School of Design – Creative Clustering 3
I am back this week for the continuation of our Creative Clustering lesson. How are we doing so far? Part 1 of this tutorial is all about what is this technique and why scrappers use it. Last week, tackled about the basics of clustering. This week, we’ll show you how to add depths to your layout to make it look more real!
This is where we left off last week:
The clusters are almost good but it lacks appeal – why? We’re missing something very important, the shadows!
If you are new to digital scrapbooking, shadows play a vital role in achieving the realistic look to your layout. There are 2 ways to do your shadows – manually and by the use of styles.
Manual shadowing takes some time but you’re going to achieve the look you want. Let’s do it our our page. I’ll start by shadowing the frame. Highlight the layer, right click and then click Blending Options
You will be directed to the Layer Style window.
Adjust the Opacity, Angle (I prefer 45 degrees), Distance, Spread and Size. You may also opt to use Multiply or Linear Burn blending mode depending on the type of element you are using.
Can you see the difference when the frame is flat and now that it has shadows? It pops and it looks better, right? Now, you can do the same method for the other elements. You can play around with the distance, the spread and size depending on how big or small your element is and how it is placed on the layout. The closer the element to your base, the smaller the shadow should be.
If you want to take things easy – you can opt to get some styles into your system. We have 2 Shadow Styles in the store at the moment. I have Me and Mye Shadow Styles while Gennifer Bursett has her Toolbox – Shadows V.1. We are both giving away special discount on these products until the end of month. Simply use the codes below to grab them for only $1.00 each!
Me and Mye Shadow Styles: “mye_shadowschool”
Toolbox – Shadows V.1: “SchoolShadows2“
The good thing about using styles is that you’ll save time doing the shadows individually and you can adjust the presets according to your liking if you feel like doing so.
Here’s the look of our page with shadows – it looks better now!
But we’re not done yet! Improving the overall look of your page will take more than just that and I will be sharing it to you next week!
