties of both types of ink. And because each ink type is unique, you can create some really cool monochromatic looks. 

The third is to do a combination of the first two. For example, you can use kitsch flamingo in Ink and Oxide as well as worn lipstick in Ink. This would create a little more depth and dimension to your monochromatic look. This is the technique I used to create my monochromatic backgrounds, or tag bases. 

Because I wanted to layer elements over my tag, I didn't want the tags to be too busy with color. While you can use a single ink to create a background, we know that can be really flat and boring. so I wanted to use a few shades together to create more depth and interest. The most subtle color theory combination is monochromatic. 

Here are the monochromatic color stories I used for my three tags:

Teal Tag - salvaged patina (Ink and Oxide), peacock feathers (Ink), frosted juniper (Mica)

Coral Tag - saltwater taffy (Ink and Oxide), abandoned coral (Ink), jack-o-lantern (Mica)

Purple Tag - villainous potion (Ink and Oxide), dusty concord (Ink), hocus pocus (Mica)

Once I created my backgrounds on heavyweight cardstock and they were dry, I cut my tags out using the nested tags die from Scrapbook.com. To flatten out the tags (they often dry with a bit of a curve to the paper), use your Minc machine on heat setting 3 and run them through to flatten them out. Pro Tip: The mica from the Mica sprays has a tendency to come off a bit until it's fully cured. I place a piece of scrap paper over my tag to keep the mica and ink from transferring to my Minc carrier sheet. Make sure that you use a clean spot for each tag so you don't accidentally mix colors. 

I wanted a theme of flowers and butterflies for these tags so I chose the floral outlines stamp set and the flutter butterfly stamp and die set. Because the floral outlines stamps are a bit busy with the amount of lines in them, I wanted to keep the color simple as well. Again, I chose to create a monochromatic look when coloring in my stamped image. So again I choose blues, corals and purples. Because I wanted a watercolor look, I only used Distress Inks (smudging ink onto my glass mat from my ink pad and using a watercolor brush to apply the ink to my stamped image). 

Here are the colors I used for watercoloring my floral stamped images:

Teal Tag - salvaged patina and speckled egg

Coral Tag - saltwater taffy and abandoned coral

Purple Tag - wilted violet and victorian velvet 

You can see I strayed just a little bit into the purply-pinks with the choice of victorian velvet, but this color combo is truly stunning and I thought villainous potion in the stamp would have made the entire tag a little too dark.

For the leaves, I used the combination of rustic wilderness and peeled paint Distress Inks on all three. 

When it came to choosing an embossing powder, I wanted to add a little sparkle, so I chose to use the metallic super fine embossing powders from Ranger. No particular color theory was used here but I think the combos I choose where pretty classic. I've always loved the look of teal and silver as well as purple and gold. That just left copper for the coral tag.

I then fussy cut my stamped and watercolored florals out. For my tips to get you fussy cutting like a pro, check out this blog post with my 4 tips.

With the butterflies, I wanted to create some contrast over all the monochromatic elements underneath. To keep the color scheme simple, but full of contrast, I chose a complimentary color or one of the analogous colors. Now keep in mind that I used two hues for each of the butterflies, so on their own, they are monochromatic! But paired with the other elements, it's complimentary. Again, I only chose to use Distress Inks to create a watercolor look.

Here are the hues I chose for the butterflies:

Teal Tag - worn lipstick and victorian velvet (complimentary)

Coral Tag - mustard seed and fossilized amber (analogous)

Purple Tag - twisted citron and peeled paint (complimentary)

Now technically mint is the direct opposite of pink on the color wheel, but don't think that you always have to strictly adhere to the exact opposite on the color wheel to create a complimentary color scheme. Teal is next to mint on the color wheel, so you still get that same look and feel as a true complimentary color. 

Purple and green are true complimentary colors, so nothing special to note here. Yellow and orange are two of the three analogous colors on the wheel (add in green, like that of the leaves on the flowers) and you get the third color in the analogous scheme. Of course I used coral, rather than true orange. So again, play a little--color theory is like a foundation that you can build off of!

The butterflies were stamped in black soot Archival Ink. I also added little bit of Rock Candy glitter by applying it over a bit of glossy accents to give the butterflies a hint of sparkle without adding any more color. These butterflies are easy to fussy cut out, but I have the matching die set so I used that to make it easier on myself. 

Finally, I chose some matching monochromatic metallic kraft cardstocks for each of the tags and cut some leaves out from the Bloom colorize die. I used glossy accents to glue the layers together and then I added a little bit of dimension to these die cuts and the leaves on the stamped florals using a shaping kit. 

I also chose a matching monochromatic velvet trim and gems to go with each tag. I layered on all of the paper elements with collage medium and foam adhesive. The jewels were glued down with glossy accents. Then all that was left was to add the velvet trim to the top of the tags! Until next time, happy crafting!

Adrienne

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