Breast Cancer Awareness Kit

I just want to make sure that you all are aware of the Scrap Professor Breast Cancer Awareness Kit called Love Life. All of the proceeds will be donated to charity. And, the kit only costs $5, a small price to pay for a good cause, plus you get this fabulous kit!
Please consider purchasing Love Life here.

I'm back!

I had no intention of completely ignoring scrapbooking for 2 months while I was back in the States, but that's what happened. Other than missing my favorite hobby and the people that I interact with here on the web, it's been great. :) We did so much this summer it was ridiculous, I mean, wonderful. Here's a layout to show you what I mean:

I based the layout on one in the August issue of Creating Keepsakes by Amanda Probst. I made the tag and the "and here" stickers. The little man is a clipart from Word. The papers are from A. Rockwell's MojoMon freebie (sorry she doesn't have a TOU and that's all the info I have.) The fonts are Franklin Med, Franklin Bold, Mom's Typewriter and MA Sexy.

And, you didn't think I would do all that without making a template, did you? :) Here it is! The file also contains the We Were Here tag if you want that without the template. It's a two-pager, by the way, but I didn't separate it into two pages. I ran out of patience....

Download the We Were Here template here.

Better late than never!

I haven't designed anything new since I've been home, but I did take some time this morning to make a little freebie for you all. It's a desktop that I made using my Joyful Summer kit. The download includes both widescreen and regular formats.

Download the desktop here.

Template Tuesday!

I'm having such a good time in the States. There's so much that I didn't even realize that I missed. Most of all, it's good to be at my parents' house. This morning, my dad and I sat on the porch and ate breakfast together. You can't do that in Doha!

Here is my newest scrapbook page. I made it with my Summer Smoothie kit and the template below.

Download Template #56 here.

If you like this template, check out my Swirls and Whirls template set.

Freebie Friday

I posted this freebie already this week, but I don't think many people noticed it because I wasn't very clear in the post that there was a freebie, and since the link was to my shop, it wasn't picked up by digi-free. So, here it is again, an add-on to my Lone Star kit. Enjoy! :)

Download the Lone Star add-on here.

Be sure to check out my last post. There's a coupon at the bottom! :)

Drumroll please!

I have a big announcement! I've been so excited to tell you guys, but I wanted to wait until it was all official. Drumroll please ................. I am the newest designer at Scrap Professor! I have all my new products uploaded into my shop, but since there's not all that many I'd like to share them with you here, too. :)

Here are my template sets:

My first template set is called Stars and Strips :) and the focus is exactly that, paper strips and all kinds of stars. You'll love these templates, I promise! This is the preview for the complete set, but you can also buy the templates in packs of 4. Of course, when you buy the complete set, the price is discounted. :)

This is my second set of templates, Swirls and Whirls. I just love swirly-thingies on my layouts, and I've done all the hard work of erasing the bits and pieces that you wouldn't want showing for you. I plan to make more templates in this style, so stay tuned. :)

Also, all of my templates that I am selling in my shop now have PNG's for those of you who need them. :) Additionally, I've changed my TOU to include S4H/S4O. As always, if you have any questions about anything regarding my products, please email me; I'd love to help you out.

Now, here are my new kits:

First is a mini-kit, that I really do think is darling, Darling Daisy. Doesn't it make you feel happy? :) And, this mini-kit has a mini-pricetag. :)

Here's the kit that I teased you with last week, Isn't It Romantic? I know it kind of looks like Valentine's Day, but it could be used for all kinds of pages and projects. All of the papers are heavily grunged. My favorite part of this kit is the envelope and old paper. But, I'm also kind of partial to the polka-dot paper flower with the eyelet center. :)

When you buy Isn't It Romantic, you also get this coordinating alpha FREE!

This next kit is yummy! Summer Smoothie was one of my favorite things to work on so far. It does include some "fruity" elements and papers, but there's also a lot of neutral items. I think you'll love this kit. :)

And, when you buy Summer Smoothie, you get this alpha FREE! :)

This kit just says summer to me. I love the fresh colors, and I had a lot of fun creating the papers. You'll love the graphic style of this kit. You can also buy separate element and paper packs if you prefer.

While I wasn't intending to create a tribute to Texas, I was stumped on a name for this kit and my husband suggested Lone Star and it stuck. :) I just love the colors in this kit. It'd be great for all kinds of projects. I hope it sparks your creativity like it has mine. :)

And, if you buy Lone Star, you get the coordinating chipboard alpha FREE! :)

I couldn't seem to stop playing with this kit, so I've created a little add-on freebie for you. You do need to be logged in to download this freebie, but you do not need to add it to your cart. Enjoy! :) (Click image to go to download.)

