Templates available?

[webmom24]

I am wondering if anyone knows where I can download templates for use with PSE 5 - there aren't many built in ones and since I am often time pressed at work it would be nice to have a few more options. I don't mind paying for a good add-in product but have no idea where to find one.

Thanks for your help

[Diana]

Hi Webmom,

What type of templates are you looking for? There are hundreds of digital scrapbooking sites online which have templates you can download, some inexpensive or even free. They don't "add in" to Elements, but you open them in Elements just like any other image and then add your photographs to them.

These sites have some "Quick Pages." see if these are the type of templates you are seeking.

http://store.scrapbook-elements.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=56_191&zenid=3b97b2d10d09d545af58703134026bda

http://www.digitalscrapbookpages.com/digitals/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6

http://www.designerdigitals.com/ecom/index.php?cPath=60

If you'd like to find more of this sort, go to www.google.com (http://www.google.com) and enter keywords such as digital scrapbook quick pages.

Diana

[susangreen]

Hi,
I get a newsletter from a site called scrapgirls.com. They have many wonderful things to be used in digital layouts and they are quite reasonabley priced. They have templates as well as embellishments etc. There are quite a few sites on the internet that provide these same types of things but this one happens to be a favorite. I'm sure some of the other people in the forum will be along to give you other ideas. You can subscribe to the scrapgirls newsletter for free and they keep you up to date on what's new along with tutorials and other interesting ideas. Hope this helps.

Susan

[webmom24]

Hi Diana and Susan,
Yes, these are the types of templates I am seeking. I just find the ones that come with elements a bit limited and while it's certainly possible to "make" them, finding the graphics, etc. can be time consuming and frustrating.

One of the questions that I'm running into with this though is the printing cost involved with projects like this. I am just starting a scrapbook for the beginning of a long project at work and I printed out several pages today - each page of course has a background on top of the images printed over the top - that's a lot of ink! Do either of you have thoughts about this - do you print your digital creations or do something else with them?

Thanks again :)
Maureen

[cats4jan]

I don't print most of what I design, but then again, I'm designing for fun - Just do random pages of whatever subject interests me.

When I do print, I print at 8x8 to save ink and because I can't do larger - but even if I could - I would not print at 12x12 because I think when placed in an album that size is too large to easily handle.

There are plenty of sites where you can get reasonably priced prints and even scrapbooks made from layouts you upload to their sites. I am sure one of the people who use those kinds of sites will share their input reagarding them.

From what I've read, the costs of getting a book made up is reasonable and the quality very good.

And if you compare paper scrapping to digi-scrapping - well, digi-scrapping is downright cheap.

[susangreen]

Hi Maureen,
I do print my projects and they do take a lot of ink. I have a wide format epson printer. The paper that I use for a 12 x 12 spread costs about $1.00 per sheet. It is hard to estimate what the cost per page is for ink. I would imagine that the total cost of printing at home is $3.00 to $4.00 per page but it could be lower. There is a place on the web called Scrapbooks2Share that will take your layouts (either on a disk that you send or by uploading to their site) and print them on varying kinds of paper with different price ranges. They do a nice job and they charge one fee for shipping and handling no matter how many pages you have printed at one time. Of course, if you do 8 x 8 layouts or 8 1/2 x 11 layouts the costs are much cheaper. I agree with Janice, when I was doing traditional scrapbooking I spent a lot on supplies that could only be used once and I ruined a lot of papers trying to get things just right...so I really think digital is the way to go. Hope this is useful.

Susan

[EmmaPal]

http://store.digitalscrapbookplace.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=quick+click

is this what you're looking for? These are shapes that you group to a digital graphic (paper) to "cut" it into that shape.

There aren't any more Themes out there I know of that will load into the Themes Palette, exaclty. You can load your own graphics into that palette if you save them in the "hidden" special effects folder under Artwork>Backgrounds or Graphics. However, it's easier to just copy and paste the scrapbook graphics onto a new image, or use File>Place to put them on there.

So templates, not really, but graphics galore!

I print my pages 8x8, but have never priced it out. I like the www.sbtoshare.com as mentioned, they have good quality at great prices, though there's a tiny white border around the edge, which I don't like. the next cheapest is Costco at 1.99 for pick up. You have to resize canvas to 12x18 and order that size photo, though hopefully we can convince photo printers to offer a 12x12 size as popularity grows!

[photoshopsusieq]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

This forum is a great resource for learning to use Photoshop Elements but let's face it.... sometimes you just want to get to the good stuff fast!

I have designed some add-in themes for PSE5 but haven't marketed them yet. However, quite a few of my products feature "Drag & Drop" frames designed especially for PSE5. Open the PSD file, open your photos, and then just drag and drop them. You can also right click on the D&D frame and choose the photo from your computer.

I have some available as FREEBIES! (http://www.heart2heartdesigns.com/SiteResources/Data/Templates/WebStoreLayout.asp?docid=632&DocName=FREEBIES!%20Download%20Page) if you want to check it out.

[webmom24]

This has been very helpful. I guess the thing that I'm thinking is missing from digital scrapbooking is the texture and dimension - the feel of differing materials and the more three dimensional nature of layering objects in a traditional page. Though I do agree that the materials are expensive - I have a ton of them, however, that I'm not using and it seems that I might actually do more with my photos if I could do it at the same time that I'm editing them. My greatest challenge is that I take TONS of photos and print almost none of them. If I print them then they just sit somewhere... it's not good. I'm definitely going to play with this some and see how I like it. I primarily started investigating this because I'm supposed to be doing a digital scrapbook in my current job of our activities at our adult day center. I was thinking of simply printing the photos and getting some nice card stock and going from there. This is probably more of an option for my home projects than my work ones - time and cost factors. I'm off to check out what printing costs. It seems that outside printing costs have lowered to keep pace with the technology of home printers. Used to be that I would spend 29 cents per photo at the local drug store to get photos printed and now I can do it at home for that or a bit less. But alas the drug store now charges less than 25 cents I think.

Maureen

[cats4jan]

Maureen - it's tougher for a paper scrapper to go digital than for those of us who never paper scrapped.

But comparing the two things is fruitless - it's like knitting and needlepoint - both use yarn, but the outcome cannot be compared.

I suggest you make a few digital pages and print them up and see where you are at. Some of the textures you add to your pages - and some of the awesome embellishments the artists create can really pop when they are printed with a quality printer on quality paper.

And remember - you can do a combo scrapbook page where you do most of the work digitally, then add some of those paper embellishments you have at home.

[webmom24]

I'm thinking about trying to put together my first couple of pages but am not sure what resolution to use. I normally use 300 for print publications but I'm afraid that would create such a huge file that it might even crash my system (even though my system is pretty powerful). Even 200 seems like it would create awfully large files once you get more than a dozen or so pages. I'd be interested to hear how others handle this issue.

Maureen

[Wendy]

Hi Maureen ...

I do all my Digital Scrapbooking at 12 x 12 ... 300 resolution. The files do get large but try it out and see if your computer copes with it OK :)

Wendy