Scrap Along With Sir Scrapalot: Shrinking Digital Scrapbooking Templates

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Jun 14, 2010 | View Comments

As I have mentioned before, I use digital scrapbooking templates to create most of my layouts.  There are a variety of reasons why, but mainly I use them because they speed up the scrapbooking process and help me create layouts that I may not have created without one.

One drawback that some people often mention when talking about using templates is the fact that after one use, it’s really unlikely that you’ll use that template again.  I am so guilty of this, I often will pass over templates I have used before, even if they are the ones that first speak to me.  I was really eager to figure out a way to really stretch my templates, and I had read about the idea of “shrinking” the template.  I gave it a shot, and let me tell you, there is no easier way to at least double the use of a set of digital templates.

It happens like this:  a template is taken, and the elements of the template are shrunk down to create a totally different layout.  This approach works really well for creating white space layouts, especially when you start with a template where most of the elements are grouped together.  Today, I am going to show you how I used this approach to create a layout.

I started out using a template by Cindy Schneider.  I love Cindy’s templates because they are always intricately layered and clustered, which is not my strong point when creating a layout.  After looking through my collection of Cindy templates, I decided to use this one, from Cindy’s Layered Templates – Set 49.

Notice how, in the template I chose, almost all of the elements are centered and grouped together.  This is the perfect type of template to shrink.  I start by going through the layers, and while holding down the CTRL button, I click on all of the layers I want to shrink.  In this case, I want to shrink everything but the three background paper layers.  Once I have all the layers selected, I hit CTRL+T, and while holding the SHIFT key, I grab the handles and start shrinking the elements in the center.  Once they are a size I am happy with, I drag them to the bottom right corner, and flip them horizontally to balance the page.  When I am done, it looks like this:

You’ll also notice, that to keep balance in the layout, I took a small cluster of the stars and a tag, and moved it to the opposite upper left hand corner.  Once I am happy with how it looks, I start adding my papers and elements.  Already, though, the template looks like a completely different template than I started with.

When I am done, this is the layout I end up with:

As I was working on the layout, I decided to eliminate the scalloped paper, as well as take the journaling block out of the layout.  When I was trying to get the elements to fit in the bottom right corner, those two things just didn’t work out, so the best thing I could do was to eliminate them from the template.  I also nudged the elements a little off the page, to prevent them from “kissing” the edge (when an element of a layout touches the edge exactly).  These changes made the layout really work for me.

I am really happy with how the layout came out.  I think what I really enjoy about shrinking down a template like Cindy’s is that I am able to combine the white space style layout that I am really comfortable with and gravitate too with the really layered look of Cindy’s templates.  I would recommend giving this a shot, it really can make a huge difference in the appearance of a template.  If you are so inspired, you can check out Cindy’s shop at SSD HERE.  If you do shrink a template for a layout, I would love to see the results.  You can link me up here in the comments.