I know I’ve talked a lot about stitches & such over the past several weeks. I also know this is a scrapbooking trend that tends to come and go in cycles. It will be very trendy for a while and then it cools off for a bit. But it never really goes away.

Lately it seems we’re seeing more and more stitching elements. That was one of the reasons I started this whole series.

I know I already posted about shadowing elements back in April of 2023. But today I want to specifically talk about the right time and way to add shadows to stitching elements.

Shadows & Stitches

Let’s face it we could talk about drop shadows all day and there would be close to a million different ideas, theories and opinions about what is right or wrong, what looks good and what doesn’t (okay maybe not really a million 😊). In life and in art shadows are a science. That’s to say, the how & the why, is based on real, (deep gasp) factual science. But I’m not going to get into the science, I promise!

I think the majority of digital scrappers will agree that shadows can make or break a page. Shadowing is an art. And there seems to be a never-ending journey for many of us to perfect the fine art of shadowing. It’s an art that I readily admit I’m not necessarily proficient at. That’s why I love using shadow layer styles! But I do have some tips, tricks, and observations to share about creating your own shadows, particularly on stitches.

Shadows Categories

In my opinion there are 4 basic categories for what I call “normal” shadows used on digital layouts. As I mentioned above there are countless different ideas, theories and opinions on this. But I try to keep things grouped in the 4 categories you see in the image above.

The category names under each of those leaves above should be self-explanatory. With perhaps one exception…Custom Shadows. Again, in my opinion, the Custom category includes any shadow that is warped to give more “lift” to the element. Or shadows for things like translucent elements such as vellum, glass and acrylic. These kinds of elements need to be treated differently. Their shadows definitely take some customization.

Today I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail about each of these categories but I will touch on all of them in some way.

No Shadows

Remember…I use the current version of Photoshop Elements (PSE – 2024). Some of my screen shots may look different than what you see on your screen.

The layout pictured above (unfinished) is perhaps a bit out of place here since nearly everything on that layout should have shadows. Regardless, right now I’m going to be talking about things in our layouts that don’t require shadows. I specifically left the shadows off that layout & placed it in here to emphasize how flat a layout can look without any shadows! You’ll be seeing this layout a few more times as you read through this post.

Note: I created the sample layout above using products from “Woolen Mill” by Jessica Dunn of The Curio Pantry.

While we always need to be mindful of shadows, it is important to understand that certain things in our digital layouts should almost never be shadowed. These are things that are normally one dimensional (flat) and typically blend in with the background.

If it was a traditional paper scrapbook layout these are things that you wouldn’t be able to reach out and touch or physically pick up off the paper. This category of elements includes:

• Brushes
• Doodles
• Overlays
• Paint
• Photo Masks
• Rub-ons
• Some Scatters
• Some Word Art
• Stamps

As with most things, there are likely some exceptions but not many. And the above list is probably not complete but I think you get the idea. Take a look at this “transfer” I created using a cluster of embellishments for a layout currently “under construction”:

This group of embellishments falls under the category of things that you could not reach down and pick up off your page. As a whole, these things are stamped, written, or brushed right onto a surface. Adding a shadow to any of these would remove their realism & believability. And in this case that would include the stitching I used!

Note: I created that transfer using elements from various kits by various designers. Rather than calling out each element/kit I will credit the following designers here: Lynne Anzelc, Manu Scraps, River Rose & Synergy Ink. Clearly, I don’t always work with only one kit at a time 😉

Bad Shadowing

As I said in the beginning, there are multiple categories of shadows depending on the element/paper. I’ve already talked about No Shadows. Now I want to talk about a category that wasn’t on that list, Bad Shadows.

This is what happens if you use a really dark shadow at a very bold (and identical) setting on every single paper/element in your layout:

That looks very extreme and anything but realistic.

We generally should try to layer our elements and their shadows one by one, from bottom to top, so that they look like how a “real” paper layout would look. The basic rule of thumb is, the further away you get from the base layer the lighter and more diffuse (blurry) a shadow should become. Here are a few things to consider when working on shadows:

Opacity: This determines how dark or light you want your shadow to be. So many things can affect the Opacity level including the color of your paper or whatever else might be beneath the item being shadowed.

