Achieving the Perfect Digital Mixed Media Background with Traci

As a designer, I always include at least a few digital mixed media pieces in every scrapbook collection and I often love to use them in my hybrid scrapbooking pages!

For this spread in my October Daily using the I Voted collection and Sketchy Sunday #68, the patterned triangles were too bold to use another pattern as my main background paper, but the white was just too boring!

I decided to use all three mixed media pieces included in the I Voted digital kit to create my own background instead. I started with the lightest/easiest/least bold piece and used it as the centerpiece on the page, giving it a light blue “whitewashed” effect:

Next, I layered the bolder striped piece under my vertical photo block, resizing it a bit smaller and doubling it up so it would be long and skinny like the photo block, so mostly hidden, just peeking out at top and bottom, mainly.

Lastly, I used the ink “splotches” as accent pieces around my main element clusters and titles for just a little pop of color in places where it still felt a little dull.

This is what it looks like with the top layers turned off, and how I printed the final piece, which also includes my subtitle for easy of assembly:

By creating my background AFTER I’ve finished the rest of the layout, I can see where it needs to be “filled in” rather than trying to plan around the mixed media already there. One of the MANY advantages to digital is being able to add mixed media at the end and move it around….definitely one of the digital tricks you should have in your scrapbooking bag of tricks!

I Voted Collection