And, just for you, because you read all the way to the end of this post, I have a coupon for 10% off your order from my store. Coupon code: TEBlog Hurry! The coupon expires on July 22nd. :)

My decision and a freebie

After much deliberating, and since about half of you said that you wanted me to change the name or that you didn't care, I decided to change my name to Templates, Etc. by Erica. Since it's so close to my old name (which was my intention in choosing it) I'm not going to change my blog address, so you won't need to change anything if you have me on your google reader.

I've been missing giving you all freebies, and since it's nearly midnight here, we'll call it Template Tuesday! Here's a little template I made up for you tonight. It's based loosely on an LO that I saw here.

Download Template #55 here.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

It's been quiet around here, but I've been working hard on a few different projects, not to mention the fact that I've been gearing up for a trip back to the US. Here's a little sneak peek at one of the things to come:


I've been thinking, too, about my name. Not my real name, my digi-scrapping name, Templates by Erica. I don't just want to do templates anymore. But, everyone knows me as Templates by Erica, so if I changed my name, I might lose some of my peeps. :) What do you think? I tried to make a poll, let's see how it works. And, if you have any suggestions for me, leave me a comment!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Broken links

It has come to my attention that several of my older links are broken. I don't want you all to think I'm ignoring your requests, but I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do about them. I let you know as soon as I've decided. Thanks for your patience.

Just a layout share

My scrapbook style is pretty graphic usually. Clean lines, geometric shapes, etc. But when I was working on this picture, it took on a life of it's own. This is so not my style, and it will probably be a while before I do anything like this again, if ever, but I wanted to show you all that I'm not just a template scrapper. :)



Credits: The background, the wings, the red and yellow flowers, the moss, the stardust, and the white flower in her hand came from a kit called Secret of Avalon. The mushroom is from Mrs. Miles. Most of the butterflies are from Butterfly Dreams by Attic Treasures. If you see anything else on there that I didn't mention and want to know where it came from, let me know. I was all over the place for this page.

Popcorn for lunch

I remember days as a kid when we had the day off, so we'd go to the movies and my mom would say, "Let's just have popcorn for lunch." Of course, I didn't mind, because I love popcorn, and having popcorn for lunch meant that you could have that much more of it. Now that I'm a grown-up mom, I know that the popcorn for lunch thing was probably more about not having to make lunch than anything else. At least, that's what it's about for me. So, a couple weeks ago, when the twins were so crabby that I had to put them down for a nap before they had lunch and then they woke up at 3 pm and lunch was too close to dinner, I fed my kids popcorn for lunch. Being the silly person I am, I had to get out my camera to document the experience, and then scrap it too, of course. :)

Credits: Saturday in the Park kit by Linda Walton (Bon Scrapatit) Fonts from top to bottom are Grilled Cheese, MA Sexy, and Joyful Juliana.

Download Template #54 here.

Back to my favorite scrap subjects

Thanks to everyone who left me such nice comments this week. It really means a lot.

This picture has been burning a hole in my hard drive, so to speak; I've been looking forward to scrapping it for almost a month now. Aren't my kids adorable? :) It almost makes it worth picking up all those tiny pieces of plastic food.Credits: The idea for the four squares came from a layout in the book Mastering Scrapbook Page Design with Michele Gerbrandt. The kit is Picnic by Krista. The block letters came from Shabby Princess's Sweet Sprinkles and the stitching (recolored) is from her Splendid kit. The font is Girls Are Weird.

I was getting bored with shades of gray. Isn't this template pretty? :) The block font on the template is Rubber Stamp from FontFace.com. I didn't take the time to make stitching for the blocks, so you can just use the outlines that I put on there, or you can delete those and replace them with stitching from your stash. Also, the scalloped page curls were part of the Picnic kit, so I can't give that to you. I made a scalloped tear for you instead. Enjoy!
Download Template #53 here.

A new kit

I have some pages I want to scrap, but before I can get to them, I had to finish this kit so that I can stop thinking about it. Seriously, I've spent the last few nights before I fall asleep planning what I'm going to make for this kit the next day. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm still learning so much.

I know you all are going to think I'm silly. Now that I've finished my whole Egypt scrapbook (all 22 pages), I started messing with one of my photos, and ended up creating a whole kit that I could have used. :) I titled it Arabia, because the colors and the abstract palm shapes really remind me of the Middle East, but I hope that the kit doesn't limit you. It's full of greens and browns and lots of glitter. So, without further ado, here's Arabia:
Download Arabia here.

Shamelessly Begging

I used to wonder at all the designers who asked people to leave them love. Now, I'm joining their ranks. I gotta tell you, I'm getting a little burnt out after working on my Egypt pages for so long, and the comments here and on 4-shared have been running low. I'll keep this short, but just remember to show your appreciation for those designers out there who are giving away freebies, especially the ones who, like me, don't have stores that they are promoting.

