Playing with Colors in Design Studio

One of the reasons that I often prefer to use Design Studio instead of the Gypsy is the ability to assign colors to each mat in a layered design and experiment with various color possibilities.

I used this element from the Hannah Montana Cartridge to make this multi-layered flower.  The cartridge has only the lattice flower, a shadow and a blackout version.  By using "hide selected contour" I was able to create more layers so I could add a lot of colors in a single flower.

There are a total of six layers with an optional shadow layer.  When this is put together the flower will be thick like a chipboard flower.  I will show you screen shots of each layer.  The layers are numbered starting from the base and building up to the lattice flower on the top.

This is the base layer which can be found on the shift function of the lattice flower key.

Layer one is created by hiding four of the outer petals.

 Layer two is created by hiding the opposite four outer petals.

Layer three is created by hiding four of the center petals.

Layer four is created by hiding the opposite four inner petals.

The top lattice layer is cut directly from the cartridge image.

When all six layers are combined they look like this.

If you add the shadow layer from the cartridge you can create a flower like this.  There will be a lot of cut outs in this layer and you can choose to use "hide selected contour" to eliminate them or ignore them since they will be on the back of the flower.

By changing the preview color for each layer you can create a different look for your multi-layered flower.

If you don't know how to change the preview color, you simply right click anywhere on the mat and choose "Set Preview Color" from the pop up menu.

You will then get another pop up where you can choose the colors.  You can also choose to set a custom color by clicking "Define Custom Color."

Unfortunately the custom colors do not save on the chart when you click "Add to Custom Colors" so you will need to keep track of all of the values in the boxes if you want to duplicate the color on another mat.

I think "hide selected contour" is one of my favorite features of this program.  It gives you so much more creative potential and also helps you to save paper.  This LINK will take you to many of the posts I have made showing projects where I used "hide selected contour."  I was very happy to see this option added to the Gypsy.  Maybe color previews will be added soon.

If you would like to see a video explaining how "hide selected contour" can help you save paper here is a LINK to that video.


We are still out of town but I thought you might be a bit tired of following my travels!  I will share a few more photos from the trip soon.  I am doing my best to catch up with emails but please be patient if you haven't heard from me - I only have bits and pieces of time when I can get on the computer.

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