tutorial - my creative process (using the templates)

Hi everyone!

I have received some questions from you how I use my templates, how I start making a layout so I thought that it'd better prepare a post about it and here it is:

I'm using in this post one of the templates from just remember pack:

before starting to the main part just one thing: Some people do not like using templates saying they prefer creating on their own and I think it's great but there are some of us (including me) that prefer using templates. I use templates in almost every page I create and I´m not ashamed of that!! I think it's easier and faster (at least for me) to create a page with it. I do not waste my time changing the dimensions and cropping I only use clipping masks in templates that helps me to concentrate on other things - which I may call the creative process.  Let me tell you something: there are some pages where I didn't use templates and I'd better not to show them here :) as I REALLY do not want to share them :) Of course I see a lot of gorgeous pages in the galleries without templates and it´s great to try both things. I did and I will stick with templates ;)

sooooo How do I start?? For me it's all about photo or a story I want to tell. Of course it depends if I need to use a particular kit or I may choose any kit I want. If I need to use a particular kit first I think which photo or which story would suite it best. I do not take any photo or the one taken lately. I think about it. I use the pages as some kind of album or story so it's not about just putting a photo using a kit and that's it. I enjoy scrapping but I also enjoy watching the pages later on.

Let me show you my very first page I have created

I have not used any template I just put the photos some embellishments and that's it. It was all about story the simple pleasures in life.

ok but today I was going to write about how I use the templates - next time I will explain to you how we can progress in using them and how I did it.

so fist I open the template and the kit I want to work with and I choose the background like in the page below (already thinking about the photo which could match it)

then I add the photo (changing a bit the clipping mask -  so that the photo is more visible

the next step would be adding other papers starting from the last ones (below the photo). The biggest (the ones close to the photo) are left to be chosen at the end. Very often I repeat the papers. This time I used only 3 papers for the whole layout as I wanted to concentrate on having the photo visible.

now is the moment to fill the big parts of the template. As I wanted the photo to be visible I added the same paper as the background. Would it be visible as separate layer?? - yes as the template has the shadows turned on (you may switch them off if you want).

later on I turned off the elements. I always do it to see if I would like to add them as it was shown in the template or it looks better in some other places.

the next step is to start adding the elements. I don't know about you but I love playing with shadows. In the next photo you can see the same element (on the left) without the shadows and on the right with shadows.  Check all the options - playing with them - where I put the arrows.

What is more, sometimes I play with the opacity of the layer. Again the same elements with the opacity set to 100% and the other one less. I preferred to choose the second one as I wanted to make the photo pop out of the page, not the elements.

Then I usually play with elements and with the layers. As I had an impression that it was too much blue I moved the paper a bit to get to violet and added some small elements

then some word arts as the page seemed too empty

and then it's time to saved it. I always save pages in 3 formats - 600 k, 250 k  and 150 k (changing the quality) as these are the formats that are allowed in the digital galleries.

and that's it. Here is the finished page:

I think that the most important part is to enjoy it and try new things! play with the templates changing it, deleting or adding layers. It's a tool to help you create the pages but you can start from this point and make your own versions.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial if you ahve any questions let me know.

Just one news. This Friday Mix Max templates will be back so wait for the funky vol. 2 :) really funky!!