Let's talk about how you shadow ...

[jenn mccabe]

Trista's awesome tutorial on shadowing Doilies (on the blog today here) had me thinking about how much custom shadowing you do or don't do ...

I am a shadow style person. I like to mix and match several different Designer's styles when creating my pages. I tweak them a bit and then leave as is. I have a few of my own that I use over and over as well. I don't always go crazy warping and smudging them bc, well ... it takes so much time. And then where do you stop? Doesn't everything deserve it's own custom, perfect little shadow?

If you are someone who tweaks, warps and smudges a few things ... what are they? What are the most important things in your opinion that benefit from a little extra TLC when shadowing your pages.

maybe your top 3?

I'm not going to answer bc I don't warp/smudge enough ... I'm really curious to hear what everyone thinks ...

 

[Li Li Wee]

Trista's awesome tutorial on shadowing Doilies (on the blog today here) had me thinking about how much custom shadowing you do or don't do ...

I am a shadow style person. I like to mix and match several different Designer's styles when creating my pages. I tweak them a bit and then leave as is. I have a few of my own that I use over and over as well. I don't always go crazy warping and smudging them bc, well ... it takes so much time. And then where do you stop? Doesn't everything deserve it's own custom, perfect little shadow?

If you are someone who tweaks, warps and smudges a few things ... what are they? What are the most important things in your opinion that benefit from a little extra TLC when shadowing your pages.

maybe your top 3?

I'm not going to answer bc I don't warp/smudge enough ... I'm really curious to hear what everyone thinks ...

Yikes!! I warp and tweak almost 80%- 90% of elements.. I will come back shortly with my top three after hearing from the rest.

 

[gracielou]

I will usually tweak ribbons and flowers, when I am not feeling lazy that is LOL!

 

[toriloowho]

I use shadow styles (Peppermint's are AWESOME!) but I usually will tweak them after the fact. I love the warp tool. I don't smudge very often. I also use the gaussian blur and wave filters. And I move them around after I tweak them. I change the opacity if needed. I don't do it to everything because I don't feel like it's necessary on every.single.little.thing (just my opinion and sometimes I'm lazy). I do it mostly on stuff like little word strips and ribbons and strings and tags, etc. And on the corners of stacked papers.

 

[Li Li Wee]

I use shadow styles (Peppermint's are AWESOME!) but I usually will tweak them after the fact. I love the warp tool. I don't smudge very often. I also use the gaussian blur and wave filters. And I move them around after I tweak them. I change the opacity if needed. I don't do it to everything because I don't feel like it's necessary on every.single.little.thing (just my opinion and sometimes I'm lazy). I do it mostly on stuff like little word strips and ribbons and strings and tags, etc. And on the corners of stacked papers.

yup !! that's what I do too… I don't warp buttons, frames.. (elements that isn't bendable) . Oh!! not all my shadows are black..

 

[jenn mccabe]

I took Peppermint's awesome shadow class back in the day ... but I am lazy and don't warp/smudge often. my goal going forward is to try and be a little more of Shadow Rebel.

and yes! wasn't it Amanda that did a TLP blog tutorial on the wave filter awhile ago ... I have to go back and revisit that!

soooo ... so far it looks like these ...

Doilies (based on trista's tutorial)
strings
ribbons
word strips
tags
corners of stacked papers
flowers

 

[Li Li Wee]

Oh, you really gotta give the wave filter a shot!! It's super awesome!!

 

[toriloowho]

and yes! wasn't it Amanda that did a TLP blog tutorial on the wave filter awhile ago ... I have to go back and revisit that!

I think she shared an action, too! I have one that I use sometimes... I'm thinking that's where it came from (sad, I can't remember, huh?).

