Scrapbook Solutions - Color Choices

One of the questions we’re asked most frequently, aside from how we come up with our designs, is how we go about choosing colors. Color choice is super important! It’s amazing what the right blend will do to your layout. It’s always a little challenging to answer that question because I have a unique situation. I have an entire wall of color at my disposal. I can pull 50 colors, rearrange, and change my mind when I want to. It’s pretty incredible!

Down Memory Lane's Wall o' Paper

But I know most people don’t have the luxury of a “Wall-o’-Paper” at their disposal, so what can you do? I’ve got a few simple things you can do that can help with color selections when you’ve just got to make a choice. When you’re standing in the craft aisle, staring at all the options, it’s hard to make decisions. There are so many options! Or maybe you’ve got a huge craft stash and you’ve got to decide which section to go for. This is not the place to start making decisions. It’s too overwhelming. You’ve got to have an idea in mind before you enter the paper aisle.

Here are 4 ways you can develop your skills and learn to create beautiful color combinations: 

1. Become a student. Learn from those around you who’ve got it down. Some people are just naturally good at color selection, but most of us – even those of us who design for a living – aren’t born with this gift. It’s a skill that’s learned, worked on, and sharpened. Who in your life has a good eye? Do you have a friend or fellow scrapbooker you could ask to help out? Invite her over to go through your stash with you and help you organize your paper into color groups. Pay her in chocolate, coffee, and good tunes. 😊 Or maybe she can hit the stores with you next time and help you narrow down your choices – I mean, how many different shades of green could there be?!? Just kidding, we totally need all of them. 😊 Make it a girls’ day. She’ll be glad to share her skills and you’ll get some valuable input!

If you don’t have a color-savvy friend in your life, learn from your favorite designers and companies! When you see a color combination you like, note the choices the designer made. And not just the big choices! Notice the smaller accent colors and the scale and proportion. Get some of our kits in your hands and really examine them. Take those favorite color combinations and match them with colors in your stash for future layouts. Here are a few of my favorite kits. 

All Bundled Up is one of my favorite winter color combos. It has some traditional elements, but the bright colors make me so happy!

For the Love of Scrapping is, of course, a big fan favorite. It's one of my favorites because of the fun color combination. Bright and grounded at the same time.

Family is Forever Navy is a personal favorite. These colors make me feel warm.

Grandparents has another classic color combination that works for so many different themes. This one is anchored in brown, so it gives another great option.

Their color combinations are beautiful and interesting to me, so I pulled the colors and I love to try to work them into new designs. Below, I've pulled out the color combinations from each of these kits so you can see them more clearly. When you see them like this, it's easier to see what other layouts you might work them into. The possibilities are endless!

At first glance, you wouldn't necessarily think "winter" with these colors, but they work! I'd also use this color combination for a number of other themes: birthday, school, celebrations.

I adore this color combo. Mostly because it's not something I would have pulled on my own. If I was looking at our whole Wall o' Paper, it's highly unlikely these would have ended up in my pile together. But look how GORGEOUS they are together!

These colors are right in my wheelhouse - deep blues and reds are my happy place - but I don't think I would have considered mixing in pink and olive green into the mix. All together, they create this beautiful little harmony.

I appreciate this combination because of the deep browns mixed into the color. This shows how some brighter colors can be placed together in the right sizes to create something beautiful. 

One other thing you'll notice is that we often take our color cues from the pattern paper that inspires us. In Family is Forever - Navy and Grandparents, the main colors come directly from the blends in the paper. 

Learn from designers! Follow us on Instagram and look at designs, but also look at photo composition. Watch some Ted Talks on design. Take an online art or design class. One of my favorite Ted Talks - one that revolutionized my views on color - is Beau Lotto's talk on Color Theory. You can find it here. It's a rule in my book to never count a color out. You can often take one color and, depending on what colors you surround it with, it can change it's look and feel. This talk explains why this happens and will show you some pretty incredible color tricks! A couple great starter online color classes are Color Art Theory and Color theory.

2. PLAY! Make some crazy choices just because it feels right. Don’t get pigeon-holed by ordinary or expected. We’re in the beginnings of the Fall season right now. It’s really easy to get stuck in the mindset of mustard yellows, pumpkin oranges, chocolatey browns, and rusty reds. 

They're tried and true Fall colors for a reason, but how can we make them pop?

Obviously, that’s a tried and true color combination – and you’re mirroring nature – but consider splashing an unconventional color in there. Try a navy blue or a deep purple. Splash in some light pink or light green.  Sometimes a color may seem too bold, but at the right size, it becomes a beautiful pop of color.

It's not a HUGE change, but if you work a little navy blue in there, it gives these Fall colors a depth it would not have without it.

Working a little pink into the mix gives it a lighter feel.

3. Hit up Pinterest – but not where you’d think. When I look for inspiration on Pinterest, I generally avoid using “scrapbook” as a search term. There’s a whole world out there full of design! I love to search for home décor and art. Artist and decorators are – of course – masters at color and scale, so I learn a lot from them. I often search for “wall art” or “home décor” and the topic I’m looking for and it’s a wealth of inspiration!

One of my favorite Pinterest searches is “color palettes”. It’s a fantastic resource. It pulls what looks like a paint sample from real photos and you can use that to find color combinations you may not have thought to put together. I also like to use these to choose shades. It’s one thing to say “put green, pink, and gray together” but if the shades are off, it would look garish. I love to use these to find a combo and then literally match my cardstock to them. 

Here's a few that I used to find a unique color combination with our cardstock.

I LOVE purples, but I usually gravitate to yellows, pinks, and tans when I work with them I loved the idea of this simple combination of purples and oranges.

Here's my selection using the color palette as a guide.

This palette invokes so many feelings for me. It's calming, beautiful, and beautifully mixes these cool colors together.

Here's my color selection using this palette as a guide. I love it SO much and I would not have pulled these colors to work together on my own.

I didn't pull colors for these, but I really love these color combinations. Pinterest is FILLED with gorgeous color palettes. Be sure to check them out!

I love this combo for alternative masculine layouts.

This combination gives me all the vacation vibes. 

I LOVE a feminine palette, but I get a little bored of pink. This gives me lots of ideas! 

Another feminine option. It's got pink, for sure, but those other colors can really balance it out!

These bold colors are fantastic!

This combination is classic and can work for masculine layouts, too.

4. My last suggestion is a little unconventional, but it’s changed my view of color completely. Download some color-by-number apps (Happy Color is the name of my favorite one). Color by number is one of my favorite things to do when I need something mindless or to wind down my day. I do it for fun. But shortly after I downloaded my now-favorite app, I realized that I was learning a ton about color mixing. There were colors I would have never thought to put together - combinations that seemed insane, but when you zoomed out and looked at the whole picture, it was gorgeous! I found myself taking a few more risks with color based on my increasing comfort with these color choices. I thought it was just a fun, free app, but I got a lot more out of it. You never know what you’ll find if you look! 

These are just a few of my favorite color tricks. I hope you’ve found one – or all of them – helpful! I’d love to hear your color tips or hear what you thought when you tried one of these tips. We always love to hear from you! Happy Scrapping! ~Chalsea