Angle: I’ve talked about this a lot and there really is (in my opinion) only two hard and fast rules. Rule #1…Shadows should always follow the obvious lighting angle in any photo(s) on the layout. Rule #2…BE CONSISTENT!

Distance: The Distance will determine how far off the paper your element will appear to be. If you are layering several bulky elements underneath a photo, realistically that photo would be quite a distance from the background. So, your Distance would be greater. Alternately, if a flat element is sitting directly on top of the background paper, it would have a very small Distance. You want to try and picture how it would look in real life.

Size: This determines the blur of your shadow. You can play around with this to see how it affects the look of your shadow. Keep in mind, the blur (Size) is what will make the shadow appear more diffuse. So, the Size should be larger for things that might appear to be floating off the page. Something like a butterfly or a bird in flight.

Color: This setting generally stirs up a bit of controversy. Seems as though every designer uses a different color. Some will actually use black (another deep gasp). Basically, I would avoid black for shadows. Most shadows in nature aren’t a true black; they may look black but in nature they are closer to blue. Other designers will use a dark brown color (#221810). I tend to use a medium grey (#696258).

If you’d like to see a list of some general shadow settings please refer back to that post from April 18, 2023 about shadowing.

Low Shadow

I’ve already talked about No Shadow. You’ve already seen an example of Bold Shadows, even though they were used incorrectly😉 Of the remaining basic categories, the one I will touch on in great detail today are the things that require low shadows but most specifically in regard to stitching:

• Alphas
• Brads
• Buttons
• Confetti
• Flat Ribbons
• Low Profile Flowers
• Low Profile Frames
• Paper
• Staples
• Stickers
• Stitches

Again, not an all-encompassing list by any means. In the digital world, this shadow category is by far the biggest. It is comprised of anything that tends to lay fairly flat on your scrapbook page.

A few of these things, like stitches, could actually go without a shadow. But that is because a lot of designers build a slight shadow into the stitch. It also depends on how “messy” the stitch may be. Any stitching with any kind of curly or “fly away” tail will definitely need a shadow. And perhaps not as low of a shadow as flatter stitching.

Normally I would consider a low drop shadow to have an Opacity of around 50-65%, a Size of around 7-10 pixels, and a Distance of around 4-6 pixels. But this is just a jumping off point. Depending on the item, the Size and Distance can go up or down – but likely only slightly. One thing that will have a bearing on that is the darkness of the element/paper beneath the stitching.

The layout in the image at the top of this section shows shadows that are ones I would call “proper”. The papers and most all of the elements follow the Low Shadow settings. The foliage and the stacked flowers adhere to the concept that the further away you get from the base layer the lighter and more diffuse (blurry) a shadow will become. Even though that foliage is under other elements, in the real world…it would still be lifted further away from the paper in places even though it is beneath another element.

When To Shadow Stitches

So having laid some groundwork about shadows in general, I’m going to give you 5 basic tips specifically about shadowing stitches. And these tips will apply to stitching elements you’ve purchased as well as any you’ve created using the techniques I’ve explained over the past month or so.

That is, with one exception; stitching elements on which you’ve applied a style such as the String Photoshop Style by Karen Schulz or by using the “manual” process I outlined in the very first post about Strings & Stitches. In those instances, a shadow typically will not be required.

Most purchased styles for string or stitching will have a shadow built in. In those cases, you should almost always be able to go in and tweak the settings for the shadow if you need to adjust the Color, Size, Distance or Opacity. And there’s nothing to stop you from turning off the drop shadow altogether to create your own if you are so inclined. But you definitely don’t want to add a shadow to something that already has one 😉

Stitches on Flat Paper

Any time you are using stitches to anchor one piece of flat paper over another (as in this zoomed portion of the earlier layout) the shadow should stay close to your paper. This is because real paper doesn’t have a lot of shadow when sewn onto other pieces of paper. This would include times such as placing stitching over a frame, tag, journal card or other flat ephemera that is directly over another flat piece of paper as you can see above.

Most Shadow Styles that I’ve purchased tend to all be in the grey family. But as of late it seems “the jury is out” on exactly which color a shadow should be. I’m not going to go into that right now. Check back next week for a follow-on post about shadows in which I’ll get into more detail about the whole color topic.

If you are creating your shadow manually vs. using a Style…go with a color that makes sense for your layout. Personally speaking, if it’s grey I don’t think you can go wrong.

