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.
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