HAHA!!! I'm totally a shadow snob too and not just with scrappers but designers too... I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this HAHAHA!!! I've been known to not use an alpha in a kit because the highlights come from the "wrong" direction from what I scrap at LOL... and I always turn elements to make sure the highlights and shadows are coming from the right direction... and sometimes I just can't use wordart because the shadowing/highlights are "backwards", so if I flip it, the words are backwards LOL... I wish everyone designed at the same light source angle LOL... and yes, scrappers who have their shadows going in a zillion different directions bugs me... pick one and stick to it LOL... I mean, it's ok to have a small shadow coming from the light source side to show that something is floating and 3D... but I'm talking where there isn't a consistent shadow angle... and they have the "light source" coming from everywhere LOL Though, thankfully I haven't seen any designers mix up the shadowing in their kits/goodies... I just wish everyone designed at the same angle LOL and "floating" doodles and paint and fonts bug me too HAHAHA... that felt good to say out loud LOL
I'm snobbish about a few things, but really truly only when it comes to my own pages. I obsess for a very very (very) long time over my pages, but I've always been all about embracing the fact that scrapbooking (actually, creativity) is so SO very subjective and I think that each person goes through an evolution, where we are learning and growing and playing and experimenting. So I truthfully don't twitch about anything that *another* person creates and shares. For me, I have a really hard time breaking away from linear things..and my brain *needs* balance. So scale of elements on my pages is important to me and creating cohesiveness and giving the eye a place to rest. And layering things realistically. Journaling is also close to my heart so I have a hard time feeling like my page is finished unless there is story (in words) included. I do play with my shadows..just to create dimension but I don't fuss much about light source since photos I've taken of paper scrapped pages are very loosey goosey with lighting (if the lighting is natural). Mine are generally consistent and if there is an obvious light source in my photo I will shadow that way sometimes, but otherwise..meh. As long as fonts aren't floating and papers that are close to the bottom are flatter than dimensional elements, etc. I call it good. I do appreciate and love the details of paint and other artsy touches looking as they would on a traditionally scrapped page. As far as babies on plates..I can't relate to it personally, but I make a distinction in my brain between digital scrapbooking and digital art. And maybe to someone that is their art? Also..somewhere along the road it was decided that shadows for designing should be at 120 degrees...this was common back when I was doing a lot of ct scrapping anyway..and I don't shadow that way. So many of my pages are totally dissonant shadow wise/light source wise. Sometimes I would turn the elements to be "fit" with my shadow work and sometimes I wouldn't. I print and they all look lovely. So I care far less about shadowing than I did once upon a time. And I will say this. Anything I do twitch over personally? My family, the people who I scrap and document for? They don't care one lick. Not one. They don't notice anything except that I poured myself in to something and documented their moments. So if anyone is reading this and feeling anxious...please please remember how subjective scrapbooking is AND that in the end..if it looks good to you, your family will LOVE it. And that truly is all that matters.
very well said Sara. now I won't go delete my entire gallery LOL. but I admit I did laugh out loud about the cutting buttons in half I am very picky with my own shadows, but on other's pages as long as I can see you made some sort of attempt to shadow, its all good. the one thing that ruins a page for me though is the inappropriate layering, like the fonts on elements. dude, that can't happen. granted, neither can babies on clouds/mushrooms/plates etc, but the inappropriate layering is against the laws of physics or something. totally ruins a page for me!
so many of these are mine too, but the fonts, paint, doodles with shadows or on top of flowers are the worst for me. so.twitchy.
Sara... I love what you said... that's what makes me not twitch about my "issues"... the fact that not everyone is doing it for the art therapy or ct work but just wanting to scrap and record their memories and the recipient of these layouts aren't really going to care about the shadows and light source.
Wow...you're all so mean. *snicker snicker* Just kidding. I agree with most things said. I like my shadows to be "perfect", I stress over shadows on title work and stringy things and I can't stand fonts overlapping layers. I find "fantasy" pages just plain creepy. There. I said it. I tried one once and they just aren't for me. Maybe the creator of Alice in Wonderland. I don't know. But in saying that...I'm pretty much a strictly template scrapper, so no outside the box for me (unless you count flipping/altering a template. lol
OMG the publisher needs a new job!! I am shadow obsessed on my pages. I have had pages where the shadows took more time to do than the page! Also the fonts/paint/brushes etc with shadows (though sometimes paint needs a little one if it's chunky!) I am guilty of hanging stuff off the edge of my page because I loved to do that when I paper scrapped. I just pretend that those elements have been cropped off for the gallery! I am also guilty of placing text under elements if it enhances the design! Sorry!
oh and I used to stress about lighting angles on elements etc, but as Sarah said, in real life it doesn't matter so much. There is very rarely just 1 light source in a room so it is possible to have different lighting on a page. Makes it easier to mix and match kits!
