A scrapbook color wheel is a wheel that is disk-shaped and divided equally into 12 sections, each displaying a different color according to its “pigment” values. All the colors come from the primary colors red, yellow and blue.

These colors are called primary because you cannot make them by mixing any other colors together. They are shown on the color wheel at equal distances apart to form the shape of a triangle.

Mixing equal amounts of any two primary colors together creates the secondary colors of violet, orange and green. Since violet is a combination of equal amounts of blue and red, it is halfway between those two colors on the color wheel.

Orange is halfway between red and yellow; and green is between yellow and blue. The secondary colors form another triangle. To fill in the last 6 spaces on the color wheel, the tertiary colors are used. By mixing an equal part of a primary and secondary color together, you get a tertiary color.

In between red and orange you will see red-orange, between orange and yellow, yellow-orange, followed by yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet. A color wheel is a very good tool to have around when putting together a color scheme for your scrapbook pages.

Some of the basic color schemes you can use your color wheel for are: Monochrome: where only one color is used and varied in saturation and lightness.Double Complementary: is made by picking two color complements, a total of four colors.

An example would be Violet, Yellow, Red-Violet, and Yellow-Green.

Complimentary: picking two colors that compliment and are across from each other, again one being dominant and the other an accent. Triadic: picking three colors that form the shape of a triangle on the color wheel and are equally spaced apart.

Split Complementary: is made by using a color and the two colors adjacent to its complement. Obviously there are a lot more colors than the twelve basic colors of the color wheel. Hue refers to color. There are also different shades and tints of each color.

Shade refers to the amount of black in the color and tint refers to the amount of White. Most color wheels will include more than the standard twelve colors to allow for ease of color matching. An essential tool for any scrapbooker, a small color wheel should be available at all times.