Next Level Shadows!!

karlimarie

Sweet Shoppe SugarBabe
Sometimes I wonder what I did with all my free time before I had kids.

Girl. You made your own shadows. For every. single. layout. That's what!

Since ain't nobody got time for that these days I've been relying on premade shadows from reputable designers. I've used the same couple of sets for an age, but I still needed to make more than a couple of tweaks to get things just right. That is until...

I was watching Cheryl Scraps a couple months back and found out that she sells her very own shadows! Well, you'd think I'd have run to the store and buy them up right quick... but if you know me, you know that's too easy and my relationship status with life is: it's complicated.

So naturally, I added to cart and let them sit there for a minute :unsure:

Anyway, I finally found and ounce of follow through and hit that buy button and I thought I'd pop over here to say:

:wub: I loveeeee them. zero regrets. 10/10 recommend. :wub:

Hopefully I can save someone some time who didn't know such a thing exists, or who is still out there painstakingly making your own shadows... don't make the same mistake I did and sit on this one! You'll thank me (and Cheryl, of course!) later!!

 
They look amazing and are also time saving I bet, but I still
prefer making my own shadows :o :p

Have fun with them Karli :D
 
I use Cheryl's shadows and then tweak them if I'm wanting something a little different. Huge time saver with beautiful results!
 
I use these almost exclusively on my pages - have for years :) Sometimes I use something really specialized from another set or two (or 3 LOL) I have, but these work for me 95% of the time because yeah I don't have the time to make everything custom. Love them!
 
LOVE Cheryl's styles! Did you know you can save styles you make as well? You can make your own set of styles you use over & over! I have a couple that I've added to cheryl's bunch for my go-to shadows!
 
LOVE Cheryl's styles! Did you know you can save styles you make as well? You can make your own set of styles you use over & over! I have a couple that I've added to cheryl's bunch for my go-to shadows!

It would be great if the blog had more and new tutorials on stuff like this. I think there are lot of folks that would like to learn more.
 
I have a few styles of my own saved, but I can never seem to get shadows right!

LOVE Cheryl's styles! Did you know you can save styles you make as well? You can make your own set of styles you use over & over! I have a couple that I've added to cheryl's bunch for my go-to shadows!
 
Oh wow! What a huge compliment and totally made my day! I hope that you'll enjoy using them on many layouts and that they'll make your scrapbooking process so much easier!

Pro Tip: Don't be afraid to use the shadows for other pieces than just what I've designated. Like I sometimes will use the large flower shadow on my papers because I want a really deep shadow that I can put on its own layer and have a lot of dimension on my page.
 
Can you do this in photoshop elements? I would love to have some customized shadows and actions, but I didn't think I could do that in photoshop elements.

LOVE Cheryl's styles! Did you know you can save styles you make as well? You can make your own set of styles you use over & over! I have a couple that I've added to cheryl's bunch for my go-to shadows!
 
I've been using Cheryll's shadows for years. LOVE them. I suck at shadowing and hers help my page sparkle. :)
 
Can you do this in photoshop elements? I would love to have some customized shadows and actions, but I didn't think I could do that in photoshop elements.

I haven't used PSE in a long time. My last version was 2018, and I don't think it was available in that version. I know there are a few scrappers here that use PSE. Maybe they will see this and jump in with an answer for the most recent versions of PSE.
 
Can you do this in photoshop elements? I would love to have some customized shadows and actions, but I didn't think I could do that in photoshop elements.

You can't save the shadows you create or manipulate in photoshop elements 2024 as is out of the box. But, there's an add-on you can buy that unlocks it, as well as a few other things, called elements+. It's $12 USD. Basically, a lot of the coding for stuff is in PSE, but it's not unlocked with the gui. And elements+ unlocks the gui.

You can load other shadow styles, like Cheryl's, into photoshop Elements.
 
You can't save the shadows you create or manipulate in photoshop elements 2024 as is out of the box. But, there's an add-on you can buy that unlocks it, as well as a few other things, called elements+. It's $12 USD. Basically, a lot of the coding for stuff is in PSE, but it's not unlocked with the gui. And elements+ unlocks the gui.

You can load other shadow styles, like Cheryl's, into photoshop Elements.

Thank you, Courtney! I had forgotten about Elements+. I remember it also allowed me to do shadows on their own layers? I **think** I'm right about that, but do you remember that being in the list of things it unlocked?
 
Thank you, Courtney! I had forgotten about Elements+. I remember it also allowed me to do shadows on their own layers? I **think** I'm right about that, but do you remember that being in the list of things it unlocked?

Yes. They are slightly different than full photoshop, but you can move it to it's own layer with elements+.
 
I, too LOVE Cheryl's shadows and have been using them on pages for years, as well as a few others. I tweak them as needed also.
 
It would be great if the blog had more and new tutorials on stuff like this. I think there are lot of folks that would like to learn more.

Yes please, we need newer, updated tutorial links (here, YT, etc.)

I am trying to get back into the DS world after a few years and all the software has been updated but not many tutorials have been.

To say I am rusty is an understatement.
 
Yes please, we need newer, updated tutorial links (here, YT, etc.)

I am trying to get back into the DS world after a few years and all the software has been updated but not many tutorials have been.

To say I am rusty is an understatement.

What software are you using?
 
I am using Photoshop since I already have that as part of the Photographers plan.

Kelly

Please post and let us know what things that you are keen to learn about so that we can update/make new posts.

That goes for anyone reading this thread - if you have requests for certain tutorials, please post here and we'll see what we can do!
 
Yes please, we need newer, updated tutorial links (here, YT, etc.)

I am trying to get back into the DS world after a few years and all the software has been updated but not many tutorials have been.

To say I am rusty is an understatement.

my computer will not run, the oldest version avaiable on ps cloud. i need to start learning what its been added to since i used
 
I wanted to share that my shadow style set is on sale for 40% off now through September 5th at 6 pm ET during my spotlight as the Featured Designer. It's a great time to add this to your stash!

 
Time saving :) enjoy Karli and Evelyn. I wish there was something similar for those of us who use GIMP, unfortunately GIMP's GBR format was build only for single brushes, and Photoshop brushes can hold many bushes within a single file, that's why .asl files can't be read by GIMP :(
So those of us who use GIMP must learn to make our own shadows and shade one by one all the elements, papers, etc., I don't complain, digital scrapbooking is my passion, and I really enjoy scrapping my pages. And actually, GIMP is a very good editor if you learn how to use it, and it can read and use PSD, PNG, and JPG files without any problems. It even opens files without the need for an extra program like Unzip, so it has its benefits.
Anyway, I'm always grateful with Cheryl :wub: for uploading the videos, because I have learned a lot, and sharpened my shadows by watching once and again her videos :wub:
Everyone who can use her shadows, take advantage and enjoy, I would do it without thinking if it were possible.
 
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I use PSE and this post was eye-opening for me.

I use it in conjuction with another action from a now retired designer that creates a shadow on it's own layer, then apply the distort/wave to that shadow sometimes if I feel like going a bit extra.

I mostly tend to use this for shadowing ribbon bows where in real life sections would be closer or further away from the paper, but also on pages with an inner square example below, just to add a bit more interest and definition to the paper edge.



For standard shadows, I use designer shadow styles then tweak if I want a slightly different effect. Cheryl's are a good resource.
 
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