THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR DIGITAL SCRAPPERS, CRAFTERS,  AND ANYONE INTERESTED IN USING A DIGITAL TEMPLATE TO CREATE A DIGITAL SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT! GRAB A FREE MINI KIT FROM THE LIBRAR AND THE TEMPLATE TO TRY THE TECHNIQUE FOR YOURSELF.

Scrapping with a template is a great way to save time and get a layout started. When I first switched from paper to digital scrapping, I saw templates everywhere and I couldn’t imagine how someone used one. I was a paper scrapper and had been for years. This meant that I was a pro at cutting shapes and frames and finding stickers to make my pages. It was a little hard for me to wrap my head around what it meant to “clip” a paper to a shape. It seemed too easy! But gradually, as I learned to scrapbook on my computer and find how easy it really was to clip and move and shadow these shapes, I fell in love with templates! I also love making them!

Let’s get started.

If you are using Adobe Photoshop to scrapbook, this tutorial is perfect for you. It can also be used similarly with other programs, but the clipping may look a little different. You can google the steps for your program to see how to use a clipping mask.

Here is the template I’m using today. It is available as a free download in my Resource Library.

Open the template in Photoshop. You’ll find in the download there is a PSD file (this is a native Adobe product and can only be used in Photoshop programs), a TIFF file which will work in most programs that allow layered files and PNG which is an image for each layer. They are in order and you can start with the biggest piece and build each one, adding one at a time. This is for programs like Canva that don’t open a layered file.

I like to start at the bottom and using the Place Feature I place a paper from a digital kit. It can be plain or patterned and this one will fill the whole space so there is no need to clip or merge or shadow. It just sits over the background layer of the template.

Now we’ll move on to the next layer. In this case, it is a scatter. You can either replace it with a scatter from the kit you’re working with or paints work really well too. It is completely up to you! I’m going to use paints for mine:

Next, we move to the next layer which is a large rectangle shape at the bottom of the cluster. I use the place feature to pull in this plain paper and then right click on it in the layer palette and choose the option to “Create Clipping Mask”.

I continue to pull different papers (some plain and some patterned) on to each layer and clip it. I do this all the way up until I come to the layer with the leaf. And you’ll notice that they all have shadows. I just use the drop shadow that came with the template and I don’t have to take the time to shadow anything:

For the layers that have leaves and/or flowers, I simply replace them with leaves/flowers from the kit. AND here is my digital hack for getting the same shadow on them as is on the papers (to save me time!). I hold down the Alt/Option key and drag the little fx from the last paper layer up to the new leaf layer. This copies the layer style from below on to this new layer! So quick and easy!

To complete, I continue using these techniques to add the rest of the papers/elements/photo. I also usually add a few of my own extra favorites from the kit I’m working with and here is my final layout:

Ready to try it yourself?

Fill out the form below, if you are new here, to get access to my Free Resource Library. Find a template and a mini kit and scrap a photo!

If you like this tutorial, you might also like this one, The Three R’s of Templates:

WANT TO REMEMBER THIS PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL? SAVE THIS PIN TO YOUR FAVORITE DIGITAL SCRAPBOOK OR CRAFT BOARD!