Wednesday Freebie: Florence Template

Today'scrapbooking freebie is once again from Italy. Here is the Florence Template. This template emphasizes the artistic contribution this city has made over the centuries.

By now you know I am going to suggest that you go to my Countires of the World Template Series and look at the Italy template so that you can use it with all your photos of Florence.

Other Italian templates I have designed include Venice and Rome.

Venice Template Freebie

Today in the Major Cities of the World Template Series is another Italian template. This one is the Venice Template. I like the way this one turned out. I am partial to the ovelay effect.

As I explained before when this series first started, a lot of the elements for these templates are way too complicated to make into "regular" template elements. So overlays help quite a bit with that issue!

Look in the Countries of the World Template Series for the Italy template to use with this freebie.

Rome Template Freebie Today

Here is the Rome Template from my Major Cities of the World Template Series. This is the 29th template in this series. There are a total of 46 in all.

I'm still designing the templates and I usually use Sundays while I watch the NASCAR race to do my designing. I am running behind because of studying for my personal training certification. I need to get busy now that the test is taken. I should have the results in about 4 weeks.

So today will be a very busy design day. I have templates from Mexico and Spain to design and then it will be New Hampshire and Utah.

Here is a link to the Italy Template from the Countries of the World Template Series. It will go great with the Rome template.

New Template Series: First Up is the Washington DC Template Freebie

It's finally here (for those of you who started this whole ball of wax with my State Template Series) the Major Cities of the World Template Series!!! The first installment in this series , as promised, is the Washington, DC Template.

Here are a few facts and guidelines when working with this particular set of templates:

1. This series is a little more difficult to design because I don't have the luxury of using state or country outlines for journaling boxes or frames.

2. Some of these elements will be from pictures and therefore you may not be able to color them just with the paint bucket (or fill) tool. When I have a photo to "color" I sometimes add a pattern instead of a solid color OR in Paint Shop Pro I go to effects>texture >sulpture> then pick a pattern and get the result I want. See the example from my Italy Template.

3. I am trying my best to highlight the template with things that people would recognize from the city I am showcasing. I can't put everything in a city on a single template. I also do not mean to sterotype or do anything politically incorrect. Not everyone will be happy with my designs. Please realize that I am doing the best I can and I do it because I enjoy making stuff for people to use. If it gets to the point where too many people are complaining about the templates, I'll stop making them. It won't be fun anymore. (Sorry, some of you know why I am saying this...)

4. Some elements, like Abe in this template, are overlays and aren't especially meant to be colored completely (unless you want to.) Just leaving it the color it is will show up on a solid background as a very striking (yet somewhat lighter...hence the overlay) finish to your template. However, you can do whatever you like with good 'ol Abe.

Have a blast scrapping all your travels with this new series of templates! I can't wait to see the layouts!

Today: Spain Template Freebie

I'm offering the Spain Template as today's freebie from my Countries of the World Template Series. It's really hard to believe that today's post is #16 in this series! And I still have 18 more requests!

Many, many years ago I went to Spain with my ex. It was the closest thing we had to a honeymoon. He was in the Army and we were stationed in West Germany. None of those pictures are anywhere I can put my hands on them. I wonder if I can even find them at all. Looks like I have myself a project!

I hope you are having fun collectng these templates. Even if you don't get to travel much, maybe you know someone who has and you can scrap a few pictures for them. Yesterday's Italy template layout was made with a picture my Dad sent me a few years ago.

Come back tomorrow when we jump from Europe to just off the coast of the United States. Bermuda will be my next offering in this series.

Italy Template Freebie

Hey there! Today I have a template from the Countries of the World Template Series that I had a lot of fun doing the layout for. I tried different styles in Photoshop and I even adjusted the map overly so that it looked ok with the styles I had chosen.

If you think the map is too light, you can darken it in the layers palette (in Paint Shop Pro.) I haven't figured it out in Photoshop yet. I go back and forth between the 2 programs when I am designing and when I am doing layouts because I like certain functions in each program. It may be harder that way, but it gives me the results I want.

Here is today's digital scrapbooking freebie, the Italy Template. I used a picture of my father on his trip to Italy a couple of years ago as the picture for my layout. I haven't been to Italy. YET.