In "Combining Patterned Paper 155" we discussed two basic techniques of designing with patterned paper: Contrast and Emphasis. This article will develop upon the Pattern Contrast Technique to offer further information on balancing heavily and lightly patterned papers, how much or little pattern to use at a time, discussion on cardstock use, and how to handle three or more patterns on a page.

The Pattern Contrast Technique discussed in "Combining Patterned Paper 155" emphasizes the line and curve concept. Contrasting bold solids with swirls and curves is almost sure to produce a winning combination every time. In 155, I displayed layouts using two or three patterns, all very clear in line and curve contrast. Adding more and more patterns can achieve fuller depth and interest to the overall layout: these are the pages that some people take a look at and say, "I don't know how it works, but it does!" Or conversely, it can become too busy and people comment, "It's just too much."

Balancing the patterns is the main risk - and challenge - and fun! - when working with multiple combined patterns. Achieving the "right" balance is a matter of experience, taste, and personal preference. Some of you will not like all - or any - of the pages shown in this article. That's okay. With any kind of craft or art form, there is a certain amount of personal preference involved with every design, which is what makes the craft unique and individual.

On the other hand, I can explain each page's design techniques, and how they build upon the original ideas and guidelines set out in 155. If your eyes bug out at all these patterns, go back and play with the ideas in 155 some more, and come back to this section later. I did not start out designing pages with 12 patterns on them, and neither will you: it takes time and experience to develop, and that's okay too. But if you're ready to take patterns to the next level, get ready to see a lot of patterns.

ADVANCED PATTERN CONTRASTING

This page exhibits a polka dot, leaf motif, and floral fabric strip - all "curve" elements - balancing an imposing, block-style paper. While I wouldn't normally recommend using dots and leaf prints together just as a pair, they work as supporting, softening patterns to the large, blocky main paper.

Bazzill (Olive Cardstock from CreatingWithPaper.com Kit)
K and Co. (Studio K: Brown, Pink, Green Dots; Alphabet & Squares Patterned Paper)

It's patterns galore on this page, but after a couple of hours of fussing with paper choices, I realized that it really boils down to the rectangular background paper with various circle prints as mats.

KI Memories (Collection V Garden: Rectangled, Multi Stripe, Petite Pop, Tiny Type, Loops, Palette papers)
KI Memories (Garden: Alpha Sets letters)
Prism (Prismatics: Herbal Garden Medium, Sage Dark)

Observe the following page. What do you notice about the use of bold, solid stripes as contrasted with the floral motif, the flourished musical notation, and swirly script paper under the stamped image? How many patterns can you count? Notice the overall return to circle embellishments, contrasting with the bold frames; yet when needed the circles themselves show a bold, black line. The photo frame is a linear rectangle, yet made of flourished script and music notation paper: the lower frame is bold and big, yet softened by the music inside. Or is it that the flourish music piece is defined by the heavy rectangle frame?

This page offers a balance of lines and curves that keep each other in check: where one extreme might take over, the other steps in to offer a leveling force. Even when something round becomes bold, and when something linear becomes soft, the opposites still balance each other. What do you think? Does it "work"? Is it balanced and complementary, or does it compete with itself?

Scissor Sisters (Sepia Script paper)
Basic Grey (Motifica paper, tag)
K & Company (Music note, Heritage Golden Wide Stripes Printed Flat papers)
Die Cuts With a View (Stack III paper)
Prism (Brown Cardstock)
Magic Mesh (Dottie Ann)

Balance is extremely important in any kind of visual design work. We will discuss this subject further in the following sections of this article.

HEAVILY AND LIGHTLY PATTERNED PAPER

Going beyond simple lines and curves, the Contrast Technique's next consideration is how concentrated is the pattern that covers a particular paper? A heavy, or crowded print is more "potent" than a light, or sparse, print. This is an important aspect to evaluate when choosing papers to use together. You may be finding yourself trying hard to pair line and curve style papers, but it just isn't working, and you can't put your finger on the problem. For a scrapbook page to look really great, everything needs to balance. Or maybe I should say it this way: to get away with using weird paper combinations, everything needs balance!

On this next page, you will notice a very bold, aged stripe used in conjunction with a reddish curve print and all-over text (calico) print. How does it balance? The reddish, curve-line paper has the least "potency" by virtue of being a "lightly" patterned paper. The stripe is what I would call a "heavily" patterned paper because there is no "blank" space between designs: the stripe is "all" design. The all-over text print is a "medium" pattern paper.

