App Review // Paternator

I am not one for changing out my iPhone cases - I buy a case when I upgrade my phone every two years and then I stick with it.  I'm committed like that.  And you can bet I will pick a phone case that is purple.  My current case is glittery purple (reminds me of Barbie + mermaids, and that is pretty much perfect) and the case before that was a purple Mophie case.

I am all about that iPhone wallpaper life.  Even better if I can make it myself because I will make about 3 thousand of them and clog up my camera roll.  This app, Patternator, is a super fun app you can use to create patterned images to use various ways - most importantly as a wallpaper on your phone.

First off, I want to rehash some of my favorite overlay apps that you can totally use to make amazing backgrounds - here are 8 overlay apps that I love, here are 4 ways to add text to your iPhone photos, and here is a post on creating journaling cards on your iPhone (can totally be translated into wall papers!).  

What it is

Create the world’s cutest patterns, backgrounds, wallpapers and lockscreens. Pick from millions of cool stickers, hundreds of beautiful background colors, and endless pattern options.

taken from the Apple app store here.

What it does

Patternator allows you to create, quite litterally the cutest backgrounds ever.  Choose a sticker to add to the background - you can scroll through the seemingly endless categories or type in a key word to search.  The hardest part about this is picking a sticker to actively convey your emotion, as there are a ton to choose from.

Fine tune your pattern by selecting the layout and then adjusting the scale, spacing, angle and more.   Select the background color and export your image. The control you have over creating your pattern is great - though this app isn't a full on pattern maker.  You can not export your creation as a tile-able image but the quality of the image created is good enough to use on Instagram or small projects where a tiled image won't matter.

Why it helps you
If your a blogger or instagramer or shop owner, or anyone who uses social media this is a great app to create a background for an announcement.  Using this background in conjunction with another app like Phonto to overlay text is a great way to create unique advertising on your platform of choice.  Advertise shop sales, meet ups, announcements, etc.

If you just like being creative, this app is fun to have in your design arsenal on your phone.  Create backgrounds for wallpapers or to use in smaller projects the quality the image is saved isn't as high as I'd like it (you can get really hi res images from an app like Rhonna Designs).  You could use this to create pocket scrapbooking cards (in conjunction with this app tutorial and then use them in the Project Life app) or small stickers.  This is a fun app to play around with!

**I think you also used to be able to order phone cases right from the app, but that feature is no longer available.  I'm not sure on the resolution quality on a printed item like that though.

Do you have any pattern making app recommendations?  I can't seem to find too many in the app store!