It's Never To Early To Start Those Holiday Cards...

This week's challenge over at Heart 2 Heart is an interesting Challenge...create a card using black, white and one color.  I know, I know, it's summer and everyone is thinking bright colors.  But, you know me, I had to do something a little different. 

Working with color is a "science."  We've talked before about the primary, secondary, analogous and complementary colors, but we've never really discussed neutrals.  White, black and gray and really the only neutral colors.  Brown is not really a "neutral" color because brown is a combination of many colors mixed together.  For card making challenge purposes, we usually do consider it as a "neutral."  Can you image how boring all of our cards would be if we only used black, white and gray?   :o)

Back to the Heart 2 Heart Challenge....their challenge was to create a card using black, white and one color.  I chose Ponderosa Pine as my "one" color.  I know, odd choice but I did so for a reason.  Remember, black and white are true neutrals.  Green (Ponderosa Pine) in this case is a Secondary Color...meaning that it is obtained when you mix blue and yellow (primary colors) together.  To my mind's eye, Ponderosa Pine has equal amounts of both the primary colors which allows it to match well with the true neutrals.  Think about Olive or New England Ivy.  They are also Secondary colors but have more yellow in the mix which causes them to match better with the Cocoa.  Remember browns are a mix of colors.  Now for my card...

This is a "Clean and Simple" card done on an A2 black tent fold base.  The first mat is White Daisy, the next is Ponderosa Pine and the image mat is back to White Daisy.  The sentiment and tree are stamped with Ponderosa Pine.  Both are from one of my all time favorite Close To My Heart stamp sets called "The Beauty of Christmas."  (B1116)   It has been retired for years, but it is one of my go to Holiday stamps.  I used my waterbrush to pick up just a touch of Ponderosa Pine to "ground" the tree and added Prisma Glitter to the branches and ground.

It's never too early to start those Holiday Cards.  Even though this is a "simple" card, I did put a great deal of thought into the science of the color.  Don't forget to check out Heart 2 Heart Challenge Blog for more fun one color cards.  For Now, Happy Crafting!