The Saturday Special – “Shadowing 102″
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Good Morning & Happy Saturday everyone! I’m so excited to be here as a new member of the SMCT & to be bringing you today’s Saturday Special!
I’ve been noticing a few shadowing questions in the forums lately, so I started digging. There is a history of shadowing tutorials that SM has had on the blog over the past year or so. The first one I found was from one of our fearless leaders, Britt on January 21, 2008. Britt spoke about the basics – mainly thinking through your shadows for each element you add to your page. The second shadow tutorial came from Tracy, but specifically used CS3 in which you can create a separate layer for a drop shadow & even warp the layer! Then last November, our first ever Queen of Scrap, Denise wrote up a little ditty she like to refer to as shadows 101. If you are new to digi-scrapping or to shadowing, I highly suggest studying shadows 101. Her tutorial was a huge help to me last year as a newer digi-scrapper.
The questions that have come up in the forums have been how to make a great shadow in PSE. And since I scrap in PSE, I can fully understand ones frustration about not having the option to warp a drop shadow layer. Today I’d like to share a technique I’ve played with to help make my shadows more realistic – to ‘warp’ them, so to speak . . .
It is really pretty simple. I usually do this with an element that is stitched or stapled down. In my LO today I’m using a tag. If you shadow the tag, your shadow will appear even under the stitching.
Notice that it is not very realistic. Looking at a real life stitched tag, you won’t see shadow where the stitching & tag meet because the tag is held tightly to the paper. There is an easy way around it. First duplicate the tag. Then right click on the uppermost tag layer & select “Clear Layer Style.” I often will link the two tag layers together just to be safe.
Then select the bottom, shadowed tag layer & using a large round brush, erase just a smidge of the shadowed layer. You can continue to play with the eraser & drop shadow sizes to get the exact look you want.
And voile! Here is you more realistic tag! Notice the shadow is nonexistent by the stitching & gets larger as you move away.
Pretty easy huh? 
Here’s my completed LO using Haynay Design’s Pebbles & Butterflies:
Here are some more fabulous examples:
From Fiona (canadianmommy) using Chelle’s Creation new Midnight Crow:
From Andrea (chia) using Jennifer Barette’s Miss Mary Jane
Your challenge is to create a layout that has a “warped” shadow something – don’t forget to tell me what you “warped”! You’ll get one point for posting your competed layout in both the gallery and in the challenge forum thread.
Here are some quick reminders about the Matter of Scrap Challenges:
*You can get one extra point if you use a new release product within one week of it’s release.
*Remember there is no double dipping between challenges- each layout must be unique.
*You can use whatever supplies you want- they don’t have to be from ScrapMatters.
*You have ALL of September to complete this challenge.
Best wishes & happy shadowing!!
-tuttle
