Let's talk patterns and papers
 

When it comes to choosing papers for your layouts what are you drawn to lately? Do you like pattern papers that fill the entire page, do you like a subtle pattern with just a hint of pattern.. do you like woodgrain.. painted/artsy papers?

I was just thinking it might be nice to have more discussions like this to see what people are after these days :) :thumbup:

If possible I like to see 1 or 2 tight plaids in a kit and then I'm more into subtle patterns. I know there are people who like big and bold, but that's not my style. I always like your colored/subtle patterned woodgrains.

I most often go for a white background. I love how it makes all the pretty pattern papers pop. So that said, I love all the pattern papers! lol The tone on tone, the bold flowery types, the striped, the subtle ones...

I love patterned papers! Lately, I like the ones with smaller prints and plaids.

I love artsy papers, the more unique the better! Also love big, bold patterns.

I love subtle patterns and tiny prints. I also like tone-on-tone patterns more. I find that I can use maybe one patterned paper that uses all the colours (plaid or tiny stripes please!), but the ones that are limited to one (tone-on-tone) or two colours are more versatile.

I'm a pattern lover. I like them all. I'd love to see BIG florals from you. You do amazing florals.

I love big bold patterns, and tiny ones. I love plaids and chevrons. I love dots and stripes.

I love a good wood bokeh gradient and some distressed or artsy ones too.


I love patterns people...and I cannot lie

I gravitate toward plaids. I guess about 95% of my layouts, I use a plaid paper for a mat around my photos. My background is always a plain paper with no noticeable texture since I journal right on it. Otherwise, I like subtle patterns to use as paper accents on my layouts. If there is no plaid, I like to use a small striped pattern to mat the photos. I'm not a big and bold person (in real life either!)

I love plaid/stripes - they will always be my staple

I also love wood, but I'm trying to get away from that because I have used it for so long and all my base layouts "look" the same, at least to me!

I've been loving the smaller patterns lately. They show up better on smaller things like flags and thin paper strips.

I love them all!! For backgrounds I prefer wood or tone on tone or solid but otherwise bring on the fun!

This! Kiana & I can start Patterns Anonymous. I call ALL the plaids/stripes. ;) ;)

I love pattern, woodgrains and plaids! So much!
Sometimes it goes out of hand when I'm making pages and the kits have woodgrain, and then I will realize that all the pages I made for a week has woodgrain. But I can't help myself! :o:thumbup:

If it's a big pattern I like it subtle, not too bold (if they are too bold they end up not used or just on a small snippet of paper). I always love stripes of any sort lol

I tend to build my page around 1 small scale pattern that has all of the colors in the kit. My favorites are florals and stripes, but any small scale is a possibility. I usually combine that focal paper with a solid or woodgrain that covers a lot of the page and some subtle tone on tone patterns or more solids/woodgrains. I love the look of bold papers, but I can't pull them off. I either admire them without using them or end up shrinking them down so they're less bold and using them on a smaller area. Artsy papers vary so much that it's hard to answer. If they're too busy I find them hard to combine with other papers and probably won't use them. But I do use solids that have some artsy (tone on tone) touches or subtler artsy papers.

I love patterns so so much! Any types will do, the more unique it is the more drawn I am to it. Busy or subtle patterns are both great to me and I use them depending on what photos I am scrapping.

So, bring on all the patterns! ;)

I love woodgrain as a background.
A cute stripe, plaid or mini floral that has all the colours of the kit, that would work to tie everything together.
I love tone on tone mini prints as a neutral, a single bold floral or bright pattern could work too. I also love your bokeh type papers.

Like Kiana and the others, I LOVE patterns and I LIVE for color! I will usually use patterns as a background and mix and match other patterns on top of it, but I can always blend down a bold pattern to suit a background better, so it's easy to adjust.

I love a mix of large, bold patterns with smaller patterns as the smaller are great to mix and match. I can always scale down a large pattern, though, and smaller patterns don't scale up with the same quality. So, I prefer kits with larger patterns if a mix isn't present. Stripes are my favorite "basic" pattern in kits.

I also love woodgrain and gradient papers and use them for blending often with other patterns in the kits.

I always, always look for a paper that can be used for journaling! Best case: graph type print or notebook paper with subtle lines. Next best, a non-textured white or kraft that goes with the kit. I always feel lost when there isn't a paper that works well for journaling, either because the texture is too pronounced or it's too dark. I realize I can change the text color to something lighter, but that's not my first choice! I will often resort to just recoloring the journal spot to some kind of light color that is used elsewhere in the kit, like a pocket card or word strip.

I also like large patterns that can be scaled down--like Jenny, I often resize papers to get a smaller pattern. Sometimes big, bold patterns are hard for me to use because as a template user, they get lost behind everything else! I LOVE your woodgrains and florals.

I love ALL the papers. Plaid might be my favorite. I also like solids with a little grungy texture so that there is something there but it is not too much.

I tend to choose the most unique pattern in each kit. One thing I don't like is when the solid papers have a unique subtle pattern that is the same across each color so when I start layering them, it looks weird cause the pattern stays the same and the color changes.

I agree with everything here - plus I struggle if there isn't some kind of white paper without a pattern that I can use for the photo frame.

I occasionally try to use a big bold background, but it's not my go-to. I usually use a plain-ish background paper but then layer patterns on top of it.

I love patterned papers! I prefer smaller prints that fill the entire page so that a good portion of the design is seen when it's about 2 inches wide. I prefer patterns that aren't bold. I like the subtle patterns, as well as smaller stripes.

I feel the same!:D

I love woodgrain, especially if it has some sort of texture on it like paint. I always use patterned papers that have all of the colors of the kit in them - I use these to pull all the colors of the elements together in the layout. I also like subtle patterns.

I really like a variety of small prints (dots, stripes, small florals, plaid) and maybe one or two unique wood backgrounds. I also like having a graph/ledger paper of some variety that I can journal on. I like lightly textured solids that are not identical. I actually do like a bold bigger floral as well (this could be duplicated in an alternate color scheme). I have actually purchased kits because I liked the big floral paper.

I love patterned papers! Light coloured, dark coloured, small print, big print, it's all good. I also like solids with a bit of texture and some with almost no texture so that they don't all look the same.

I love patterned paper but I really want them to coordinate and look right together when layering. A kit with just a bunch of random patterns does not really appeal to me. I want stripes, polka dots, plaids and then floral/themed patterns that go with.

Having said that, I also enjoy a painterly/already mixed media'd background with the edge work, paint and maybe some built up areas where it seems logical to put a photo or two.

When it comes to background papers, I gravitate to something that has a solid-ish base but also includes an element brushwork, paint, etc - meaning it's not too busy/patterned as to distract from the elements, but not completely solid either.

Beyond the background paper, I think anything goes, I do love it when there is a mix of patterns (some busy and others more subtle). I also really love it when all colors of the kit are equally represented in the papers :wub:

I love woodgrain backgrounds. And I love tone on tone patterns.
Oh and Kristin... your floral background papers are THE Best!

I'm not much help b/c I love it all. I like combining a pattern with a woodgrain or lightly textured PP. I like big florals. You create gorgeous papers.

I am drawn to dark woodgrain backgrounds - but on the other hand, I love light colored papers without much movement so I can add paint to them. When I am cropping papers, I go toward florals and plaids.

(Ha ha - how's that for being indecisive?!)

I agree 100%!!