Hey, so you know sometimes I spend a few days on a layout, even though it’s digi. It’s not like I’m waiting for glue or paint to dry, but given that it doesn’t really take up physical space on my desk or in my house, I can leave projects open in Photoshop and come back and tweak things and add or subtract if it’s not feeling right. I can shut my laptop and nobody knows the difference, but I’ve also had times where I think ‘How can I be more productive?’ Speed scrapping and MOC come to mind but also you know when there’s an extra good photobook printing deal deadline approaching; well, then I’m almost a different scrapper.
You know those tv shows where there’s the Jiminy Cricket kind of good conscience on one shoulder and an opposing influence on the other? It can feel a bit like that, with my Jiminy Cricket saying ‘you need more layers behind your photo’, or ‘adding some bent shadows will help here’; while the other side is saying ‘Oh shut up! Nobody’s got time for that!’. Ok, that’s a bit over-dramatised (and often there’s a bird on my shoulder instead and he doesn’t have that range of vocabulary) but my point is as someone who really isn’t a minimal scrapper, the flip side to my ‘Zooming In’ tweaking everything style of scrapping when I have the luxury of days to scrap something is the ‘How can I get more done but really not look like I cut too many corners?’ that I struggle with when speed is of the essence, know what I mean?
So if you are shopping the Quarterly Sale that finishes tonight and you’re thinking ‘time saver products’, these are my not-so-secret secrets. I have a few ideas and examples of what I mean.
Lazy Layers & Clusters
You know how bedding in hotels or real estate photos are all plush and multi-layers with a heap of pillows clustered and it just looks lush and luxe? I know less can be more but this is where I still struggle with the minimal idea.
I want to use lots of layers or textures with a photo/s on the page but I don’t always need to place them all myself. I can start with one of Fiddle-Dee-Dee’s Dressed Up templates or an Artsy Journal template from Scrapping with Liz, for example, that have the full look I like;
or I can use some pre-made and pre-layered frames, or clustered generic elements or paint cluster products.
With pre-clustered generic elements, you can always recolour or add something over the top to change it up or duplicate the same cluster, rotated and placed in different spots around the page, tucking some in and under can make for a quick but cohesive-looking full page.
Pocket Power
Pockets and grid design pages can make for faster multiphoto pages and work for everything from minimal to maximal and clean to messy/artsy design styles. Beyond the great range of coordinated packs like Memory Pockets Monthly, because of the standard card sizes of 3×4 and 4×6 inches, mixing and matching cards from various kits and designers can be pretty easy and can be quite helpful, especially if you are already familiar with the pocket format and have a basic pocket template set. You can also make your own pocket grid especially if you like bigger photos or want to use more squares rather than rectangle cards or photos).
Pocket cards can be a great ‘lazy layers’ idea as well – dragging in some coordinating cards and stacking and fanning them out behind your photo or title can be quicker than repositioning papers on a template.
Little Black Dress paper stash.
You know your old faithful outfit or 2 that works for every event, that you can dress up or down and it just works for and with everything? That’s how I think of neutral textured solid papers or pre-painted, stamped or pre-mixed-media-ed papers now.
While I love patterned papers, (and it’s pretty evident from my gallery), when the photos or story are the star of your layout, it can take some work to balance out a page full of competitive patterns. A basic background, some photos and then some selected elements as the jewellery & make-up to my little black dress background and I’m good to go!
Shadow styles, actions & templates.
Why re-invent the wheel? Use Photoshop tools! This includes templates with clipping masks to tear or scallop your paper pieces; or actions to ink edges. Separating layers and tweaking shadows takes time, especially if you scrap ‘more is more’, ‘fill the page’ style. Let the designers help you out with shadows. They know how to shadow, they shadow everything on their kit previews or templates.
You can also use Styles for quick layers or texture; once a style preset is loaded, it can be faster than dragging in a few papers to try or searching through your alpha stash. Any font you want goes from wooden to cardstock sticker in a click, you only have to type it once. (The CU Commercial Use styles are also 50% off for the sale so it’s a good time to try them out on your own pages)
Have a go-to font or font pack.
If you are overwhelmed by indecision, limit your amount of choices. Think of these as ‘font capsule wardrobes’. Personally, I use The Rose from The Golden Friends often as my no-brainer typewriter font and The Kala as my ‘I’m writing with my fave fineliner Sharpie’ font.
What are your time-savers or go-to’s? Picked up any new ones in the Quarterly Sale?
Let us all know in the comments!
Christa says
Great post Justine.. sometimes we forget the quick things to use to help us with our pages.. I often forget that :) I know these ideas will help speed things up for sure!
The Lilypad says
So nice of you to say, Christa!
Monica says
Pocket templates are definitely a time saver for me. I also have go-to pre-shadowed alphas for when I want a quick custom title.
The Lilypad says
Pockets for the win! Pre-shadowed stuff can be a time saver for sure – i have a few of those alphas as faves as well; i like titles to pop and even if the shadow is not quite dark enough for my taste, duplicating the title alpha group in Photoshop so that there is a deeper shadow is still heaps quicker than shadowing everything from scratch!
Donna says
I don’t think that was over-dramatized at all! lol I definitely think these things as I’m scrapping. I need to catch up, but want every page just right. I’ve heard before that you could make every third or fourth page to perfection and those in between more basic, that could be a happy medium. Thanks for the post, nice to know we all feel the same :)
The Lilypad says
LOL it’s so good to know others have the same scrappy thoughts and internal debates sometimes too and feel the ‘catch up’ pressure. I like your happy medium idea too – thanks for sharing it!