WORKING WITH COLOR

Today I thought I'd talk about how I put together the color combinations of my pocket pages. Those of you that took my Candyland Documenter Kit Workshop at Studio Calico in February of this year, could see that when I get a new kit I sort the cards by color. If the front and back have different colors I pick the side I like best. Black and white gets their own pile. Multicolored cards that match several color combinations also get their own pile. 

Sometimes there's a card that stands on it's own. In that case I will try to match it up with cards from older kits. I keep all my old cards sorted by color as well and, since Studio Calico has a set color scheme, cards from different kits go well together. 

When I put together a pocket page, I start out opening up all the photos I'm planning to use in PSE. I look for colors that either stand out, or show up in several of the cards. In the page below I decided to go with the orange I found in my daughter's freckles and the glass of beer. I'm a big fan of color photos, because often the colors are part of the story. But sometimes, in order to make some colors stand out, you need to limit other. I like mixing color photos and black & white photos on the same page. Turning a photo black and white is also a great method for masking grain and blurryness, especially when you increase contrast.

I knew I had the bright orange plus sign card in my stash, so that was the first card I pulled. I used my typewriter to give it a title. It says "sure signs of spring". After that I looked for matching cards. I knew I needed one journaling card and another dark colored card or the orange would be too strong. If you look at the page and picture a white card in place of the grey, you'll see what I mean!

After choosing the garland journaling card I wanted to continue the circle shapes and do a visual triangle. I had gold and orange sequins that matched the garlands and then I used a cut out circle stamp on the grey card to brighten it up a bit.

My all-time favorite color combination is blue/red/yellow. Here I went with blue as my major color and yellow and red for accents. When I use two 4x6 photos on the same spread I most often use a template for the second photo. It brightens the page and also allows the larger photo to become a focal point. The split template is from the 4x6 Photo Templates Vol. 6 by Paislee Press. The "favorite" digi stamp is from the Tour Guide Elements pack by Paislee Press. The rest of the products are from the Be Happy documenter kit by Studio Calico.

Picking the green floral card in the page below seemed obvious. I then brought in the rain drop card to go with the pool photo. If you are looking to make a photo heavy page like this one, you need to pick photos with few colors and simple images. The flower photos are basically filler cards on this page.

 Again, I used a photo template to brighten up the page. This one from the Messy Beautiful line by Paislee Press. I just love digital scrapbooking products. It's the only thing I spend money on aside from the Studio Calico documenter kits. Digital products are versatile, reusable and there is no shipping time or cost involved. 

In this last page I used blue as my main color again with green and yellow as accents. I didn't feel the need to pick up the red since I had already tied in the green from that photo. The journaling card talks about my early morning hedgehog rescue. When me and my daughter arrived to her school there were two hedgehogs in the bushes on the school yard. Lots of children were gathered around them, worried the hedgehogs might be injured during the day. I used my denim jacket to carry the hedgehogs to safety outside the school yard. The happily scurried into the bushes when I put them down. 

I've been binge watching The Bridge this month. It's so good! Really well written and well acted. I had no templete that fit four portrait photos on a 4x6 card, so I put it together myself in PSE.  

I thank all of you that still drops in to check out my blog. Blogs are kind of going obsolete these days, but it's really the best place to share photos and lots of writing. See you soon!

/Magdalena