 

[mollyc]

I smudge and/or warp almost everything. I am a shadow *****. =) I started off with Peppermint's shadows and do love them, but over time have made my own. However, I do still use Peppermint's vellum shadow, I can't come up with a better way of doing that. And really the only reason I made my own was just so my pages look like *my* pages.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is that I do often also run a gaussian blur on the shadow layer. If you look at real paper LOs (like the studio calico ones), there is often a subtle fall off of the shadow even beyond a smudge. So I often do all three of those on my shadows.

 

[mollyc]

oh, hahaha! my post got censored....well, suffice it to say, i love shadows.

 

[Trista]

My top 3 tweaks are covered here!
I almost always tweak layered papers. I just cannot leave the layers with a flat shadow. I created an action similar to Amanda's action, so tweaking papers is as quick as a click on the action play button.

I almost always tweak the shadows of ribbons and strings.

Another that I will tweak is a banner.

 

[jenn mccabe]

molly, yes! good point! peppermint's shadow class talked about using a gaussian blur under the separate shadow layer ... and i took another class way back in the day and the teacher talked about doing this with curled papers and frames. i love the look of the real paper layouts ... so yummy!

trista: banner! yup!

"the list" is getting long though!

 

[lorryfach]

Basically anything that isn't rigid (buttons, resin, etc) there's a good chance I'll play with it. It doesn't add a ton of time to run an action and drag a couple corners, and I think it's fun anyway!

 

[jenn mccabe]

I need to change my shadow process ... those using actions ... are they your own you made up or purchased somewhere?

 

[ninigoesdigi]

I like styles too. I do tweak a bit when I think they might be a little too much compare to what I want but they make my life easier. And I do not warp a lot... not to say at all. Maybe only when it's a string and I want it to be "attached" on the paper, then I warp as the shadow can't be the same everywhere if there is a button over it, right?

I keep my shadows pretty flat. I don't like things flying over my page. It happens sometimes but usually I try to have a flat "paper-like" style. But I don't like the work of it so I stick to styles instead of spending too much time on making them myself.

I love One Little Bird shadow styles and go back to those almost all the time. I have other I grabbed for free somewhere in digiland but it's so long ago I can't recall where it was. Sorry.

Makes me remember I forgot to install my newly bought shadow styles by Stolen Moments!! Grabbed them for iNSD and I forgot to install lol

A girl can't get enough shadow styles!! lol lol

 

[sm_amber]

I'm a big fan of just plopping on a style and calling it good.. sometimes I'll warp a string, though.. HOWEVER, after having hung out in the gallery here the last few months I'm SO inspired to spend a bit more time on customizing shadows - even on papers just to give a little extra depth and realism.. TLP is the BEST source for awesome shadow inspiration!

 

[HeatherB]

Mostly I use a set of free shadows I got from Megan Turnidge about 4 years ago, and then tweak them a bit. I use a variety of brush sizes with smudge and only rarely do I use warp. I usually do:
flowers
ribbons
strings
banners

But sometimes I'm just lazy and use the styles as is without any modification.

I also like a more flat paper style of page, and because of that I tend to avoid using bulkier elements on my page.

 

[bcgal00]

I shadow everything. I have Peppermint's shadows (which are awesome) and a few other designers along with some I've created myself. I almost always tweak a shadow b/c depending on the size, shape and placement of the product being shadowed, it could benefit from a bit of manipulation. I always put shadow on its own layer and then use warp or puppet warp to drag the shadow. I double click the shadow style to change sliders and opacity of the shadow. I finish with a bit of gaussian blur. It sounds like a lot of work but only takes a few seconds. I'm obsessed with shadows and warping especially for frames and paper. It adds so much depth to a page.

 

[HeatherB]

When I had more time, I used to do some crazy shadow work, like this old page from MSA:

 

[jenn mccabe]

I'm a big fan of just plopping on a style and calling it good.. sometimes I'll warp a string, though.. HOWEVER, after having hung out in the gallery here the last few months I'm SO inspired to spend a bit more time on customizing shadows - even on papers just to give a little extra depth and realism.. TLP is the BEST source for awesome shadow inspiration!

we are shadow sisters!