Mixing patterned papers with Ashley Horton!

My guest today is the fabulous Ashley Horton of Ashley Horton Designs. If you love the look of patterned papers but have no idea how to use them, then Ashley is your go-to girl. Her layouts are a combination of patterns, colours and textures laid out in the most pleasing ways. Even though there are lots of eye-candy on her projects to drool over, I love that her pages stay relatively bulk-free. She shares her approach to mixing patterned papers and is hosting a challenge with an awesome prize for a lucky player! :)

Let's check out some of Ashley's fave layouts....

My name is Ashley Horton and I live in the Southern US, with my husband Tyler and our three kids ages 7, 5, and 4.  I've been Scrapbooking for over 7 years, and I love documenting the antics of my children on my layouts.  I have had the privilege of serving on several Design Teams over the years.  I have been published in Creating Keepsakes magazine, Scrapbook Trends Magazine, Life.Paper.Scrapbook magazine, and Scrapbook News & Review magazine.  I describe my style, as Cutesy Eclectic and I enjoy using a mix of products and techniques on my layouts.  Other than Scrapbooking, I enjoy cooking, reading, spending time with family, and watching movies with my hubby.

One of my most favorite techniques, is mixing patterned papers and colors.  I am definitely a patterned paper addict and 9 out of 10 layouts, are usually all patterned paper.  If you find this technique a little intimidating, here are a few tips for putting your patterns and colors together.

1.  The first tip for putting together patterns and colors is, use a Collection!  Working with a collection is a perfect way to dive into this technique, because the patterns and colors are specifically paired to go together.  For example, I used the Maggie Holmes collection from Crate Paper for my Cute New Do layout and used these patterns:

2.  Here is a second option for working with patterns and colors, that also ties into the papers I chose for this layout.  Use the Ounce, Pint, Quart, Gallon method.  That may sound complicated, but it's really easy.  When you are choosing your patterns and colors, decide which pattern/color you want to use the biggest "amount" of on your layout and then work down from there with your other patterns and colors.  The background pattern was my "Gallon" choice on my Cute New Do layout and then I used smaller doses of the other patterns.

3.  Another fun option, is finding a Color Scheme to work with.  Using Color Schemes can really help, when you are putting colors together and pulling papers that may not be all included in one collection.  This website offers many color combinations and you can also find several challenge sites, such as Life.Paper.Scrapbook that offer weekly or monthly color challenges.

I would love to see you use the technique of mixing patterns on your layout, so here's a little challenge:  Put together a layout, using no Cardstock and at least 5 different patterns.  If you get stuck, just remember the tips in this post and you can also visit my Blog for inspiration on putting those patterns together.

The prize is a $10 gift certificate to Paper Bakery. :)

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Ready to play along with Ashley's patterned paper challenge? Please link your newly created layouts featuring no cardstock and the use of at least 5 patterned papers via Inlinkz [located at the end of the post] by Friday, October 4th, 11.55pm (GMT +8).

As always, please leave a little love for my guest Ashley. :)