In spite of this, or maybe because of this, many people who begin heritage albums feel intimidated by color. They have been told that in order to show respect for our ancestors, we MUST use dark somber colors. I refuse this absolutely. Sometimes those colors are wonderful and can be used beautifully. But I always tell my students that I look at it this way. In real life, one of my best colors is clear, bright 1940s lipstick red. If that looks great with a picture of me, then I hope my great granddaughter will use it. In fact, many of our heritage pictures date from the Victorian era. No one was more fond of strong color than the Victorians. It suits them and if it suits your pictures, then don't be afraid.

When I teach heritage albums, I ask my students to bring 3 or 4 pictures that represent the variety of colors that are described as black and white. Some are sienna, some are even pinkish, some are yellowed and some are very clear black and white. We take those pictures to the racks of colored paper at the store and I encourage them to play. They are able to choose freely and think about color in new ways. If you don't have a local scrapbook store to try this out at, then go to a store with good light and lots of paint chips!  Play with the colors, trying new combinations and looking at old favorites. You will find that what seems to suit one photo will not suit another, but that's OK. What you are trying to do is select a color scheme. Choose three or four colors that look nice together and where at least one color will go with every shade of pictures that you have.

By limiting yourself to color, it helps you create your albums more quickly. With all of the great colors of safe pens that are now available, you can choose a matching ink. I like gray over black in many instances. You can choose a few patterned papers that go with these colors. Then if you want to, you can find coordinating stickers, die cuts, rubber stamp inks, etc., to complete the embellishments. We'll start talking about those embellishments in the next few months.

Let me demonstrate how I did this for the album I am currently working on. In my case, I've played with color so much that I had an idea of how to start. Repeated favorites in my classes have been Nutmeg and Fern - both colors I liked. I have recently been getting into rubber stamping and planned to do some in this album, so I looked at rubber stamp inks. I found this Colorbox Petal Point ink pad and knew I'd hit pay dirt.   I don't think you'll be able to read the color names, but they are: Cocoa, Brown, Moss green, Hunter Green, Chianti, Topaz, Gold and Antique Pewter. The colors are wonderful and when I got home, I found that I had pens or pencils in most of those colors already. It was easy to find matching paper and I was on my way. But I can see you wondering - What is this going to look like?

The examples below show you how color can change the item. In one picture, there are 3 colors of paper with an old letter. Memorabilia is an intrinsic part of any heritage album and color is important there, too.

I'm not sure how well it scanned, but in real life, this is how I see the colors. The gold seems to do nothing really, while the dark red competes with the letter. My favorite is the orange color, which absorbs some of the yellow from the paper and heightens the rusty tones of the writing. Does this color choice surprise you? Compare the letter on the solid paper to the same letter on patterned paper.  I love the tone and the texture that this print brings to the page. The pattern is wonderful itself and also works really well with old photos and memorabilia. The papers in this example and in the other are by Micrographix. They are my absolute favorites for heritage albums, since they have this feel and this scale in most of their papers. With this letter, I think the paper bring more of an emotional response than may come with a solid, but the whole is very soft and elegant.