For non-template users
 

I know that a lot of people don't like templates...but, I LOVE them!! I almost never create a LO without one.

For those of you who don't use templates, where do you get your ideas from? Where/how do you start a LO?

I'd love to give it a shot, but I feel like I'd be staring at a blank page and not get anywhere! :p

I'm a template lover myself. However, I try to create template-less layouts as well. I find inspiration on Pinterest or in the Gallery. I usually try to find a layout with a design I like. I use bits and pieces of that design to create my own. Usually my layout turns out completely different than the one I scraplifted.

I used to scrap without templates but now I'm doing it both ways - with and without templates and I enjoy it either way. When I scrap without templates, I usually just start with a blank page and place the element I like the best from the kit I want to work with. Then I just work my way around that. Sometimes, of course, I search for inspiration on Pinterest or in the gallery here, just like Sarah said.

I do use templates quite a bit, but I try at least once a week to do a minimum of 1 page without a template. I don't know...I feel like it's a way to challenge myself, I guess. ;)

For inspiration, a lot of times, the kit or product itself tends to inspire me because I have a tendency to want to use as many elements in a kit as possible. I also will browse Pinterest for inspiration (especially the paper layouts), and of course, the gallery here is always teeming with tons of inspo!

There is definitely no right or wrong in this space. I'm probably 50/50 on template usage. I started scrapping before templates were as popular as they are now. As far as inspiration, a lot of people pin layouts at Pinterest and look through their galleries to find attributes of pages they'd like to tackle. There are some great tutorials in the "Scrap like a Sugarbabe" series that show workflow without templates, I would encourage you to peruse them for some ideas too.

I love using my templates and I reuse them over and over again. But sometimes I just need to create something from scratch. Sometimes I use a template as inspiration, or a page from the gallery. I've even started out with a template, then shrunk the design, added bits and pieces and taken away layers to fit my vision.

sometimes I start by browsing the gallery, other times I start by browsing pinterest, but usually I am inspired by either the kit or the pictures themselves and start out with a clear purpose and design right away. Or I just set the pics and go around that. I don't have one clear way of doing things, it just sort of happens, lol

I really love templates too, but when I scrap with no template, I'm often inspired by paper layouts. I'll have a challenge coming this next week that will have you scrap without a template Tammy. ;)

I digitally scrapped BEFORE there were templates. It would take me hours to make a layout, but I always loved the end result.

I got my inspiration mostly from ads and magazine articles. Basically, anything can be an inspiration if you look at it in a certain way.

Since I have come back I havent done any without a template except the scraplifts and thats cause I can just grab n go. But one thing I like to do for layouts when I dont use templates is to google image search "graphic design". Not that I would take it exactly but it would give me a jumping off point or a basic layout or a funky shape etc. I find things like that super inspiring. What inspire you? Other peoples pages? Colors? Shapes? etc... search those and see what makes you feel inspired.

I hardly ever use templates, other than the occasional Babe LO. I kinda just start placing things on a page, move them around alot, try different coloured papers, etc until it 'looks right'. There's absolutely no real method to what I do - other than using lots of elements on my pages. I don't know if that's helpful! I'd say just have fun with it. It took me a few years to get from where I started to the LOs I do now. I occasionally look at LOs on Pinterest or in the gallery when I'm stuck but just playing around and taking the view 'anything goes' seems to work best for me.

I don't use templates much unless they are part of my CT requirements. I don't know as though I have a rhyme or reason for what I do - I just start placing things and moving them around as inspiration hits.

I scrapped before there were templates, too, and it would also take me hours to make a layout but then I never loved the result! When the first templates came out, I ditched my old photo-editing program for PSE just so I could use templates! And I've never looked back.

Great advice, ladies! Thank you!! :wub:

Oh, this sounds like fun, Mary!! ...I'll probably sit and stew over it for days! :p

I also started digiscrapping before there were templates, and I had to start by learning about page design. If you don't already know about them, learning about design principles like visual triangles, visual weight, and symmetric and asymmetric balance helps you look at or imagine a page and understand why it does (or doesn't!) work. You can find lots of tutorials online about scrapbook page design, if that sounds like something you'd find helpful. Some people with more artistic brains than mine seem to just "get" all of that, but I had to explicitly learn it.

