Monday, July 12, 2010

Making templates

I am not a digi gal. True, I own various free kits, background papers, brushes, and so on, but I rarely use them. I took May Flaum's hybrid scrapping class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, which got me using my digi supplies more than I had, but I love moving pieces of paper around too much to go fully to the Dark Side. So I'm Anakin Skywalker in Episode 2 when it comes to digital scrapbooking, not Anakin at the end of Episode 3.

The most common way I use my computer to scrapbook has been to create digital templates for my photos. I learned how to do this comfortably from a Cathy Zielske tutorial she did on Ali Edwards' site (Cathy's got a lot of great digi/hybrid tutorials: explore them here). If you want to figure out how to create templates, watch the video and download her step-by-step guide.

I have a spot on my computer where I save digital products. I have them organized according to product type: kits, frames, journaling spots, brushes, and templates. When I create a template, I save it in the Template file by titling it something helpful. Here's some of my go-to templates:
  • 4x6 wallets (a 4x6 document with two 2.5x3.5 wallets on it)
  • 4x6 3-inch photos (a 4x6 document with two 3 inch square photos)
  • 4x6 2-inch photos (a 4x6 document with six 2-inch photos)
  • a 5x7 document with two 3.5 photos
I like 4x6 inch templates for obvious reasons: I can print them cheaply with my next photo order. If I make a photo collage that I want to print as is, then I usually make it an 8x10 document. I like printing my photos through scrapbookpictures.com, but if I'm impatient, I want regular-sized photos that I can print at Target quickly too.

After I load the photos into my template, I save the new file with a new name, then I "un-do" the photos I put in so I can reuse the template. Once you learn how, it's easy-peasy, and that makes it even easier to fit a lot of photos on one or two pages.

3 comments:

Sandra said...

Thanks. Just in time for me to use templates to re-print my butterfly pictures. I'm cropping them into squares to see if that works better for scrapbooking.

Jennifer said...

thanks Jennifer for the links, i really needed them. I have been checking out Ella Publishing since we talked Friday. Hope to scrap again soon.

Diana said...

Thanks for this Jennifer. I, like you, have digi stash but prefer to work with the "real" stuff. The digi doesn't do it for me, not at all. But this is a useful set of tips. I'll go look at the tutorials and see if I can figure them out because they sound like they'll be very useful for me.