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Scrap Along with Sir Scrapalot: Shadows, Revisited

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on May 24, 2010 | View Comments

Welcome to one of two new features on the Sir Scrapalot Designs blog.  In Scrap Along with Sir Scrapalot, I’ll take you through some tips and techniques I use when I scrapbook.  In today’s Scrap Along, I’ll be talking about drop shadows.

Some of you may remember, a while back I did a post on Drop Shadow Resources (you may have caught it when it resurfaced from the archives this past weekend).  All of the resources I shared there are still great resources for applying drop shadows to your layouts.  Since then, however, I have found a few more resources that I really wanted to share with you.

In my travels around digi world, I have come across many designers who are now offering drop shadow styles as a product.  Some are free, some are not.  All of them make adding drop shadows to your layouts much, much easier.

1.  Shadow Me Baby Styles by simply.scraps – These shadows by Laura are great for adding realistic shadows to your layouts.  What I like about her shadows are that they are each labeled with what they are used for, i.e. “string” or “background paper”.  On some layouts these shadows are a little dark, but that is easily tweaked by adjusting the opacity.  Again, it’s only on some layouts, based on the colors of the papers and elements.  This is a layout I did using her shadows.

2.  Lighten Up Shadows by Krystal Hartley – This tutorial, and free set of drop shadow styles, on Krystal’s blog are great at creating a lighter, softer shadow.  These are especially useful when scrapping with things like flowers and leaf branches.  Sometimes, these shadows appear a bit too light, but as she says in her post, sometimes it will be necessary to adjust the opacity and such to achieve perfect shadows.  Here is a layout I have done with Krystal’s shadows.

3.  Get Real – Realistic Drop Shadow Styles by Jennifer Barrette – I haven’t used Jennifer’s drop styles before, however, I have looked at purchasing them multiple times.  If Jennifer’s layouts are any indication of how these shadows work on layouts, then there is no way to go wrong with these.  HERE is a link to Jennifer’s gallery.

These three resources are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are many different resources and tutorials on drop shadows around the internet, you just have to look for them.  What are your favorite drop shadow tricks?  Let me know in the comments!

  • supermandy

    Ooh! Good stuff! I'm a shadow junkie- my goal is to make my page as realistic as possible, although I'm still learning about shadows. I add shadows layer by layer. I start with everything that's just on top of the background paper, then I can usually copy that layer style and paste it to everything else at that same depth and tweak a little if necessary, and go on that way with each layer on the page. I've thought about buying some layer styles to hurry the process along, but that might take some of the learning experience away, right?! So now I'm trolling tips, tutorials and techniques… Thanks for pointing me in some good directions! :D

  • SirScrapalot

    I'm so glad you like the resources! I have done my own shadows before, and enjoy warping them and stuff…but I also LOVE being able to use styles to speed up that aspect of scrapbooking.

  • Southflascrapper

    A member from one of my CT groups uses #3 (Jennifer Barrette's 'Get Real') shadow layers and I have seen wonderful improvements in her shadowing on her layouts. This tells me that it's a great set! And you have been coveting them too! I am currently using 2 shadow sets that I purchased from Camila Designs prior to her retiring from After Five. I was able to pick two custom layer sets (one is for light shadows and the other is for 'everything') up for 50% off so that helped sell me on the sets. It indicates what each shadow is for and I am happy with the results. I am not good at doing my own shadowing. I am looking at taking a shadowing class soon. I know that this is a very important area and I want to understand the fundamentals better. Thank you for the post.

  • SirScrapalot

    Yeah, for me, shadows are just something that I sacrifice in the name of time. If someone else did the styles for me, then that's what I go with. I have since picked up Jennifer's (thanks Jenn!) and will be working on a post updating my choices very soon.

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    [...] make or break a great layout.  I’ve done countless posts about shadowing like THIS ONE, or THIS ONE, or even THIS ONE.  I still do my shadowing as the very last thing, but I make sure that I take my [...]

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