I’m in the middle of a template-building project using simple designs that I can use to make a year-in-review album with coordinating papers and a unified style.  I know there are many who digi-scrap who don’t care to re-use papers or elements because they don’t want their pages to look similar, but that’s exactly what appeals to me about digital scrapbooking.  If I like a particular paper, I can use it on every page of an album without worrying about print runs, dye lots, fading or running out.  Even when I was a paper scrapper I tended to make 2-page layouts or plan pages so that the facing pages always coordinated.  I don’t like the discordance that clashing colors or dissimilar styles evokes in me.

I’ll probably use soft colors with a worn look and stick with a very small number of designers for papers.  Elements are a free-for-all, as per my usual style, and I’ll grab whatever strikes my fancy.

So, as usual, my hard work benefits you, as well.  Here’s a template I made last month then promptly forgot.  Today, I used it to make an Easter layout using papers and elements from the Sunshine Studio Girls recent Easter Egg Hunt.

There’s an optional overlay that puts the paper’s crinkles on your photos and it also lightens the photos quite a bit.  Since that worked well with the photos I chose, allowing me to use them without any post-processing, I left it on.  If it’s too much for your own photos, though, you can just delete it.  Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m going to include a layered TIF version of my templates from here on out so that those of you working in something other than an Adobe product may be able to use them.

 

Click image to download (Sorry, download is expired.)

I made another template today, as well, but you’re just going to have to wait for that one.  I wouldn’t want to raise your expectations.

Tschüss!