I've been asked this question several times, and after much thought I have an answer, and I picked this layout to use as one of my examples.
I made this page for a CKC contest about a defining moment in my life. And I've had many defining moments but, lately it's been the death of my Yorkie. Who just died in March. So one main reason why I scrapbook is to express myself through photo's, color and words. When I see color, I feel, and most colors are an expression of emotion for me. So let me explain better, here in this l/o I those a black title due to the death of my dog, and black has many different feeling for me when paired with other colors, but in this l/o with the cream background it's sadness. I then chose a red checked pattern paper that makes me feel love, and sadness, but the checkered part feels more like confusion. So combined together would be grief. I tore the paper, b/c my heart was torn apart! I stitched half way around the paper with a light blue floss to give a feeling of softness, and I used white for the journaling and the name on the file, b/c it represents the loss of a young life (he was only 6 yrs old). So this is just a few things that go through my head when I put a layout together. This continues on below, with a picture of the file door open.
