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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