Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is surviving the craziness that is the week before Christmas and is finding time for digital scrapbooking here and there. I am dropping in with a quick tip today for adding some interest and texture to a white digital background. This technique is so fast and easy, but really makes a big difference in the overall appearance of your page.
I really love working on white digital backgrounds, but sometimes I want to give it a little texture bump for some added interest. There are many ways to jazz up a white background including adding a splash of digital paint, brushing in a lightly patterned paper or adding borders along the edges. But one of my favorite ways to pump up a white background is to add paper shapes that are the same color as the background. Just adding a slight drop shadow will make these shapes visible, without taking too much away from the clean, white background.
You can see the technique on this page (created with the December CCM Winter Woodland Collection):
Notice the white snowflakes peeking out from behind the photo and the cluster in the top left corner? They were just what I needed to add a little pizzaz and movement to the layout. Here is a comparison of the layout with and without the snowflakes:
I tweaked the shadows a bit on this page (with the warp tool in PhotoshopCC), instead of just adding a flat drop shadow. However, you could add a slight, flat shadow if you want to step the effect back a bit. Here is what that would look like:
Here are the drop shadow settings for the snowflakes on the above layout:
I hope you find this technique helpful the next time you are looking to add some slight texture to a solid background! As always, be sure to share your digital creations with us in the Lilypad Gallery. :)
Until next time ~
Judie (HeyJude)
Lidia GRADZINSKI says
Thank you, I will definitely be trying this out!