Hey Everyone! Crystal here again to talk about layering on your digital pages.
The awesome thing about digital scrapping is that you can add layers upon layers of papers and embellishments to your pages, and it won’t create any bulk in your albums. I love opening a digital kit and falling in love with all the gorgeous goodies, and knowing I could use them all on my page if I so wished! The hard part about digital layering is shadowing. You want to have the look of a real paper pages and you want your shadows to be realistic. When I do my digital pages, I try to keep in mind how they would look if I was paper scrapping and it helps lots!
When doing my pages I always shadow as I go. I like to start with preset shadow styles like THESE by Sahlin Studios. There are a bunch of preset shadows for specific things like ribbons, flowers, papers, etc. However, I tend to adjust them a lot as I see fit. When shadowing your elements if you use your preset shadows in your programs they are always really harsh jet black. In real life things don’t have harsh jet black shadows very often so try changing your colors to a lighter brown or something a bit more subtle. I use Photoshop Elements and here is where you can change the colors of your shadows…Firs you click on the little fx next to your elements/papers in the layers bin. This is what pops up:
You can click on that image and then click on it one more time to see it full size! That is also where you could adjust your shadow settings as well.
The biggest thing to remember is that papers on the bottom layers won’t be high off of the page because there are other layers pushing them down. Elements that are sticker-ish, like the flowers on my page here won’t be super high off the page because if you were doing a paper page they would stick down and not be raised like fabric flowers would be. You can add some dimension to your pages by using ribbons or banners like I used here. You can have a bit of fun with those because they could be attached (if you were thinking realistically) a few different ways. Your shadowing can then be either deep or a little flatter.
Just keep your shadows realistic in your thinking and it should be easy peasy!
I made a fun little FREEBIE for your IPhones based off my page for you to enjoy! Just right click and “save as”, then open it up in your editing program, slide a photo behind it, and voila! All done!
Pink Paislee products used are available @ Jessica Sprague.com.
