What a Difference Color Makes - Choosing Your Background Color

Amy e-mailed asking how do I decide on the color of the cardstock I used for my cards when there are lots of colors involved?

One of the cards from yesterdays post will be an excellent example to use to help illustrate how I choose my color combinations.

Take a look at the following three samples...

I placed the body of the card over three different shades of red/pink cardstock.

Which one looks best to you?

(Yes, you'll be tested at the end - LOL!!)

Think about how the cardstock color makes certain areas of the stamped images stand out.

What is your eye drawn to when it's placed over the various shades?

Sample A

Sample B

Sample C

What part of the image stood out the most 

when you look at that photo? 

Sample A -  I'll bet for most of you your eye was drawn to the two dark red hearts in the center of the jar.

Sample B - Did this color make the entire center portion of the card the center piece?

Sample C - Was the bottom portion of the chevrons more prevalent that anything else on the card?

No peeking, 

Which sample would you choose as your favorite?

What looked best to you?

...

...

Of course color and artistic views are all very subjective

to the individual viewers taste but I chose

Sample B - 

This color draws your eye to the entire center portion of the card.

Making both the jar and background come into play when viewing.

Often I will choose an area of the card for my focal point and try to

emphasis this particular area with the colors I chose to use for the background mats.

I hope this help explain a bit about how I go about 

choosing colors.

How do you choose?