Layered Template Tutorial

NOTE - A updated version of this tutorial is now available here.

Anne of Alamo wrote, "whew, you are helping me so much!! I am normal powerpoint scrapper, inching slowly to the photoshop and loving the bells and whistles, have a real silly questions regarding templates that are given away...I am guessing you use them in photoshop, but how? would love to see an easy template explained and love the way you write so my brain understands!"

Anne, I'm so thrilled my tutorials are helping you. I'm all for scrapping your photos in anyway that works for you, but if you're willing to test the waters in Photoshop, I'm sure you'll find it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for you.

You question is not silly at all. Here is the tutorial you requested. These instructions should work in Photoshop and PSE for any templates that comes as a layered .psd file. I'm going to use a very simple template for this tutorial. If you want to practice on the same template I'm using you can download it here.

Open the template. Before you start using your template do a 'Save As' and save the template under a new name. This way you are not in danger of overwriting the original template.

If it is not already visible, open your layers palette, Window->Layers. Notice each element in the template is in its own layer.



Open the photo you want to use and drag it onto the template canvas. In the layers palette click and drag your photo layer so that it is just above the template block for the photo. Resize and rotate your photo until the part you want is sitting over the photo template layer.



With the photo as your active layer key Ctrl+G (Ctrl+Alt+G in PSCS2). Your photo should now be 'clipped' to the template shape.



Key Ctrl+E to merge the photo and template layer. If your template has places for multiple photos, repeat this process for each photo.



Open your background paper and drag it onto your canvas. In the layers palette click and drag it so that it sits just above the background template layer.



Open up a paper you want to use for any of the pieces of the template. Drag the paper onto the canvas.



Repeat the same process you did for the photo. In the layers palette, place the paper just above a template piece, key Ctrl+G (Ctrl+Alt+G in PSCS2) followed by Ctrl+E to merge the layers.



Repeat this process with papers from your collection for each template piece.



Some templates come with drop shadows already set, others don't. Either way add or delete drop shadows as desired.



Typically templates are a good starting foundation for any layout, but feel free to add you own personal touches to finish off your page.

You can see my line of templates at Scrapbook-Elements.

Here's my finished page. My son takes an afternoon nap in his crib. The other day I told my him it was nap time and he climbed up into my chair, smiled at me and in his most charming voice said, "Okay I's sleeping." Nice try son.



Layout Credits: All papers and element from Shades of Gray by Misty Cato, coming Sunday to Scrapbook-Elements; Fonts - 28 Days Later and Times New Roman