Curious Fact About Layered Digital Templates
By: Scrapper's Guide
Digital scrapbooking templates definitely make life easier for busy scrapbookers. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but today I’m going to introduce you to a style of template you may not have used before, or even heard of. It’s a layered template that you assemble yourself.
This is not a grayscale template where you move your own paper onto the template and then group it with a layer. These are complete, no brainer, get-the-page-done-already templates using actual paper and elements from a kit. The only caveat is this: you have to assemble them yourself.
To explain how to use them, I filmed a video tutorial on assembling layered templates.
Why would we make templates you have to assemble yourself? Good question—and there’s a good answer for it: File size and flexibility. Let’s talk about file size first.
At Scrapper’s Guide we have a membership program called Digital Scrapper Premier that offers 4 pro level video tutorials, an exclusive designer kit, and a set of 16 layered templates, including a front and back cover and spine, made from the kit every month. Since I'm a raving fan of Shutterfly, all our templates are made to Shutterfly's specifications to make it easy to create your photobooks.
The first templates we made were one layer PNG files, but our members wanted the ability to remove or rearrange elements. People living in warm climates, for example, didn’t want snowflakes on their layouts.
The file size of layered PSDs was prohibitive, but we discovered that if you separated the layers, you could dramatically reduce the file size. A layered PSD that was 89 MB could be reduced to 10 MB by simply placing each layer in a separate file inside a single folder.
Don’t ask me how that works, but it does!
Flexibility is also a key benefit. You can easily move items around or resize a layered template so it fits a page size other than 12x12 inches. Watch a video on resizing layered templates. Because the templates are layered, you can also use the individual elements on other pages you make.
We’d like for you to experience the magic of our layered templates, so I’ve included this link for you to download a set of two complimentary layered templates from the October Premier for you to practice on. They’re made by Scrapper’s Guide Creative Team member Jenny Jorgensen using the kit Happy Harvest by Susan Bartolini.
This kit and template set is currently available only to Premier members. When the November Premier issue comes out, we’ll place the October videos, kit, and coordinating templates in our store. We hope you enjoy this sample set of templates for your fall photos!
Check out our previous layered templates to get an idea of the creative possibilities. I guarantee you’ll be inspired!
