Pattern Mixing 101

 Happy Monday friends! 

I hope you had a great weekend!  We had a super fun trip up to Virginia for Stamp and Scrapbook Expo and can't wait for the next one in Duluth, GA next month.  If you are pondering a trip to Duluth, we have tickets in store that come with a fun pin, so make sure you come by or drop in online to grab yours.  

Yesterday, I was reading and found something super helpful that I wanted to share with you all!  The original post was about how to pattern match in clothes, but it was easily applicable to paper crafts.  I love a good mix of patterns on a layout and I love how they look, but for me, I sometimes struggle to make it look "right"!  (This is also true for me of patterns in clothes, fabrics, etc - love the look, but it never feels right when I do it)!

So, here is the helpful tip that I learned -mix the scale and vary the type!  So, what does that mean...

1) Mix large and small prints together - big florals and small stripes are fabulous. Two tiny florals are competing way to hard for your attention.  

    When you have a larger scale print, your eye knows what to do.  When you have multiple prints in the same scale, your eye doesn't know what to focus on! 

2) Vary the type of pattern - too many florals, too many animal prints, too many plaids... it gets really chaotic fast!  Pick a plaid and a stripe, an animal with a polka dot, use two different families!

3) Consistent color is a go!  One of the easiest ways to make patterning (especially with just two or three patterns) flow is with a through color.  Do all of your papers have a light pink?  Perfect!  it is ready to go!  Everyone have a delightful teal or navy?  Great!  This is one of the reason that scrapbookers like Allison Davis have lots of luck with single color pattern mixing is that the consistent color helps your eye!  If you have never watched her mix patterns and talk about her process, it is really interesting! 

In this layout below, she has used several patterns of the same type - graphic shapes in small format and a medium of floral.  Plus, Allison used green as her through color in all of the papers!  You can find Allison's blog at this link right here. 

Now, go get crafty and try a little pattern matching of your own!  
Lesley