Hey All!  Guest CT member Melissa Marti here with a post on one of my favorite topics: Using Templates!  Raise of hands: How many of you start nearly EVERY layout with a template? They’re so easy, right?! And beautifully laid-out and versatile and I enjoy selecting templates that aren’t typical of my regular “style” to give myself an extra challenge from time to time.  I especially love when my made-from-a-template layouts don’t end up LOOKING like they were made from a template.

1. Pick 2 (or more) templates that you like that you want to combine. It helps to pick templates from the same pack, if possible, so the style of the separate parts looks cohesive when you put it all together. Also, make sure to select templates that have enough white space to be able to fit together.  For this post, I’m using DSI’s A Little Bit of This template pack.

2. Open up the templates in your digi software (I’m a PSE 11 girl). Here you can see how I’m thinking I’m going to be combining the layers. The template pieces on the left template are going to be moving to the upper left corner and the template pieces on the right template are going to be moving to the lower right. I think this will create a fun flow on my layout! Make sure you have pictures in mind at this point so you know what you need.

3. Let’s go ahead and move the pieces on the right template first. To do that, I’m first going to delete a few of the layers I don’t need – the title spot, the journaling, and the few button pieces in the bottom corner that are going to get pushed off the page. Then select the rest of the layers (except the background layer) by clicking on the top layer and holding down shift while you click on the bottom layer – that should select all layers in between.

4. Go ahead and move the layers down and to the right.

5. Ok! Now I’m ready to move over to the template on the left. I’m going to repeat the process by deleting the extra layers I don’t need.  Thinking about the photos I want to use, I know that I need one portrait-orientated photo spot, so I’m going to do some rotating on this template to make it work for me. To do this, select all of the layers (except the background layer) like we did before. Then go to Image – Rotate – Rotate Layer 90°

6. Now, with the layers all still selected, right click over the layers in the layers palette on the right and select Layer – Duplicate Layer (you can also get here by right clicking over the selected layers in the layer palette). Select the correct template as the destination for the layers and click OK.

7. While the new layers are still selected, you can go ahead and slide them up to the upper right corner.

8. There are just a few layers I want to tweak now before I get started. I’ll do that now.

9. Voila! Now I have a template, just perfect for the photos I want to scrap AND, even though it’s a template and I’m taking advantage of the easiness of using a template instead of creating a layout from scratch, my layout will still be UNIQUE because I played around with the templates to add my own flair. Now that I’ve got a fun template to start with, I need an equally fun kit to play with! Enter: A Little Bit Quirky by DSI.

10. By the way, here’s my finished layout! I love the doodled feel of the kit and that big title with the arrow is just perfect for my layout!

I’d love to see what you come up with when you give this technique a try! Be sure to link us up to your layout here on the DSI blog!