Q: Do You Match Paper to Photos

Usually I will either match/coordinate colours to either the theme or the photos. But not always.

I prefer to use the colorway in photos to determine my choices for a layout. I don’t print photos in b&w so I like the products to compliment the photos used. It doesn’t always work out that way, but a lot of times it does.

Yes, I pretty much always match my papers to my photos. I just mentioned on another thread that if I can't find papers to match, then I either tweak the hue of the papers in Photoshop, or I make my own papers.

I did this on one of my most recent beach pages. The kit I wanted to use had greeny-blues, which to me didn't look very good with the blue sky in the photo. So I used the eye dropper tool in Photoshop to select the sky, then used the Replace Colour tool to change one of the greens in the papers to the blue of the sky.

That's hilarious, and so very cute! 

I choose paper and embellishments that will compliment my photos. Sometimes that means matching sometimes not. But I don't want them to clash.

95% of the time, yes. I find I tend to like my page better.

My papers are mostly arranged by themes, so I go for theme first.

Yes, I still do. Colors that go well with the photos just seem to make a more pleasing page to me. I don’t care if others don’t follow that rule, but I won’t be satisfied with my layout if the colors in the paper(s) don’t go well with or compliment my pictures.

I match the colors a lot of the time. I definitely put the photo against several papers until I find one that compliments it.

I have trouble using purple for that reason, although I love it. My nephews don't wear anything purple at all. So purple only shows up on selfie and friend pages.

The last scrapbook page I did my nephew was wearing a lemon print shirt. I was excited- I keep buying lemon paper for some reason but I very rarely get to use it. I rarely do that kind of matching, though. Usually I just try to have colors that complement the photo.

I start out looking for papers that fit the theme or the story I am telling. I like at least one colour in the photo(s) to be picked up by my paper(s), but don't think about it too much. But that might be by use of a complementary colour. Sometimes I don't realize I have matched something until I see the LO posted here in the Gallery.

Yes...and I don't know why. My scrap life would be easier if I could just stick a photo of the kid wearing a tomato red shirt, on the pink and teal scrapbook paper!

Camping layouts are usually brown or green, that one's easy.

Schools sports layouts I usually have to make up my own kit (because no one is going to make a sports line in purple and yellow...) I collect random purple papers for this reason.

Or I will try to make the layout go with what someone is wearing. No one in my house wears pink which is why I have so much unused pink paper... I've been using it on pages for my guinea pigs (they're all female) but they have neutral colored fur so it works.

My coordination issues are why I get frustrated when a theme comes out, I can use said theme! But when I go to scrap it doesn't actually work with my photos.

I try to have the photos in my pictures complement the papers - maybe not an exact match but something that looks pleasing to the eye.

I also like to scrap with themes and the colors don't always match exactly but I can usually make it work for me.

I try but I don't agonize over it. If I want to use a particular paper, I'll make it work and still be pleasing to the eye.