After years of scrapping almost exclusively with templates, I'm starting to do more pages from scratch. I've scrapped for long enough that I kind of have a library of page design ideas in my head. Not exact copies of pages I've seen, but more like a mental list of 10 go-to paper arrangements, another 10 photo arrangements, etc. When I get stuck I do like others have suggested; I browse the gallery, find websites or print graphic design ideas that inspire me, or even look through my templates and then mix and match ideas from multiple sources.

Pretty much this!!

And this too....lol. I studied lots of the design principles when I first started scrapping

I either start with the photos I want to use, and place them how I want to see them, then layer things under, on top of and tuck papers and embellishments around them. OR, I pick out a bunch of papers I want to use and cut them in different sizes and shapes and build some layers.... then I place photos so I don't cover everything up...like putting them over the paper, but making sure I can still see parts of all the layers if that makes any sense at all. Normally I don't use a lot of patterns at once, so it really gives me the chance to be creative and the creative flow just happens and pages usually come together more quickly this way than if I use a template.

Here's a true story: I am not good at scrapping pages without templates. Not only am I not good at it, I just don't enjoy it that much. It's taken me awhile to come to peace with this. Page design is just not my favorite part of the process. I like taking and editing photos, I like telling stories, I like playing with colors and patterns. Page design just doesn't come naturally to me. It takes me 10x as long.

That said, every once in awhile I randomly come across inspiration that leads to a page I love!
This page was inspired by a magazine ad that had the state of TX with a bunch of words in it, that I just loved:
https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com...s-our-home.jpg

This page (from 2013...still one of my favorite pages from FIVE years ago now...goes to show you how infrequently I love my non-template pages), I made from an image of a place setting from a portfolio challenge.

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com...-dreamsSSD.jpg

this is the inspiration image: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/fa/eb/84/f...8b4c079bb7.jpg

Apart from random occurrences like that, there is literally no rhyme or reason. Sometimes I just layer random shapes and clip papers to them, sometimes I find sketches on Pinterest as a starting point...sometimes I sit and stare at a blank canvas until I say to myself "this is silly!" and open up a template. :)

The beauty of digital scrapbooking is you can play around with page design and if you hate the outcome, all you've "wasted" is time...and even that isn't wasted as you're learning along the way!

Thus concludes motivational hour with Sara.

I scrap with and without templates. So I don't think it's wrong to be a template lover.
When I scrap without templates, sometimes I lift pages from the gallery, sometimes I just freestyle and let the design emerges as I scrap, sometimes I have an idea in my head before I start and I try to visualise it on the page. :) So there's really a lot of different ways and possibilities. We are all creative people, after all! ;)

A few examples from me where I scrapped without a template.

I wanted to do a flower wreath for quite some time. When I saw all the beautiful flowers in KCB's and Brooks kit, I just knew this was the kit to do it with.

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com...Dreamerweb.jpg

When I saw the elements in Ru and Danyale's new kit, I knew I wanted to use the stacked photo frame. I placed in on my layout and started to clusters. I made sure I left enough room for journaling on the left.

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com...lLoveNotes.jpg

When I saw the theme of Graces' new kit, I knew I wanted something imaginary. When I saw the cloud I knew I wanted to do something with ideas bursting out. I placed the cloud on my layout and started from there.

https://www.sweetshoppecommunity.com...eamsBoyweb.jpg

I think I have a lot of room for improvement, but it's a starting point.

If I go off template, you can believe I scraplifted off of someone in the Gallery. Never fails, I see someone's amazing layout and I have to do it in my own version. I do give the original credit but no one is safe! I belong to an community that inspires me, so yeah I am a crazy lifter! I am probably 1/2 template/ 1/2 not on template usage.