Paper Ease: Using Templates to Simplify Your Paper Projects

Oct 16, 2011
April Hawks

My Drawer of Templates - April Hawks

This article discusses the benefits of using templates during paper crafting. It also explains how to create a template using basic household supplies.

Do I really need templates?

Decorating your scrapbooks or paper projects with handmade accents are a beautiful way to save money while creating them. Some pages or projects call for more than one identical item to adorn them. Drawing each one by hand can be both challenging and tiring. Or, maybe you want to use similar embellishments at another time. Tags and flowers are used regularly. By making a template, you can create the same design repeatedly. They are very simple to make.

Included in the supply list below are various examples of substitutions. You can use what you have access to in your home and cut down on the costs.

Supplies:

Cardboard: This is the material the template will be made of. Sturdier is better, but I have used paper in a pinch and then gone back and made those templates again at a later time on sturdier materials. Stencil plastic can be purchased for this purpose, but until you decide if templates are going to work for you, I recommend using found items. I have used cereal and food boxes, packaging from scrapbook supplies, those fake credit cards that show up in the mail all the time, file folders, even construction paper. When your template wears out, or if it is too flimsy to be used repeatedly, make another.

Scissors/Craft Knife: Scissors will work for most any template, but occasionally there are smaller details that are more easily cut out with a craft blade.

Writing Utensil: It does not matter what you use to trace around the template. If the template is simple enough that you can use a crayon to draw it out and that is all you have on hand, use it! I have used pens, pencils, and markers. Your template doesn’t have to be immaculate like the embellishment itself. You will be using and reusing them. They will get beat up over time. When that happens, make another.

How to Make a Template

Draw the design onto the material you will be using to make your template. If you are tracing around an object or another template, do this. I traced an 8” by 8” square that I had made out of construction paper. I wanted it to be sturdier so I could use it frequently. I traced it onto an old file folder.
Cut the design out
Use the template for paper projects. Save them in a particular place so they will be handy for later projects. I have a drawer dedicated to my templates.

Thoughts on Templates

I recommend marking on each template that that is what it is. I literally write “Template” on all of mine. That way, if I am using scrap paper to make the template or using other materials on a page I don’t mistake a template for an embellishment. It would be easy in the heat of a project to affix a template instead of the item created. Then you have no more templates for that item. (Of course, if you do…which I have done… you can create another.)I use templates for lettering, for specific shapes and sizes of items I use frequently.
Most often, when I buy scrapbook paper, I buy the 12” by 12” size so when I work on smaller albums I have my templates available to cut the paper to the correct size for the album I am working on. I have a 6” by 6” template and an 8”by 8” template.
Save your scraps. Some of the templates I have are as small as a penny or smaller, so even small pieces can be used on embellishments.
I have specific template for mats underneath 4”by 6” photos, which I typically use. If I write on the template how wide the frame is around the photo (for example that ¼” will be showing around the edge of a photo, so the mat will measure out to 4 ¼” by 6 1/4”) This way I pull out the template that I need to get the desired effect and don’t have to measure each mat separately. I just trace the template and cut. It is a huge time saver.
Cups, bowls and plates of all sizes make great forms to trace around to make a template. It is much easier to bring out a scrap of paper from your collection of templates than to haul out Aunt Fannie’s tea set every time you want a circle of a particular size.