Find Color Inspiration For Your Scrapbooking Page Layouts

Posted by Nick Niesen on November 1st, 2010

Do you think you need to know color theory to make a beautiful scrapbooking page? You don?t even need to know the difference between primary and secondary colors to create a page that complements your photographs. All you need to find color inspiration for your layouts is a watchful eye during your everyday life. Color palettes are all around us. Consider these easy-to-find resources for color choices on your next scrapbooking pages.

Your Favorite Clothing Store
Clothing manufacturers design their seasonal lines according to a predetermined color scheme. Ever wonder why all the stores seem to carry similar colors each season? Many designers use the color direction provided by the Color Marketing Group. The Color Marketing Group forecasts color trends for manufactured products. Walking around your favorite clothing boutique quickly shows you the color trends for the current season. Are pastels in this season? Try a page with pastels even if it?s not spring.

Your Closets
Along the same lines as using a clothing store for inspiration, your own closets hold the color palettes for past seasons. Don?t limit yourself to just your clothes closet. Your linen closet will also have coordinated color palettes to inspire you. Love that quilt that you have tucked away for the guest room? Look carefully at the colors and see if you can create a scrapbooking page with the same color qualities.

Paint Chips
Would you believe that you can find professional color schemes at your local home improvement store? Paint manufacturers coordinate colors in sample decorating palettes. These chips are often designed by professionals like Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren. Browse through the paint chip display and use one of the palettes for a scrapbooking page or even an entire album.

Museums
Take an afternoon to walk through an art museum, and you will see how the Masters use color. Make some notes on what paintings inspire you the most and what colors are used to set the mood of the painting. Artists know color theory, and reflecting on their masterpieces is an education in color theory without the textbooks.

Mother Nature
The earth provides its own color palette. Not only can you gain inspiration from the colors of winter, summer, spring and fall, you can study landscapes. These are earth?s paintings. Look at the colors of the desert and mountains, as well as, the sunsets and sunrises. Peek out your window at your flower garden for even more of nature?s inspiration.

Your Makeup Drawer
Makeup manufacturers also use color theory to develop their seasonal palettes. Take a look at your eye shadows and blushes for ready-made color selections for your scrapbooking pages.

Home Decorating Magazines
Color inspiration doesn?t just come from scrapbooking magazines. Interior designers use coordinating colors to make it easier for customers to create a perfect decor for their homes. The photographs in home decorating magazines are sure to inspire a creative scrapbooking page.

Advertisements
Before you put those magazines away, take a closer look at the advertisements. Companies pay millions of dollars to ad agencies to design advertisements that will capture the eye of its customers before they flip the page. Ads can provide no-fail color schemes for your scrapbooking. An added bonus of advertisements is that they not only provide great inspiration for colors, but their layouts are an education in design theory, as well.

Color palettes are everywhere. Next time you need some color inspiration, take a creative look around you. Keep an idea journal with notes, clips from magazines and paint chips. Tired of the same old red and green on your Christmas pictures? Use your holiday sweaters to inspire you. There is no end to the number of color palettes you can find for your scrapbooking pages.