Jan 14, 2011

The template revolution

Linking up to ...




I started the week off talking about scrapbooking, and I'm going to end it the same way. It's on my mind a lot, since I went to the weekend crop last weekend (and wish I was going back this weekend!), and I hope it inspires you to start or continue working on your own.

As I've said several times before, I try to get as many pictures on a page as possible. (When you take as many pictures as I do, that's a necessary efficiency!) To help me do that, I originally bought a number of plastic templates -- which unfortunately were discontinued and I can't find them anywhere to link to them for you.

So I did the next best thing: I took my favorites and mocked them up for you so you can print them out and use them for reference in planning your pages. They can be used in any of the four directions, so each template design really gives you four options for laying out the pictures. (You should be able to click on each one and open it up in a separate window to print it.)











































These templates are supposed to be 12x12, but I don't know if I got them exactly square. The secret to them is that you can combine any of the boxes to make bigger boxes, or split them even farther to make smaller boxes.

I typically do the former rather than the latter, and I use the smallest boxes for blocks of accent paper and/or embellishment. Also, I've been using them for so long now that I actually don't USE them anymore. My eye has gotten trained to the template way of design, so I make them up as I go. The concept is simple once you get used to it.

One of my next goals is to take a series of eight or nine pictures and show you how to lay them out in three or four different templates so that you can see how to crop them the best way for you, leaving appropriate room for embellishment and journaling (journaling is SO important!) ... so be looking for that sometime in the next, um, year?
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