Scrapping Using Monochromatic Colors

I don't know if I mentioned it, but I am taking Scrapbook Design and You. I just finished my third class a couple of days ago. One of the reasons I decided to sign up was because I freeze when it comes to choosing colors and tend to use the same ones over and over again. Choosing paper alone can pretty much squash my motivation to create. So, in my never-ending quest to get better at this craft that I love, I signed up for SDU at my local JoAnn's.

Our first assignment was to choose our favorite color. Once we did, our favorite color was given to someone else. I ended up with the red/pink family and I almost NEVER scrap in those colors. We were to choose three hues in that color family and THEN choose our pictures. The instructor also encouraged me to use two different colors for the background pages, something I NEVER do. Both pages always have to be the same. The other thing I learned was a more conscious way to mat my photos...I have never consciously chosen black and/or white to mat, usually choosing to just use one of the colors I am working with...but after this lesson, I see what an impact black and/or white photo mats make. I'm pretty pleased with the way this turned out and had to stop myself from adding too much. I had already spent a lot of time putting Stickles on all of the flowers and leaves. In the process of cutting the layers for all the hibiscus flowers, I gave the "Hide Contour" feature on my Gypsy a good workout. Thanks for looking.