Sweet Shoppe Designs – The Sweetest Digital Scrapbooking Site on the Web

It’s that time, my sweet, scrappy friends, for another round of “One Template, Many Ways” – where we highlight the work of one of our talented designers while we challenge the Sugar Babes to work a single template for all it’s worth!

This month, we’re excited to feature the quirky-cool paper-like gorgeousness of Connection Keeping. Kelly’s templates look like they’re cut from layer upon layer of cardstock, painstakingly assembled with dimensional adhesive … but they’re 100% digital! All the allure of a layered paper layout, but with none of the teeny tiny paper scraps cluttering up the floor of your workspace. (Or is that just me?) These templates are all sized for 12″x12″ and are available in PSD, TIFF, and PNG formats for use with all your favorite digital scrapbooking programs.

Kelly has a brand new release queued up for Black Friday called Christmas Big Symbols: Templates and we got to play with it early! It features three layered templates, all focused on a Christmas theme, with a fourth template that’s an alternative version of the third:

In fact, that’s the template we decided to focus on: the wreath in the bottom left-hand corner along with its alternate version beside it.

This template has a big, beautiful title that stretches across the center of the wreath and it features five circular photo spots interspersed throughout layers of greenery, poinsettias, berries, and more.

Kelly also included an alternate version of this template that exchanges the five smaller photo spots for one big photo in the middle behind the wreath, with a smaller title positioned across the top:

It’s one template provided in two variations to maximize your scrapbooking options.

We gave this template to our store’s creative team – a.k.a. the Sugar Babes – and asked them to use it to create as many unique layouts as they could come up with. Of course, any layout created with the same template gains a new look when you use a different digital scrapbooking kit, but the Sugar Babes went way beyond the basics. Each of the Babes gave the template their own unique spin, and the results are astonishing. Can you believe we have fourteen different layouts to share with you today? Just wait until you see all the ways you can use this one pair of templates!

Carrie starts us off with the most straight-forward version of this template. She clipped patterned paper and textured cardstock to each of the layers, creating a wreath made of die-cut greenery and flowers. I love the way she mixed all those different patterns and colors to create this gorgeous yet non-traditional Christmas wreath, and it does a lovely job of framing her big photograph.

Rather than taking Carrie’s approach and clipping papers to each of the die-cut layers, Amie replaced them with realistic versions from her chosen kit. She mixed pine branches, leaves, and holly clusters as well as flowers and bows and clipped photographs to the five round photo masks. I could see this as the cover or title page for a December Daily-style album!

Cassie used this template to create a true showpiece – with a big, beautiful photograph and layer upon layer of different kinds of foliage, branches, and leaves. Rather than use the word art that came with the template, she replaced it with a scripty word and word art banner from her chosen kit. My favorite part? Those gorgeous bells she “hung” on the left side of her wreath!

Trina used this template to create a photoless layout that’s filled with Christmas style. She clipped a patterned paper to the large photo mask in the middle, and added a journaling card to the wreath. I love her use of curly ribbon and the way it adds another layer of texture to her layout!

Jill created a photoless layout using the other version of the template, clipping journaling cards and patterned paper to the five round photo spots. With the addition of a few snowflakes and a layer of beautiful snow flurries, she’s created another lovely title page that would make the perfect cover for a Holiday Favorites album.

Eve brings us our first layout with this template that steps away from the Christmas theme and shows off just how versatile it can be. Why not make an Easter wreath? She clipped a mixture of photographs and journaling cards to the photo spaces, even replacing one with a sweet framed rabbit silhouette – and replaced the title with “Hoppy Easter” word art from her chosen kit. This is too cute!

Jacinda used the template with a big, beautiful photograph to celebrate a spring theme. I love the way she used so many different kinds of greenery in the wreath including individual leaves, branches, and sprigs of grass. And those flowers? Simply perfection!

Since Eve and Jacinda had springtime covered, I branched a little further into the calendar year and created a tropical, summery layout to showcase this photograph I shot on our last trip to Hawaii. I actually merged together elements from the two different versions of the template, including both the big photo mask as well as the smaller photo spots, and replaced them with a round basket element from my chosen kit.

Judie took us even further into the calendar year and used the template to create an autumnal or Harvest-themed layout. Her wreath makes excellent use of the different colors and styles of fall foliage and there’s so much texture here! I especially love the way she used a pennant banner in place of a bow and scattered her photos and word art across the center of the wreath.

Rebecca shows us that this template can even be used to create an artsy-style layout. She replaced some of the foliage layers in the wreath with paint and stamps of leaves that sit directly atop her background paper. What a cool effect she created by mixing those with a handful of dimensional layers as well!

It’s not often we get to show off a layout from one of our designers, but Kelly said she saw how much fun we were having with her template and she just had to join in! Kelly used the large photo mask behind the wreath as a journaling block, giving her ample space to write down her thoughts about joining the Sweet Shoppe family. (We’re so glad to have you, Kelly!)

Charlene is the first of our Sugar Babes to play with the size of the template. She left the foundational layers as-is, but selected all the layers of the wreath and shrunk them a bit. This gave her a wide margin around her wreath, creating some lovely whitespace for the eye to rest, and the end result is a layout that’s a little less packed and has a little more “breathing room”.

Sherly went the opposite direction from Charlene, choosing to resize all the wreath layers and make it BIG – about double in size – so that you only see slightly more than the lower left quarter of the wreath. How cool is this layout?!? It allows all the layers of foliage and elements she chose to really shine, and they frame her family photograph so beautifully. I love it!

Kiana brings us the final layout of today’s post, and she takes it to a whole ‘nother level by duplicating the wreath. By dragging the first wreath halfway off the page on the left, and placing the second wreath halfway off on the right, she gave herself lots of space to create this emotive art-therapy style layout. I am moved by the way she used all those different layers of word art, letter tiles, and paint to express her feelings of grief.

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There we have it: one layered template used to create a mind-boggling fourteen distinctly unique digital scrapbook layouts on a variety of themes and in a variety of styles. WOW!

We hope that today’s post gave you some inspiration for your next layout as well as some ideas on how you can get the most out of your layered scrapbook templates. Whether you pack it with photos or use journaling cards instead, fill it with journaling or change the theme to a different season or holiday, shrink it, expand it, or even duplicate it, the only limit to a layered scrapbook template is your own imagination.

And if you love this template and want to get your own copy, look for Christmas Big Symbols: Templates by Connection Keeping on sale in the Shoppe starting tomorrow when our Black Friday Sale and New Releases go live!