The Problem with Patterned Paper

For as long as I have been scrapbooking, I have always loved looking at layouts with patterned paper. As long as I have been scrapbooking, I have been stockpiling patterned paper. And, as long as I have been scrapbooking, I have been intimidated by patterned paper. So you know what? On my last day of SDU when our instructor asked us what else we would have liked to learn, I said "I need help combining two or three different patterns on a layout."

So...our instructor went to a drawer full of paper, pulled out several sheets, turned them face down on the table and then told my classmate and I each to pick one. Just by chance, we ended up with the same pattern. Then she took some other patterns, cut them into smaller pieces and gave them to us. We discussed why, even though the patterns were vastly different and seemingly unrelated, they worked together...looking for commonalities like colors and shapes (swirls, circles, stripes, etc.).

She had us move the paper around and use solids to help separate the patterns and give the eyes a resting place. As class ended, she challenged us to take that same paper home, and make a layout with it. So I did.

As I was working on it, my original design changed drastically. I couldn't quite remember the layout I had come up with in class, and I don't think I came home with the exact same pieces of paper, because a couple of my patterned pieces were much smaller than I remembered and one even had folds in it! I swear they weren't there in class.

The title was intended to be vertical on the left and horizontal on the top. But when I put it that way, the word "Cousins" was lost on the patterned paper. I refused to cut it again and so decided to try turning the photo mat instead. My dear son loved it that way and told me to leave it like that. I then decided to hand cut two birds from the patterned paper. Those tails were hard to cut! Then I decided the birds needed a shadow! More hand cutting. Why not add some Stickles to the tail? Oh Stickles aren't enough? Let's put some old Prima flowers on there. They looked too plain. But wait! I had two bottles of Glimmer Mist that I had never tried! Mist the flowers...and while we're at it, let's add some to the birds too! Finish it off with a piece of ribbon and a quote from Alex Haley, and voila! So here is what I came up with....