Can I tell you a secret?

I absolutely adore the way floral & element clusters look on my scrapbook layouts … but I struggle to create them on my own. Seriously – give me a pile of elements and tell me to make a cluster, and I’ll fuss and fidget with it for 20 minutes and still wind up unhappy with whatever I’ve created.

But if you were to look through my layouts, you’ll find clusters everywhere. So, how have I faked it? How have I worked around my cluster composition issues to fill my albums with pretty bunches of flowers, cute elements, and greenery?

Templates. Specifically, cluster templates. You see, I’ve created my own library of cluster templates I can pull into any layout at any time and quickly create a well-designed, balanced, and beautiful cluster without the stress. And I know they’re well-designed because they come from the gorgeous, professionally-designed templates available for purchase in the Sweet Shoppe!

How Layered Templates Work

For those who have never worked with a layered scrapbook template, here’s a quick run-down: when you purchase a template from the Sweet Shoppe, you typically get a layered PSD file, a TIF file, a PAGE file, and a set of 12×12 PNGs that can be layered on top of one another. The one you use will be determined by the software with which you scrapbook. I’m a Photoshop user, so I work with PSDs or TIFs; that’s what you’ll see in my examples below.

Each layer in the template represents an object – a photograph, piece of paper, title, flower, leaf, ribbon, etc. – and you either clip your digital supply to it (such as a sheet of paper being clipped to a block with a clipping mask) or simply replace it with the element (as in a cluster). Here’s a side-by side comparison of a template I used and the finished layout I created with it:

Template from Half Pack 344: Photo Focus 120 by Cindy Schneider

As I said, I’ve found that when I use a template, I don’t stress out over my clusters. I simply choose my flowers, foliage, and other elements, replace each layer with my selected item, and apply the appropriate shadow style to each element. Et voila! My cluster is finished. No muss, no fuss.

I’ve isolated just the element clusters from this template & layout so they’re easier to see.

How to Build A Cluster Template Library

But what about those times when you don’t use a template? Or when you base your layout on a sketch, or you use a template that’s minimalist or “clean-and-simple”? What’s a cluster-loving design-challenged scrapbooker to do?

Well, that’s when it’s helpful to have a cluster template library. And building yours is easier and faster than you probably think.

1. Start with a template that contains one or more clusters you love.
2. Remove every layer that isn’t a decorative element.
3. Group the layers for the clusters together
4. Crop and save the layers for each cluster as individual files.

That’s all there is to it! Let me show you some examples.

Amber Morrison’s templates, sold as Alchemy Wild Studio (formerly Southern Serenity Designs), are positively overflowing with layers, elements, and clusters. This template is from her set Weather the Storm:

Weather The Storm by Alchemy Wild Studio (formerly Southern Serenity Designs)

I was able to extract three cluster templates from this one 12×12 layout template:

For a second example – Ponytails Designs has some template sets with gorgeous clusters, as you see in this template from her set Temptations 5:

I ended up with two new cluster templates for my library:

That’s all it takes to start building your own cluster template library:

1. Start with a template that contains one or more clusters you love.
2. Remove every layer that isn’t a decorative element.
3. Group the layers for the clusters together
4. Crop and save the layers for each cluster as individual files.

How to Use Your Cluster Template Library

I’m creating a layout with a template from Scrap Maps 11 by Blagovesta Gosheva. I love the torn paper border, layered paint, and the way the photo mask extends beyond the frame:

So after clipping my photo to the mask, I filled the rest of the template layers using papers and elements from the kit Note To Self: One Day at a Time by Kristin Cronin-Barrow & Studio Basic Designs.

Now while it’s a lovely simple layout, I’m really itching to add some clustery goodness to it. So I looked in my cluster template library and found one I liked. I pulled it into my template, and used it to build a cluster with the flowers and foliage from the kit.

Sometimes I drag the cluster template around first to size and place it; other times I build out the cluster and then place it, which is what I did in this example. I knew I wanted a floral border peeking out from behind the torn paper, so I duplicated this cluster twice more, rotated the middle one 180 degrees, and this was the result:

It still didn’t feel finished, so I went back to my cluster library and pulled in one I extracted last week from Panoramic Pretties V.2 by The Nifty Pixel. Back to the kit to pull elements into that template, and… here’s the final result:

I’m pretty pleased with how my cluster-riffic layout turned out, and it took me a fraction of the time it would have had I tried to design those clusters on my own!