Color Confidence

It seems no matter whom I talk to about scrapbooking, their primary concern is color. Most scrapbookers don’t feel confident in their color choices and feel as if they don’t truly understand the use of color. Let’s eliminate the mystery!

Once you understand a few basic color principles, you will gain incredible color confidence. You will be able to look at so-so layouts and immediately know what needs changing to transform them into WOW layouts!

Color conveys emotion! The first question you should ask yourself when beginning a layout is “How did this event feel?” The pitfall most scrappers fall into is choosing colors based only on the colors in the photo. I once had a student who attempted to do a Disney World Layout in light blue and pink because those were the colors the children were wearing in the photos. She was very unsatisfied with the layout. Why? Because nothing about Disney world is soft and pastel. Think about how Disney World feels. It’s vibrant, bright, hot, and exciting.

• Hot or warm colors convey excitement and intensity. Such colors include: red, bright yellow, orange, hot pink, and neon colors. These colors are good for birthdays, parties, amusement parks, etc.


• Cool colors convey serenity and softness. Such colors include: baby pink, and baby blue, pastel yellow, sage green, kaki, and soft violet. These colors are good for portrait pages, births, landscape scenes, and everyday layouts.


• Jewel tone colors convey a regal feel. Such colors include: rich forest green, deep eggplant purple, navy blue, gold, silver, and black. These colors are good for important events such as weddings, anniversaries, award ceremonies, graduations, and heritage pages.

  TIP: Always remember that if you use layout colors that work well with each other, it will not matter what colors are in your photographs. In fact, photos really pop off the page when they layout colors do not match the colors in the photos.

Color defines space. The easiest way to turn a layout that appears to be too busy into a layout that works is to mat all of your photos. Before matting each picture, you should ask yourself: Is this photo light, muted and serene or is this photo dark, bright and intense?

• Light photos should always be matted on dark colors. This will make your photo appear to be floating on top of your background paper. Without a dark mat, light photos visually bleed into the background paper and loose their defined edge.


• Dark photos should always be matted on light colors. An intense photo will clash with patterned background papers if it’s not separated with a light color.


• When matting photos that appear to be a perfect 50% - 50% balance between dark and light, choose your mat color based on the darkness of the color in the outside perimeter of the photograph. For example: imagine working with a photo of a dog in the snow and the dog is centered in the photo. The mat choice should be dark because there is white (a light color) in the outside perimeter of the photo.

  TIP: As you place your mat on your background paper, ask yourself the same question: Is my mat light or dark? The color that is behind it should follow the same light and dark rule. This means that if you have a light blue mat and a pastel pink background paper, you should double-mat on your photo in a dark color before putting it on the background paper. Try this, and your eyes will be amazed at the difference! Note: I personally, always mat in solid color cardstocks or textured solid color papers. I generally do not mat with patterned papers unless I’m using multiple mats or my layout background paper is solid.

Color establishes focal points. The pictures you choose to be focal points (limit one per page) should be matted in the same colors and in the same style. Do not use the color you’ve reserved for your focal points to mat any of the supporting photos. You want your focal points to get all the attention.

Color orchestrates harmony. Limit your primary layout colors to three or less. The use of any more than three colors can cause your layout to become too busy.

• Layouts with multiple colors convey a feeling of intensity or excitement.


• Layouts with monochromatic (using different shades of the same color) colors convey a feeling of focus, formality and serenity.

Color creates balance. Balance color evenly between the two pages of a two-page spread. If a color appears on one page, it should be balanced out by the appearance of that color on another page. Even adding a simple strip of color can make a two-page layout come together.

Color constructs dimension. Color can create levels of interest within a scrapbook page by crating a three-dimensional look through the use of complimentary colors. Complimentary colors are any colors that are across from each other (on the opposite hemisphere from each other) on the color wheel. The most intense effect can be created by choosing colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel such as red and green. However, dimension is still created when using colors such as blue and yellow. Layering complimentary colors creates visual dimension.

Keep these simple color principles in mind and you ill always be pleased with the results. Color is your friend. Work with it, not against it.

Your feedback is always appreciated. Please write me at: socreative@hotmail.com. Happy Scrapping!

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