Template or Freestyle?

[Danesa]

Happy Weekend!

Are you a template lover or do you rather go free-style? Honestly, I struggle with templates but I am on a mission to overcome my fear of them. I am a messy layout person so the formal template is intimidating to me. A template reformer I am going to become, though. haha

 

[Madi]

I love freestyle but templates every now and then work good if I am lost for inspiration.
templates with lots and lots of layers is where I get lost,
I don't mind creating or duplicating layers lots of times,
but replacing flowers shapes with real flowers/elements can be a lot of work !

 

[bcgal00]

If you had asked me a year ago if I was a template user I would have said....not really....but this past year I have tried a few templates and am starting to really love using them and personalizing them to my style and design preference. So now.....I love both equally!

My style and preference is always evolving and that makes me happy. Nothing wrong with sticking to a design or style you love, that's one of the great things about scrapping, nothing is written in stone, there are no rules about how you scrap, it's about following your own course, doing what you like to do. I have fully embraced clustering and templates this past year and am having so much fun.

 

[veer]

99% of the time I am a free styler, sometimes I like to work with a template, but I am not so good at it

 

[BrightEyes]

I usually work free-style - love the freedom to do what moves me.

I do use some templates and am comfortable with them. But I use them as a jumping off point - I keep the main parts of the template but I feel free to rotate/flip it. I do not feel that I must replace every template element with something from the kit...i.e.... flowers, leaves, butterflies, etc. I usually just turn them off [but keep them there temporarily for reference/shadowing/etc] and make my own clusters, etc. [For those who are learning how to build clusters - substituting each one is good practice.] If the template has photo masks [especially large background ones], I will use them. If the orientation of the smaller framed photo mask won't work for the photos I am using - I will rotate or adjust them.

So give templates a try... they can be lots of fun and great learning experiences.

 

[faerywings]

You can do it Danesa!
I go through phases where I use templates more and then I go freestyle for a while. Then I get bored with all of my LOs looking the same, and use templates to get going in a different direction.
I am like Diane- templates with lots and lots of layers intimidate me.But also, I like to use templates for the times that I want to use clusters. To make that easier, I will create a new file, drag the cluster elements from the template to the new file and make the cluster there. When I am done, I drag the cluster back to my LO and refine it there.
I love Maya's Triple Play templates. She has three templates with the same basic design, but has three options- Clean, Clustered, Artsy. I use those again and again.

 

[Jeannette]

I love freestyle, I'm not a big fan of templates at all!

 

[timounette]

I love both. It depends of my mojo !

 

[zanthia]

usually freestyle but do both, like kay will many times alter a template t o fit my needs. first example if a template has 2-3 photos and they are close together will typically make that into one large photo , have n o problem removing elements in the template.

I do ct for one template designer and she is fine with making adjustments (especially as her templates have a ton of layers) to the template. at times she even suggests we rotate,flip so they look different.

 

[melscrap]

I'm a big fan of templates.

 

[Danesa]

There is so much wisdom and diversity in this forum. I love reading your likes/dislikes and your reasonings. I never thought about the learning aspect. Good conversation, ladies. Thank you. Anyone else want to chime in?

 

[CindaA]

It depends on the template for me. If I'm putting multiple photos on a page, templates are helpful. I really like Anna's templates, but I don't like the templates with the clusters of shapes at all. I do have a couple of templates that I use again and again when I want to get a lot of pictures all on one page.