How can I use extremely patterned paper??

I've always been attracted to the beautiful papers with pretty patterns or pretty designs. So the majority of my paper is like that. I keep running into the problem of having my LOs look cluttered, busy, and obnoxious(before I even embellish.) When I see other people's LOs that I like..they usually always use very basic background paper with minimal patterned paper..maybe just a few strips or circles here and there..is that all patterned paper is good for??? What would you use a sheet that has a large image printed on it for then? It wouldn't look right all cut up..you couldn't tell what the image was.

My question is: Where do you use the beautifully patterned papers/the ones with large images already on them/etc?

I just don't get it.

cant wait to see the responses to this one...Im very interested too!!!!

I'd recommend grounding your photos with a solid. Here's an example:

Finally Fall By Cindy312

The background paper is very busy. With just the photos on it, they got lost. With the circle placed behind them, the busy background paper calms down a bit, if that makes sense!

Here's another example:

Purple Popsicle By Cindy312

The popsicle paper way way too busy to use on its own. By adding the solid green and yellows, plus matting the pictures in black, the popsicles work.

Good luck!

Cindy

Oh Cindy, thank you so much! I was afraid I'd be doomed to have all my pretty patterned paper just collecting dust. Those are great ideas. Thank you again!

Great suggestions...thank you even though i didnt post the question LOL

You'll get a lot of variety in the answers to this question because there are many different tastes. What looks cluttered to one looks great to another.

However, I can show you what works for me and what I like
I don't always use patterned paper with a solid. Sometimes I pick a pattern that is monochromatic and pair it with a busier pattern like on this layout.
Sugar and Spice By Here Kitty

Sometimes the patterns are small and the papers can work sort of like solids. I like to put in a bit of solid (the kraft), but most of it is patterned paper on this one.

I *heart* wildflowers By Here Kitty

Some patterned paper is too pretty to cover up IMO, and so I just let it speak for itself.
Vintage Family By Here Kitty

Some patterned paper can be cut and used as embellishment. If you have a pattern or image you particularly like, sometimes you can cut it out and use it where you want on another sheet of paper.

Snuggies By Here Kitty

Great examples! Thank you so much!!

Here are a couple more examples

Danger Will Bite By Debby_westbrook

Circus Elephants By Debby_westbrook

Some of my recents using lots of pp.

santa By Runzalot81

pooh bear By Runzalot81

rain By Runzalot81

just us By Runzalot81

time well spent By Runzalot81

Birthday By Runzalot81

oh those are great!! Thank you and thank you again! I'm so happy I asked this question because you all are really making it easy for me to envision new possibilities.

I lvoe busy paper, too!

Text By Sunrenay

One suggestion I have with beautifully patterned paper is to to use just one photo so that the background can shine and the page isnt too cluttered... just one idea though :-)

Oh wow! Great layouts!

Here's another one. I just didn't embellish much - I let the paper do that.
the girls By Scraprabbit

• scraprabbit Said:

good idea!

If you have scraps of it, you could use it as an accent, with coordinating solid cardstock.

It depends on the look that you’re going for or personally like. Most often, I tend to ground patterned paper with cardstock beneath or on top of pp. But sometimes I go all pp.

Here I used 3 large strips of pp, grounded by kraft cardstock underneath.

So Blessed By IzzyB

Here I used a soft pp on top to balance out the busy car pp on the bottom.

At The Track By IzzyB

Here, I basically covered up a busy pp by putting a large green cardstock mat on top. I did carefully cut along the clock in the bottom left and slid part of the green mat under that portion of the pp so as to not cover the clock by the green mat.

Goodnight Moon By IzzyB

great job everyone!! currently im workin on a 1st communion book and its so hard bc i have no pics (its a gift to the communion boy...) and in addition to niot havin pics the paper is soooooo busy... my mom wanted me 2 use the once upon a time stack
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Once-Upon-A-Time-12X12-Paper-Stack-With-Glitter-48-cpunt/10310688
and it is proving to be a worthy task lol.. but i am keeping it very simple... will post pics asap

One thing you can do with paper that has large images on it is use it as a title page for your album.. For example i have a sheet of paper that is a fire scene and i plan on adding a title to it or saying and putting as the title page of my husbands firefighting album..

Well, I love busy paper as well... and sometimes I think I handle the job of working with them, as you can see:

[image]http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/585859/view /3094951/-1.html[/image]

[image]http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/585859/view /3087573/-1/1.html[/image]

http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/585859/view /3120093/...

Hope you like it. Have a nice week all of you ladies.

Hi! I'm new to the forums, but not to scrapbooking. I love to use busy backgrounds at times. Here are some samples of busy background pages:









As you can see, I have a variety of techniques that I use. Sometimes the pictures are very simple, "un-busy" shots that will offset the busy background nicely. Sometimes I will use a nice solid contrasting border (can be dark, bright, soft depending on what the background is) that will highlight and bring focus to the pictures and in effect mute the background a bit. Sometimes the pictures themselves are contrast enough to stand out without help.

I tried hard to narrow down how many layouts I posted (I'm not very good at narrowing things down! lol), so there are quite a few other layouts in my gallery that also have busy backgrounds if you want to see more.

I had to add a few more. These are digital layouts that I created using Mixbook.com, but they also are busy backgrounds that I've made work:







(please forgive me if I'm not supposed to be posting digital layouts in this forum)

If you're talking about those papers with just one big design on the bottom right fourth of the page, or something, I got nothin'. I rarely use those or, if I do, I just put one picture in the blank space and then embellish the LO.

For all other patterned paper, I tend to use the rule of thirds - one third large pattern pp, one third medium patterned pp, and one third small patterned pp. I mix in some cardstock to ground it, and it works for me. And I also sometimes just simply celebrate the pattern in the paper because I love it so much, or for a specific purpose.

This one was for a neon color challenge. I grounded the VERY colorful pp with a background frame, and then I covered some of the pp with solid cardstock to mitigate SOME of the wildness. Otherwise, if not for this challenge, I would have never used this paper.
http://> Meezerpleaser" title=" Sadie in Neon By Meezerpleaser"Sadie in Neon

In this LO, I just wanted to celebrate the pretty paper -- I thought it would have lost its impact if I cut it up.
http://> Meezerpleaser" title=" I'm not fat, I'm fluffy By Meezerpleaser"I'm Not Fat, I'm Fluffy

And in this one, there was some outstanding kind of intense polka dots, but I partially covered them with cs.
http://> Meezerpleaser" title=" Joey at 1 Year By Meezerpleaser"Joey at 1 Year

Totally depends on the look you are going for-I love shabby chic (anything goes) so I may use 4-5 busy patterns on one layout