ArtsyTraditional and the Artsy Layered Template

As I mentioned on Saturday, today I want to breakdown how I work with Anna Aspnes's Artsy Layered Templates. Take this one for example (Artsy Layered Template No. 50) which was included in Anna's NewRelease from April 20th:

The first time I saw these Templates in their raw-format, I turned tail and fled. Silly, what't to be afraid of? If it's not working, you just close it, but you never gain anything by not trying.

An easy and non-intimidating way to work with the Artsy Layered Templates, is to treat them like a traditional template, using a traditional scrapbooking kit and filling in the blanks. For this template, I used Social Butterfly by Allison Pennington and Jenn Barrette.

See what I'm doing here? I took a very Artsy Template and am combining it with a straight-as-an-arrow, traditional kit. Here's how:

1. Insert Photos
Open the Template and find the PHOTO clipping masks in your layers palette. Underneath all that black and blendy-ness, there is space for two photos. Drag them onto your canvas and clip them to the photo layers (alt +ctrl+g).

2. Add Papers.
With a traditional template, you'll have clipping masks that say: "Paper Element Here" or "Clip paper to this layer". With an Artsy Template, you are looking for the layers called: "Mask" or "Paint" or  sometimes "Fotoblendz". These are your paper-layering layers. Just like with a traditional template, start dragging papers onto the those layers and create your clipping masks. Move them around and switch them up until you find the right combinations of patterns and colors.

On this template, I clipped five different papers to the paint and mask layers. I re-colored one mask and changed the blending mode. You can now see the layout with photos and papers.


3. Add elements and element clusters.
The first cluster has already been drawn in on the template, so I start there (1), and then move on to build a visual triangle (2) and (3) is where the last point of the triangle will go:







4. Elaborate

I am not a simple scrapper. I love having the ability to pile stuff on in huge layered clusters, so I keep on adding...until I'm happy with three clusters of motif-rich embellishments. That's when I add my journaling and finish things off.

5. Journal & Finish

Whereas the title and space for journaling was pre-decided on the template, by the time I got to this point, the intended spaces were not going to work. The title was going right across Clara's face and the journaling was completely hidden behind my insanely large element-cluster at the bottom of the layout. 

I had added a JournalTransfer to the 3rd cluster and so started my journaling there. Originally, the whole block of text was in this space, but it felt off-balance. Since there is a large expanse of white at the bottom,  I broke up the journaling and fixed the page balance. 

A title? I've mostly given up on titles to be honest! If they aren't going to add any kind of meaning or help with design, I leave them off.

That was pretty much the whole thing. I played very little with blending modes and did no fancy extractions. The elements I chose all (excepting the Flutterbye Butterfly) came from one kit. The hardest thing about this layout was probably knowing when to STOP!

Other examples of Artsy layered Templates created with Traditional Kits can be seen here:

 

 

#everystory.

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