Templates | Sir Scrapalot Designs

Scrapbooking with Templates: What if I Don’t Have Any Flowers?

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Nov 16, 2010 | View Comments

Layering is one of the hottest trends in scrapbooking right now. Layouts that feature flowers, string, ribbon and other elements all perfectly shadowed can be eye catching and fun. My favorite template designer, Cindy Schneider over at Sweet Shoppe Designs, creates incredible templates that are expertly layered and make creating this look a snap.

One thing that I really love about Cindy’s templates are their versatility. For example, over the weekend I was working with this template:

I loved all of the layers in this template. The layered papers as well as the numerous layered flowers would give the layout the look of incredible dimension, which I am always looking to do on a layout. There was one problem though….the kit I was working with didn’t have a whole lot of flowers. For a long time, this would have deterred me from using this template. As I have grown into using templates, I’ve begun to really embrace the idea that just because it’s a flower on the template doesn’t mean it has to be a flower on the layout.

In this case, I replaced all of the flowers with snowflakes (aren’t they winter’s flowers anyways?) and a few other large elements. This is the layout I came up with:

Sometimes, I use a variety of elements to stand in for where there are flowers were on the template. For example, I started with this template:

I replaced many of the flowers with stickers found in the kit and some word strips. I even replaced the branch with a string, so that it would better fit with my layout. This is the layout I ended up with:

Templates are a wonderful thing to work with. They can make achieving a specific style or look easily accessible to all levels of scrapbookers. It’s important to remember, however, that a template is just a starting point. It’s up to you, the scrapbooker, to interpret the template to meet your needs. Free yourself to make changes in a template, and you will open up a whole new door to your creativity!

9 Killer Template Designers Whose Templates I Love

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Jul 26, 2010 | View Comments

Seeing as I am such a template-a-holic, I thought it would be great to share with you some of the template designers that I regularly use. You’ll notice that they represent a pretty wide range of styles, but I think that keeps everything looking fresh and new.

Cindy Schneider at Sweet Shoppe Designs – I’ve talked before (and talked and talked) about how much I love using Cindy’s templates. I love the clustered look of them, which I have such a hard time coming up with on my own. I also appreciate the little things that Cindy does to make using her templates easier, like color coding the layers. One of my favorite sets of Cindy’s templates is this bundle:
Janet Phillips at Sweet Shoppe Designs – Janet’s templates are almost the polar opposite of Cindy’s. Janet’s are clean and graphic, and always put the attention right back on the photo. Janet is also the master of templates with an insane number of pictures. I especially like this template:
Amy Martin at The Lilypad – Amy’s templates are always a little bit funky. She recently has been doing some templates that have cut out spaces in them, and I love the way those look. I also love that Amy often offers mini bundles, singles, and larger bundles. One of my favorite sets by Amy is
Jaclyn Bernardo at Funky Playground Designs – Jaclyn really is awesome at stacking in her templates. Stacking paper strips, or background papers, or elements, they always look awesome. She even has sets of just her stacks, which I love too. I love this one especially
BTA Designs at Polka Dot Plum – BTA Designs templates’ are great for white space layouts. They often feature a large background with a small cluster in one of the corners or the middle. I especially like this set of templates:
Berry Sweet Designs at Polka Dot Plum – These templates are excellent white space layouts too! They are minimal with a little layering and lots of space around them. This set that I picked also has ample space for journaling, which is a major plus. Check them out
Nikki Epperson at The Digi Chick – I got hooked on Nikki’s templates when she was at PDP with me. What I really like about Nikki’s templates is that sometimes, they are nice and super layered and fun…and other times they are nice and simple. She has a variety of styles, which makes her templates appealing to me. I love this set
Ali Edwards at Designer Digitals – Do I really need to say more than her name? Ali is one of the masters of digi scrap. I love her simple styled layouts. Always clean and graphic, but never boring her templates always seem to make a statement.
Cathy Zielske at Designer Digitals – Cathy’s another designer with nice, clean and simple templates. What I always find fun about Cathy’s templates is that they usually have some great word art already built into them. I love this template

So those are 9 of my favorite template designers. Who are yours? Whose templates do you love using? Let me know in the comments below!

Digital Scrapbooking Trend Watch: Blocked In

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Jul 10, 2010 | View Comments

One thing that I am noticing more and more in the galleries is blocking in layouts. Last week, on my Facebook Page, someone asked if I could share with them how to create blocked layouts. I always find that blocking on a layout creates a sense of order on a page, and often can create a simple, calm look. Today I wanted to explore this trend a bit more, and see what’s out there for us scrappers.

There are some great layouts out there that are using blocking in them. I even found a few in my gallery that I had forgotten about.

If you are looking for some digital scrapbooking layouts to help you create a blocked look quickly and easily, you are in luck as there are TONS available. Here are some of my favorites:

Looking to create blocked layouts on your own? Keep your eyes on the blog here for a tutorial on creating a blocked layout very soon. Until then, give these products a shot!

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.

Digital Scrapbooking Trend Watch: You Spin Me Right Round

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Jun 12, 2010 | View Comments

In this installment of Trend Watch, I want to look at circles. Lately, I have seen circles becoming more and more present in digital scrapbooking layouts and designs. Sometimes, the circles are large and used as mats or journal spots, and sometimes they are small and used to scatter like bubbles. I also love when the photos are cropped into circles, I love the way it breaks from the normal rectangular picture.

Take a look at these digital scrapbooking layouts that use circles….