When I put together a layout, the very first question that I ask myself is: “What patterned paper am I going to use?”  This is an important question because it will essentially lay the groundwork for the rest of the layout. What guides me in my choice?? More times than not the colors in my photo are what determines this.

When working within the confines of a kit that has a set color scheme, this task can become challenging if your working with a photo that doesn’t easily fit into the look of a kit. Take for example the photo in my layout, the predominant colors are red and green. The September Kits feature a beautiful fall color palette that at first (or second) glance does not look ike it would compliment the photo. The easy way around this of course is to change the photo to black and white, but in this instance I didn’t want to do that. Instead, I went carefully through the patterned paper and looked for colors that were either on the neutral side or matched a color in the photo. I ended up choosing two B-sides that were a neutral grey and a greenish yellow. I also chose a scrap piece of patterned paper that was more colorful, but not overwhelmingly so and the gorgeous gold foiled vellum.

When it came to embellishing and creating a title, I also chose to go with a more subtle tone. The photo was pretty bright and bold all on its own and I felt the more neutral tones mellowed it out just a bit.

I guess the easier solution would have been to save this photo for another time, but that wouldn’t have been as much fun, right?! Thanks for stopping by today!