Mechanical heterogeneity of a multiply paperboard was characterized in uniaxial tension using DIC and VFM. The specimen was divided into three subregions based on axial strain magnitude. VFM analysis showed that the subregions had stiffnesses and Poisson’s ratio’s that varied in a monotonically decreasing fashion, but with the stiffness differences between subregions increasing with applied tensile stress. An Equilibrium Gap analysis showed improved local equilibrium when comparing a homogeneous analysis with the subregion analysis. Although only a single specimen was examined, results suggest that high stiffness regions provide only marginal improvement of mechanical behavior. The analysis also showed that even though the subregions themselves were non-contiguous, their mechanical behavior was similar.