Color Me Crazy: 10 Tips for Using Bold and/or Unusual Color Schemes

Here are some tips and trends I have noticed in scrapbooking for using bold and/or unusual patterned papers. You might notice that some of these layouts use more than one tip or trick. I realize that there are other ways to use these color schemes, but these are some of my favorites and they're easy to do.

1. Keep your photos neutral. In these pictures I have a white background and my son and I are both wearing neutral colors: black and brown. Although there is no mustard yellow in my pictures, they seem to match my mustard paper effortlessly.
   
   
   
   
2. Make it match (a little). Again, mustard yellow, purple and brown are not colors generally put together. I made it work by using purple as my dominant color and using photos where my daughter is wearing a purple shirt.
   
   
   
   
3. Make it match (a lot). Bold and busy patterned papers seem to have more of a purpose when they perfectly match the subject in the photo. Instead of thinking, "WOW, those are some bright papers," your eye goes to the subject and you focus on how it matches.
   
   

1. Use black-and-white photographs. This is kind of like the "keep it neutral" tip, but different. Black-and-white photographs can somewhat cause the paper to POP more than before. Neutral photographs can neutralize the intensity.
   
   

1. Cut it up. "Everything in moderation" is another way to look at this tip. When I bought this Love, Elsie paper, I was a bit overwhelmed. Cutting it into bite-sized "quilt" pieces helped me tame it down. You can also use a square punch to cut up a series of coordinating patterned papers.
   
   
   
   
2. Keep it monochromatic. Red is intense. It signifies bold color and caution. Red is generally used cautiously in scrapbooks. Here I toned it down by combining several shades of red. I was able to keep my bold primary red, but the more burgundy red seems to balance it all out.
   
   
   
   
3. Pair with a less bold print. That striped paper down at the bottom of this layout is so colorful, it was hard to place with other papers. I didn't want to use plain cardstock, so I chose a paper with a simple pattern. The blue paper matches the blue in the striped paper. It also has a few polka dots to take it a step further than plain cardstock.
   
   
   
   
4. Mat your photos. One common mistake I see people make (in my opinion) is placing their photographs directly on top of a very busy background. Sure, it works for some layouts, but sometimes the photos can get lost. My solution? Mat your photgraph with a thin black or white outline. You can save paper by using a black Sharpie. You can save time by printing your pictures with a white or black outline from the developer.
   
   
   
   
5. Use it on a white or black background. This technique is similar to using black-and-white photographs, but reverse it. I love using black or white cardstock with bold prints because it seems to act as a frame and pop the bold pattern off the page.
   
   
   
6. Shape it. BasicGrey is generally hard paper for me to use. It's so beautiful on it's own that I find it hard to cut it. The patterns can also be overwhelming to use with photos as well. For this layout, I cut the patterned paper into the shape of a wave. The paper was originally just plain circle patterned paper. Now my paper takes on a whole new meaning. It's a wave of water with swirls of action inside!!
   
   

We have all been here. We buy a patterned paper because it's beautiful to look at or matches our photos perfectly. We get it home and don't know how to use it, or it doesn't really match our photos as we hoped. Next time you are stuck and unsure of what to do with your bold or unusually colored patterned papers, refer back to these helpful tips.

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