By the way, I'm going to be taking a short break. :) I'll be back soon, maybe a week or so.

My last Egypt page

Told you I'd come back to the Luxor Museum page. :) Just like the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, we weren't allowed to bring in a camera, so I had to make do with postcards. Here it is:

Credits: Mother Nature kit from Scrap Matters. Cartouche alpha by Suzanne C. Walker. Palm tree from Road to the Oasis kit by Kyra.

Download Template #52 here.

The temples on the East Bank (double pager)

On our last full day in Egypt, we saw the two temples on the East Bank of Luxor. They were both incredible! I have so many pictures, it was hard to choose. So, I made templates that accomodate a lot of photos. Here are my layouts:

Credits: Mother Nature kit from Scrap Matters except palm tree which came from Road to the Oasis by Kyra and the scarab heiroglyph which I made from a postcard. The font that I use for journaling (someone asked the other day) is Jayne print from Font Garden.

I didn't make templates for the Karnak Temple layouts because they're so straight forward. Let's just say I'm getting tired of working with the same kit after 22 pages and I couldn't come up with any more brilliant ideas. :)

However, I really like the templates that I made for the Luxor Temple LO's. Hope you like them too. :)

Download Template #50 here. (Can you believe I've made 50 templates in less than 3 months?!)


Download Template #51 here.

Medinet Habu, page 2

I didn't really make this a 2-page template even though it goes with yesterday's LO, so I didn't post them together. :) Isn't this picture amazing? You almost have to know that Catie and Nick are at the bottom of the picture, or you would totally miss them. :)Credits: Mother Nature kit by Scrap Matters.

This template is more of an idea of how you could put together your own page than it is a template. Of course you can download and use it, though. :)
Download Template #49 here.

Medinet Habu

I love this layout. :) I loved Medinet Habu, too. It's a temple that was built by Ramses III. Can you believe how colorful the walls are even after 3,000 years?
Credits: Mother Nature by Scrap Matters.Download Template #48 here.

More on Luxor's West Bank

There were tons of alabaster "factories" in Luxor. Seriously, one every ten feet. Our driver took us to one, where we like to think that we got good deals, not that we lined his friend's pockets. :) They were very nice about entertaining the kids so that we could take a look around, and they gave us a nice demonstration on how they make alabaster jars.

Credits: Mother Nature kit from Scrap Matters.

Download Template #47 here.

The Colossi of Memnon

We went to see the sites on the West Bank on our second day in Luxor. (I just realized that I skipped a day in my scrapbooking because we went to the museum, and again we weren't allowed to take our cameras in. I scanned in the postcards that I bought. I'll have to get back to those later.) Anyway, this was the first thing we saw. It was crazy. We just pulled over to a small parking lot on the side of the road, and there they were, the Colossi of Memnon. Amazing! Look at the tiny people at their feet. :)
Credits: Mother Nature kit from Scrap Matters.

The vines on the template are a brush that I got from deviant art, but they don't have the designer's name on them. Sorry to that designer for not giving credit.
Download Template #46 here.

Egypt--Page 13

Can you believe I'm on page 13, and I just now made it to the half-way point of our vacation?!

We had so much fun in Luxor. If you ever go to Egypt, I would recommend that you go to Cairo, because you have to see the pyramids, but only for a couple days. Spend the rest of your vacation in Luxor or Aswan. Luxor was so much more peaceful and beautiful. Even the waiters were friendlier. :) Here are the twins at the hotel restaurant where we ate breakfast every morning.

Credits: Mother Nature kit from Scrap Matters

Tip for the template: The large strip across the bottom of the photo is a place marker for a ribbon wrap. Delete it and put a ribbon there. As always, the flowers are also place holders. Do yourself a favor and delete those too so that you can put better flowers there. The bracket and the punched frame on my LO came from the Mother Nature kit, but I tried to simulate them in the template. Replace them or fill them with paper, up to you!

Download Template #45 here.

Another Egypt 2-pager

Credits: Mother Nature kit from Scrap Matters except circle stitching which came from Shabby Princess's Urban Kiwi kit.
Download Template #43 here.

Download Template #44 here.

Khan El-Khalili with a single photo template

The journalling on this page is almost exactly the same as this blog post from my family blog.

Credits: Mother Nature from Scrap Matters

Tip: The flowers on the corner of my LO are part of the paper. You could fill my flowers on the template with paper or color them, but it would probably look best if you deleted them, and filled that corner with coordinating flowers or used a paper with designs on the corners already, like I did.
Download Template #42 here.