Quote:
Originally Posted by HeatherH
1. Do you always use templates? Sometimes. I like templates for layouts with lots of photos. For me, they are not faster! I feel like I have to try every paper from the kit in every spot before I can make a decision on what looks best. I also love to just open some items from a kit and just start playing around. Unlike others here, I love not knowing how the page is going to turn out-just letting it go where it wants to go.
2. Do you only use elements and papers from one kit? 98% of the time, yes. The kits are so big here that I rarely need to look elsewhere for what I need and it does save me time which is good since I'm a super slow scrapper. Once in a while, I'll grab some little thing from another kit if the page really requires it.
3. How do you save your layouts for print? I usually only save the flattened psd file after I'm certain there are no mistakes. Then I export that as a full-sized .jpg image at the highest quality. If I'm going to print the page (not everything I make will get printed) I will place a black border around the page so nothing gets cut off. I made an action in Photoshop to make this fast and easy.
4. Favorite printing site? I usually use Shutterfly.
5. Any other beginners tips? If you haven't already, develop a good system for organizing your photos and scrapping stash. I feel like I waste so much time searching for photos and the right products. Tagging kits with color/theme and templates with the number of phot spots would have saved so much time!
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1. I agree with you about the templates. I found them time consuming, mostly deleting layers, or finding where the specific layer was to clip the image. But the result was worth it. I'm guessing for more simple layouts, a template is not always needed.
I'm a newbie, so I don't know what my process will be yet, but so far, I start out with what color paper I want to go with, what color I'm in the mood for today, I search for a photo and then start looking at my stash to find a few kits that match the colors. I place elements that I like on the page and move things around. Then after I'm happy with what I have, after deleting what I don't want, I add shadows. I'm guessing I might be using a crazy method. LOL!
Are you an Aquarius?
2.Yes the kits here are huge and the bundles are even bigger and full of goodies. But I still search to add something from a different kit.
3. I see many have mentioned TIFF Files, but I save them in PSD too. Glad I'm not the only one.
5. Awwww... organizing.. that's a headache. I already have tons and tons of stuff, in different Hard drives and I have no idea what I do have. Fortunately the Sweet Shoppe has the feature that if you already have bought something and put it in your cart, it shows up when you view your cart. That has saved me from buying multiple items, many times. Items pop up that I've already bought and I'm usually confused, I don't remember buying it, although I have a very good memory. But when my Digi stash is huge, how can I remember everything?
I've started out saving my bought product previews in a folder for now and plan on using ACDSEE to at least tag the previews with theme, colors, designers. But I totally agree, organizing is everything. It's really frustrating to not have things organized. These days I'm trying to find a good method to save my layouts in PSD, web version, jpg version and that's the reason I started this topic. I wanted to get a good start and not make mistakes. I've already lost lots of years only shopping and not doing.
I'm extremely thankful for all the answers, they're eye opening. To receive so much feedback from all you talented and experienced ladies, is priceless.