This. As for plate babies - I know there's alot of fantasy scrapping around, etc, and I LOVE some of the amazing digital artists at DeviantArt, etc but I can't get past scary baby stuff. I don't know what it is.... I thinks it's like clown terror. I'm like "ooooh.... pretty background blending... OMG, THAT BABY'S GOING TO SUFFOCATE!!" In the end, pages jump out of the gallery and I'm dazzled by the overall feeling of the layout and don't notice anything else. <3
I love this, knowing that I am not alone in my neurosis ! The text under an element thing makes. Me. Crazy, lol
I don't know that anything really makes me truly upset, lol, but the thing I always notice is shadowed paint and stamps. It just looks wrong. It is funny though, because everything mentioned I'm sure I've done at least a few times aside from weird baby fantasy scenarios lol. When I started I didn't even use drop shadows. Then after I learned how to do that, I always shadowed everything including the font, hee hee. Heck I still put buttons off the edges of pages, lol. Maybe now I'll stop since I don't wanna offend y'all!! I'm not very OCD though, I just go with the flow and do whatever the heck I want on my pages, which is different depending on my mood.
Sara, you are the sweetest!!! I agree with everything you said. Now I feel bad that I made you all go run to check your galleries! Seriously, there was no finger pointing intended here! I didn't have any layout or person in mind. It was just a general feeling (especially looking back on some of my oldest layouts). And we all started somewhere and evolve along the way - I've changed many things from my earlier scrap/design days!! Allison, dude, I'm DYING over here at your babies on plates post. BAHAHAHAHA!
^^^^^ I'm with eryn. I always feel like a button might be on the edge if it were a paper layout and you were taking a picture and uploading it to a gallery. And sometimes it is more weird to me to leave it off because it will be unbalanced or something. I also may or may not leave strings hanging off the sides because I'm messy like that. LOL And I know I've been guilty of having text under buttons or flowers or something too. I feel lucky enough when I can get scrap time, so I just figure I'll slap something together and not stress too much about it or I'd never get a page finished. It is always funny to see what drives people crazy though.
I don´t like extracted babies on plates, in bottles and nest, etc...Fonts and stamps with shadows looks really weird Oh I can´t forget...Photo unevenly reduced is awkward. And I like what Sara wrote. What likes one does not like the other... If You see my first pages - without shadows, stupid pictures, rubbed elements...just TERRIBLE!! And how proud I was! LOL!
can i just say that we PAID for Isaac's lacrosse pictures, and THIS happened! i about died, but it looked like someone flat squished his ever-living head! i just had to laugh!! i mean, this is a "professional" sports photographer who can't resize photos properly. kills me. allison my dear, i about spit tea all over my laptop reading your comment... yes, the babies... i have many issues with baby layouts, especially when they are about to be eaten by small woodland creatures. gaaah! i just can't help but wonder what this child will think of his/her early childhood when he/she grows up and looks back through mom's scrapbooks. *idie*
After reading all of this I realized my own neurosis *hehe* I am not good in shadowing and I only notice shadows in a LO if they are 'WoW' or disastrous (to my opinion) But I have trouble with journaling across ellies - though in real you could take a pen and journal across everything on your page, but it feels so very wrong to me ! And seeing the same posed baby extraction in a zillion of pages ! And distorted, squeezed, unnatural resized photos ! @Shannon: The LOs in my galleries don't have journaling, but only because my story must not be known by the whole world ... my journaling is private and just for my family and me
I am not really snobbish about anything and especially since I pretty much only hang out here. Most every page I click on in the gallery is beautiful in some way. I don't pay to much attention to people's shadows anymore, only when I see someone who can do incredible and realistic ones so I can sit an admire and wish so bad I could do them like that . The whole baby in weird scenes used to bug me like crazy and I guess still would but I have solved that problem by just never clicking on them anymore plus I pretty much only have time to hang out here so I don't really run into it anymore. Also, with 4 kids I don't have just tons of time for browsing galleries anymore so I pretty much only click on those layouts that really grab my eye in the gallery and so I don't really run into things that "bother me." I have always been so amazed at the talent that is here.
This is so me. What really makes me crazy is the misuse of patterned paper. Especially when it's a really rockin' pp; I feel like we need a hotline to call to report pp abuse.
Hee hee. I do notice shadows. I'm now questioning if I abuse my patterned paper LOL My big thing though, is fonts or journaling floating over elements. You wouldn't write over a button or a ribbon, flower etc. and if it's written on a paper piece it should look like it would in real life. ( IMHO )
