I love templates. I really, truly do. And I don’t just like creating them…I like scrapping with them too. However, it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, it was only my pregnancy induced creative slump last year that really made me turn to templates as a scrapping tool. But now, I can truly say that I love them. I want to pass on some of that love with a new series of top-ten lists. This one — 10 Reasons to Love Templates — will actually be in mini-series form. Gotta love a good mini-series!
TOP 10 REASONS TO LOVE TEMPLATES
Templates give you a starting point. Sometimes I want to scrap but have no idea where to start. I love that templates give me a launching place. I find a template I love, pick out the number of photos it calls for, and watch my page start to evolve. That is what I did with a template from this cool template pack by Kaye Winiecki. I didn’t have an idea for a page but after pulling out the template the page started to emerge.
Templates are great for beginner scrappers. They are easy to use and even someone who knows very little about their software can create a great page. There are lots of places to learn how to use them. Check out our USING LAYERED TEMPLATES article for some great tutorials.
Templates can help you do things that you don’t know how to do. Things like curved paper, “off the page” shadows, and text on a path. With templates, you don’t have to know how do it…it is done for you! I do most of my scrapping in Photoshop Elements so I can’t make curved text on my own. This template by Jen Caputo was perfect. The premade text on a path gave my page that extra something special!
TO BE CONTINUED…
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[...] week I shared with you part one of the Top 10 Reasons to Love Templates. This is what we have so far: 1. Templates give you a starting [...]
I love ‘em, too!! The “jump start” is exactly what I need sometimes … then I often find that I start to move outside the template and switch things up!
huge fan of templates – and so glad you have your grab bags back up!! Can you just sign me up for a yearly subscription – LOL!! I’d love to have them waiting in my download queue each month!!
Yep, I’m a HUGE fan of templates too.
Ooooh! Great series Janet! I love templates. I often flip mine around, add more things than what is there & make the squares less crisp by using Michelle Filo’s Warp tutorial on hand cut papers.
(can you do something on sketch templates? sometimes one is in need of more freedom, but all I go to is pagemaps.com)
I also love templates. I almost never scrap without one. Planning my page LO used to be the worst part of scrapping for me, because I have almost no design sense — I like picking out colors, and paper, and elements, and fonts, but I struggle with figuring out where to put everything. Templates take that away and make scrapping fun for me. I look forward to your next installment!
I LOVE, LOVE templates. Almost every layout I do starts with a template! There is usually some modification along the way – that is the beauty of templates. You can still be creative but you have a starting point. Thanks so much for showing examples of various templates and how you used them!
Thanks so much for this post! I have downloaded a few templates but have NO idea how to use them:) Thanks. You’re inspired:)
I just had to tell you that your little girl is adorable! I am so jealous… I only have boys.
I’ve been enjoying templates lately too! It almost feels like cheating–just like I felt when I was an early paper scrapper and discovered fonts
) I’m really looking at the grab bag to add to my collection! I’m looking forward to the rest of the list!
templates are my “go-to” digi item lately! I agree…the page can go far beyond the original template–but it gives you a great jumping off point–and makes you feel like you can sit down and get a page done! (and your templates are one of my FAVS!
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I’m dying with anticipation! Love templates too!
Ohhh I love templates too – can’t wait to read the others reasons
Great idea for a mini series, Janet
! I will have to remember to point people here when they have template questions. Love the pages, too!
Thanks for showing the possibilities! They came out amazing.