Imagine replacing the lightly patterned, curve-style red paper with a coordinating, but bold and "heavily-patterned," stripe paper. Together with the existing heavily-patterned stripe and the medium-pattern text print, so much pattern would quickly overpower the whole design.

If the layout, as it stands, looks "too much" to you, the solution is to remove the heavily-patterned stripe and replace it with a lightly-patterned, line-style paper. The medium-pattern, text-print paper would then become the paper with the "most potency," which decreases the overall "potency" of the entire page. The text-print paper remains a curve-style print because it has no distinctive lines, so that is why you will still need a pattern with noticeable lines to replace the stripes. See the card following for illustration of this point.

Prism (Cardstock: Island Mist Dark, Nautical Blue Light, Twilight Medium, Birchtone Light)
7Gypsies (Quadrant Print)

This card uses the very same 7Gypsies paper as the layout above: but this time it is the "most potent" paper on the design. I paired it with a lightly-patterned, line-style paper to provide balance.

Prism (Exclusives Cardstock: China)
7gypsies (Quadrant paper)
FOOFALA (Pish Posh paper)
The Paper Studio (Gold Vellum)

The use of paper on the card is better than the scrapbook page: the difference is in the "potency" of the contrasting pattern used with the 7Gypsies text-print paper. Interestingly, the layout uses patterned papers only from one company. The card uses patterns from two companies. Designing using papers from within the same company is usually a good start, but as you can see, not always a sure-fire win. I made the page about a year before making the card, and in the interim I was able to figure out "what" it was about the "Peekaboo" page that made it borderline on the "too much" side. Consider pattern "potency."

PATTERN AMOUNTS AND CARDSTOCK

We've spent a lot of time discussing selection of paper patterns that will contrast and complement each other, but now we come to another aspect of pattern combination: how much is too much?

While it's true that layouts featuring multiple patterned papers can get overbearing, on the other hand it is yet possible to use quite a few patterns in combination while retaining the "minimalist" look. The key is in how much actual paper is used, and how you use it. Sometimes, less is more.

Plain cardstock is a wonderful resource available when designing with multiple patterns. It can be used purposefully to "dilute" the "potency" of patterns, or it can be used as a supportive base to multiple patterned papers. I'm not recommending the cardstock cop-out: rather I am advocating an approach that employs plain cardstock to its best potential. The plain margin offered by cardstock can provide the right contrast to wild and bold patterns, enabling the use of more patterns without getting that "too much" feeling.

The following layout uses three patterned papers as well as Magic Mesh as a fourth pattern. The blue cardstock base supports the patterned paper and pictures.

Blue Cardstock
Making Memories (Ave C patterned papers)
Magic Mesh (12" x 12" Fine Weave: light blue)
Magic Mesh (Repositionable Fine Weave: Burnt Orange)

This page features pre-cut lettering in various prints as well as the photo mats for a total of eight patterns on this page. Once again, plain cardstock provides a great base, allowing the various patterned papers to co-exist without competition.

KI Memories (Collection V Garden: Canteen, Palette, Loops papers)
Scissor Sisters (Red paper)
Prism (Nautical Blue Light Cardstock)
KI Memories (Garden: Wise Words)R KI Memories (Garden: Alpha Sets)

PATTERNS BEYOND PAPER

This small section is presented as encouragement to think outside the box when combining patterns. On the following page, I used a lined paper as the base, and painted swirls over the top. This follows the guidelines of patterned paper: line and curve contrasting, as well as heavy and light pattern concentrations. You may find these guidelines helpful in any embellishing venture, whether you are using paint, stamps, or eyelets.

SEI (Baseball Stripes paper)
Jacquard (Lumiere Paint: Metallic Russet, Pearl Blue, Halo Blue-Gold, Pearlescent Emerald, Pearlescent Magenta, Halo Violet-Gold, Sunset Gold, Pearl White)

SUMMARY

In this article, we have discussed:

Contrast Technique (line-and-curve rule)
Balance (combine opposites)
Pattern Potency (balance heavily and lightly patterned papers)
Pattern Amounts (use small amounts of highly potent patterns)
Purposeful Cardstock Use (to dilute patterns)
Patterns Beyond Paper (using these rules with other scrapbooking media)

Patterns can be tricky, but once you learn those tricks, you'll be designing pages like never before! Don't forget that these are not hard-and-fast rules of design. These guidelines are written for the purpose of education to help you understand how patterns work. There are always exceptions, and if you find something that you like and think works, go for it! Just keep your focus light, use this information as a "rule-of-thumb" and enjoy scrapping without being intimidated by those patterns!