Let’s try to tackle another difficulty for scrappers – color. There are a lot of elements that need to come together to create beautiful layouts. Some scrapbookers have difficulty with colors in their designs. It may be caused by something physical, like color blindness, but it also may be caused by the inability to choose, match or commit. This could be compared to choosing house paint colors, something many people have trouble with.

Here are some tips that may help:

1. Try using pre-made kits. These are created to go together and often even include instructions to create a project that coordinates well. Some kits come with embellishments or ribbon too.

2. Use coordinating papers in the same “line.” Many companies produce a line of papers that may have 3-5 different patterns that can be used together. The colors are usually made to coordinate. This may give the scrapper a little more freedom than a kit, because they don’t come with instructions.

3. Use product from a company that makes its entire line of products to coordinate. There are some companies that make paper, embellishments, inks, stamps and die cut items all coordinating. That makes it much easier to make that decision about colors that go well together.

4. Get help! Consultants and local scrapbook stores have lots of ideas and they are willing to share. (Please remember to patronize them and not just collect information from them.) This is personal help from experts. They make their living from scrapbooking.

5. Commit. Just give it a try. It might be a color combination that becomes a favorite. Sometimes it’s just saying yes that stops the indecision.

6. Try a color combo. There are websites that can create combos for scrappers. There are also color challenges that put together some great combos to try. Choose a number of colors – 3, 4 or 5, making 1 or 2 of those colors neutrals (black, white, cream, brown, sometimes even blue or red can be used that way.) There are also combos that have names, like neutrals or summer or winter colors for example.

7. Take inspiration from the photos being used. Sometimes that’s the best place to start. Match papers and embellishments to some colors in the photos.

8. Look for a combination of colors somewhere else in life to get inspiration from. Try looking at nature or fashion or home décor, even paint could bring an inspiration. The goal is to disconnect from the project and reconnect with a color palette that the scrapper enjoys, then add that to the photos and memories that they love too.

Sometimes it is difficult to see what the colors will look like before everything is put together, but that’s the fun of scrapbooking. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to matchy match – it’s actually ok to put stripes with dots (some of those rules that were made so long ago.) Sometimes it’s all based on emotion and it takes looking somewhere else to find the answers. Take a deep breath and know that it will come together. (Oh, and try one of those tips up above too!)