Hello, friends!
We were treated to so many gorgeous patterns in the Cactus Moon Collection that we thought it would be fun to showcase ways to play the patterns off one another. Keep reading to see how our Creative Team mixed patterns and even made their own!
Traci shares some great tips for pattern mixing like a professional!
"I LOVE pattern, so I had NO problem jumping at the chance to play with the fun patterned papers in the Cactus Moon Collection.
When combining patterns, especially "loud" ones, a great tip is to make sure that your patterns don't "compete" with each other in the same space. You wouldn't wear 3 bright patterns together (maybe you would) so why would you mix 3 bright patterns? Subtlety is key when pattern mixing!
Instead of putting more patterned paper on top of that bold dark blue ikat paper on the left, I let it stand on its own and even put a large white journal block over the top.
Instead of choosing another bold pattern for the right-hand side of the spread, I went with two tonal lighter colored patterns + watercolor strip to give your eyes somewhere to rest. Check out my process video below to see how I created this spread."
[embed]https://youtu.be/1e37w7yMMH0[/embed]
We love how March incorporates coordinating patterns in this Simple Dori spread.
"My favorite way to mix patterns on a layout is to pull the colors from a patterned paper or journal card. After choosing my color scheme, I then look through the other patterned papers and choose more solid/less busy papers to match the colors.
For my project today, I used the watercolor patterned paper from the Cactus Moon Collection. to choose my colors. I LOVE the shades of green, pink, and purple in this paper! I then selected a few other papers from this collection, trimmed them into thin strips, and arranged them across the spread.
I repeated some of the patterns to spread the colors evenly on the layout. By embellishing tone on tone, it kept the layout from appearing too busy.
Pattern play can include creating your own patterns with stamps and stickers as Jil did!
"I love the paper and stamps in the Cactus Moon Collection., so mixing patterns was especially fun. I used a black and white photo and gray background paper because I knew there would be a lot going on with the patterns.
My page turned out to be predominantly black and white patterns in the big block with my photo, the black "smile" and other embellishments from that sticker sheet and stamping with black ink. Still, there are touches of blues, aquas, and pinks.
Some of the patterns and colors I used in relatively small amounts by cutting randomly sized triangles from the patterned paper. I broke up the pattern of triangles, which appears in different forms throughout the page, with circles made with the circle stamp from the Cactus Moon Traveler's Notebook Memory Keeping Kit and with the "snap" shot chipboard and small camera circle (not to mention a generous sprinkle of glitter dots!). This interplay of geometric shapes was so much fun to create! I also enjoyed making little collage clusters along the two edges of my 12x12 layout with paper strips, stamping, and small embellishments.
Along with one of the triangles, I used alphabet stickers (xo) on an angle for a playful touch. I'm sure you'll have a great time playing with the Cactus Moon Collection patterns yourself this month!"
