Choosing Colours or Themes!!

Hi there, it's Lisa-Jane here today to share some layouts with you.  

When I first started scrapping, I used to look for an exact match to the colours in my photos. This can sometimes be tricky if the clothing or the main colours in the photo don't match the papers you happen to have in your stash at that time. Sometimes matching things too precisely can mean the photo actually ends up getting lost. Similar, but not quite the right shade may just  highlight the difference even more. Not to mention searching through a mountain of stash for just the right shade of blue isn't the best use of time for most scrappers!!

So what should we do .... how do we choose colours for our photos? 

Using themed collections is often a better way to go but it is all too easy to fall into the trap of the theme taking over as you pile on the embellishments and the photo and story can get a little forgotten.

Lately, I've been led more by the story or how I feel about the photos for choosing how to scrap them. I'm no longer limited by the colours in my photos in the way I used to be but I try not to be overly themed either, unless it's Christmas or Halloween and then it's a different story entirely!  I certainly feel more free when choosing papers and pictures to use together than I used to.  

For both of these layouts I've used the fabulous, slightly retro Boys Rule collection.

First of all, let's talk about using colour in the photo as a starting point.  

I find one of the best ways is to pick out one or two from your photo(s) that work well together and then add in additional colours if you need to.  It's also often better to use colours that appear in small amounts in the photos so that it doesn't overpower the layout.

For my double page layout about the beach, I've picked out the yellow t-shirt and an orange hat as my main colours. I used yellow as border strips each side of the photos and there's a some yellow just peeping out of each of the embellishment clusters and the alphas are yellow too.  

I picked out a dark orange cardstock to match the shorts and hat and added a few pops of orange in the embellishments.

I could have tried to match the blues in the sky and the sea or the browns in the stones and used that as my main colours but it is the little people in the photos that I want to draw attention to in my layout.  

I've added a few tiny shells to enhance the beach theme without being over the top. Using a mix of both themed and non-themed embellishments helps highlight the story. The children were having so much fun skimming stones. I wanted to get the fun and carefree feeling of the photos across so a little bit of beach and a little bit of retro fun embellies is perfect.

For my next layout, I've turned my photos black and white as I wanted the story behind them to be the main focus.  This page is about me starting my journey with a Personal Trainer and my struggle to get healthy. I knew I wanted a splash of orange because the equipment is orange and including it in the layout reminds me of the equipment.  It doesn't matter that the photos are black and white and don't show the orange paintwork.

 I could have really gone to town with heavily sport or gym themed embellishments but I didn't want to detract from the actual story so  I decided to be more subtle.  I love the retro cassette tape paper so I used a strip of that to remind me of the music that is always blaring.  The tape measure washi tape is a little nod to my size which will hopefully be going down as the journey continues!  The die cut phrases from the ephemera pack are intended for use with little boys but they work with this story so well.

My layout is about the start of my journey and to remind me that this is just the beginning and we have a long way to go.  It doesn't matter what I can't do now or what lays ahead ... what matters is that I have made that all important start.  

I just love that cheeky "Boom" wooden embellishment from the collection!

Do you see that diagonal line across the page of stars - this helps to draw the eye around the photos, over to the title and finally to the journalling.  I used stars for this but other shapes work well too. You could try using circles or hearts in this way.

Boyz Rule is designed with young boys in mind but I've used it for a beach theme and a gym theme! When you are selecting your stash, try to ignore the collection title or the theme the manufacturer has designed for and look carefully at the icons, images and colours in the papers and embelloshments to see how they may work for you. I often use collections for anything other than what the manufacturer intended!

Do you design by colour or theme?  Or do you go for the story first?  What collections have you used for unexpected themes?  

Bye for now

xx

Like the papers LJ used in these layouts? .... They are available to purchase here in the shop!

Lisa-Jane blogs regularly at "Inside My Head" .... her blog is full of family life, scrapbooking, card making and home decor projects!