Happy Tuesday Trixie Scraps Fans! Welcome to another edition of Tips, Trends and Techniques. A few weeks ago, Scrap Star Cami gave us an excellent tip sheet on shadowing which can be found HERE. Today, I would like to elaborate on that and discuss when it’s appropriate to shadow and when it’s not!

For the most part, when digital scrapping, proper shadowing is a must! But, there are a few times when it is actually NOT appropriate to shadow. For example, journaling; journaling in most circumstances should not be shadowed. In my first example below, using Riding with Boys you see that I have actually shadowed my journaling and it gives it a strange look and almost makes it difficult to read. Another item, that can be up for debate is stitching. Many designers will tell you not to shadow stitching as it can tend to make it float up off the page giving an almost fake like appearance.

In this sample here, I do not have my journaling shadowed, do you see the difference?! Same with the stitching, I have not shadowed it here and I think it gives a nice clean appearance.

In this next layout using My Sister, My Friend this is an example of when it IS appropriate to shadow wording. If you are using it for more of a title or as part of a word art, then it can become necessary to really want a particular word or section to stand out. There might also be confusion when it comes to word strips. The words themselves that are “on” the paper strip are not shadowed; however, the paper strip itself IS shadowed. See the difference?!

I hope you find these tips useful! Shadowing can be such a tricky task to master, and none of us are perfect! Some of it is just personal preference too, but hopefully these basic tips will help take your layouts to the next level!

Thanks for stopping by and have a terrific Tuesday!

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