After finishing my last mini-book I looked at the leftovers I needed to put away and saw this pile . . .
What you see is my tray of patterned paper scraps. I keep them all together and pick from there. But what is on top of my tray are the leftovers from my mini-book: old cream-colored screen-printed Hambly transparencies, an even older sheet of pink stickers by Creative Imaginations, and a new white sheet of pockets pockets and envelopes by Teresa Collins.
These are the items that didn’t make it into my mini-book, except for one small square of the Hambly transparency. The transparency and the stickers have been in my stash for years — maybe four years or more. These pieces need to go back into the plastic envelopes in which I store whole 12×12 sheets.
But that pile of leftovers is stunning! Because of the stark white, this is a very different color-scheme from my mini-book, which had a bold red, a soft pink, and different shades of browns. And it’s not just the colors. Look how well the patterns compliment each other!
The pile of leftovers reminded me how much I love cream with white. Cream and white are not colors I see together all that much, especially on scrapbooks. But it’s one I’ve loved for years. It looks especially beautiful and feminine (and it’s more energetic) with the dark shades of pink in the stickers.
Here’s a cream and white page I made in 2007 with some black accents and some light pink . . .
I don’t yet know what I’ll do with the stash of beautiful whites, pinks, and creams on my tray, or when I’ll have an opportunity to use that palette, but I hope it’s soon!
Update from the Future: I’ve now put together that layout and you can find it if you scroll down this article. Just look for the white, cream, and pink.
Inspiration from Leftovers
And this is the number one most common way I come up with my color schemes — by looking at my leftovers. Sometimes they are the leftovers I’ve tossed into my scrap tray. Other times they’re the leftovers on my scrap table: the unused pieces that, once left on their own and separated from the stuff I used on my project, suddenly look brilliant together. These are palettes I never would have thought to go looking for.
Instead, they find me.
I know there is a lot of inspiration online, but looking at my leftovers works so much better for me. The supplies are right there staring at me. I don’t have to go looking for them, and most especially, I don’t have to go to the store to buy them.
Do you need help learning how to identify colors and patterns that can work together so you can use more of your leftover stash? If you have a Paperclipping Membership, you can watch these tutorials in the archives:
- Mixing Patterned Paper - How to build a color palette and choose a group of unrelated patterned papers with what you have.
- Expand a Color Palette - How to build an expanded color palette by starting with one piece of patterned paper of your choice.
- Build a Color Palette from Pink - How to recognize the variations of a single color (like the temperature and the intensity) to build a color palette from one color of your choice.
- Red and Green - How to build a color palette with patterned papers from complimentary colors and avoid the common pitfalls.
- Clashing Papers - Why do some papers and colors work together and some don’t? There’s a secret! If you understand the principles of color that I shared in Mixing Patterned Paper and Mix Your Own Paint Colors then you’ll be able to identify when and why a color scheme isn’t working.
- Mix Your Own Paint Colors - If you’re not interested in paint then you might be tempted to skip over this episode. But even if you never paint, this episode is invaluable for learning about color. I learned everything I know about the complex intricacies of color by learning to mix my own colors of paint from the most basic of hues. I share these principles with you in this episode.
(Need a Paperclipping Membership to watch the tutorials? Click here for information!)
What leftovers do you have sitting on your table right now? Together, are they different from the the pieces you used in your most recent project? Do you like how they look together? What potential do you see in them as a group? If you’re ready for a challenge, try putting the together in a layout!
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What You Might Have Missed at Paperclipping
- Paperclipping Video Tutorial - Layer and Texture with Color
- Paperclipping Roundtable - The Closet Trendsetter
- Paperclipping Digi Show - I Did It for the Scrapbooking
- Izzy & Me – Two Happy Lives + One Happy Marriage
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