I’d still recommend the “low shadow” settings I mentioned above: Opacity of around 50-65%, a Size of around 7-10 pixels, and a Distance of around 4-6 pixels. But this is just a starting point.

Irregular Stitches

In this zoomed portion of the earlier layout, I’ve replaced the original stitching with some messy stitching. When you have little threads hanging out of your stitching and those curly or “fly away” tails I mentioned earlier; these kinds of stitches need a different shadow.

For this particular shadow style, you will want to put your shadow on a separate layer (more on that in just a bit) and warp it slightly so that your loose ends appear further away from your page than your actual stitching does (more on warping later). This is one of the shadows that again, in my opinion, would fall into the Custom Shadow category.

I’m not going to warp this shadow because it looks pretty good even without extra “lift”. That aside, for these particular types of stitches, I would recommend the following settings initially: Opacity of somewhere around 35-45%, Size of about 10-15 pixels and Distance somewhere between 15-20 pixels.

However, the final settings are really going to be driven by how much lift you create on your stitching “tail” if/when you warp it.

As you can see in the image above, the flatter stitching looks only slightly “lifted” bit it is lifted more than it would be naturally. That’s one of the reasons to ideally put this shadow on a separate layer so you can warp only the “fly away” parts and not the flatter stitches.

Stitches On Similar Colors

In this zoomed portion of the earlier layout, I’ve re-colored the original stitching to more closely match the yellowish color in the background.

Any time you are stitching light or dark stitches on paper/elements having similar colors or tones you need a distinct shadow so the shadow shows up properly. You don’t necessarily need to make the shadow “bigger”. You just need to play with the Color & Opacity.

This is another one of those times when having your shadow on its own layer will come in handy. Having the shadow on its own layer gives you the ability to use a Blend Mode. This can really make your shadow more naturally blend a little better instead of just relying on Color and Opacity.

I’d still recommend the Opacity of around 50%, a Size of around 10 pixels, and a Distance of around 6 pixels. But this is just a starting point. Depending on the item, the Size and Distance can go up or down – but likely only very slightly. One thing that will have a bearing on that is the darkness of the element/paper beneath the stitching.

Here’s what that stitching looks like after I placed the shadow on its own layer and used a Blend Mode of Linear Light and Opacity of 65%:

If you look really close you can see the color of the shadow changes depending on which color is underneath the stitching. Now, I did not change the color of the shadow…I still used the same medium grey I always use (#696258). This is where having the shadow on its own layer can help make it appear more realistic. Being able to use a Blend Mode really makes a difference!

Focal Point Stitches

In the image above, you can see that I moved some of the foliage and replaced the oval frame with a rectangular frame colored very close to the color in the background. Even with a shadow on the frame it tends to get lost amongst the other elements on the page. This is a good instance of where using focal point stitching can help draw the viewers eye to the frame.

This generally also requires manipulating the color of the shadow, and some other tweaks in your settings, but making your stitching more pronounced on your layout can be a fun and attractive thing to do on occasion. However, I would typically recommend that you only do this if you are trying to accentuate or draw the viewer’s eye to a particular photo or element on your page.

For these types of stitching elements, I’d use the following settings: the Opacity of around 60%, a Size of around 10 pixels, and a Distance of around 10 pixels. Just keep in mind that the item you’re trying to draw attention to and the color/tone of the paper (or other element) behind the stitching will have a bearing on these settings.

Using the settings above and switching the shadow color to a warm brown (#674a3a), my frame now REALLY stands out! Perhaps a bit too much but I think you get the idea 😉:

Any time you use focal point stitching please do be careful to not make the shadow too extreme. You don’t want it to look like the stitching is floating off the paper!

Stitches Too Flat

Occasionally you may use stitching as a border or a frame, and it sort of looks great without a shadow. Then as in the image above, there are times when that stitching looks just a bit too flat and you really want a more realistic look.

Any time the stitches look too flat, a simple, subtle drop shadow is what can make the difference. These are times when you really don’t want a lot of shadow you just don’t want the stitching to look like it’s drawn or stamped onto the page.

For these instances, I’d recommend the following settings: Opacity of around 40%, a Size of around 5-6 pixels, and a Distance of around 4-5 pixels. Just keep in mind all of the other things I’ve previously mentioned that will have a bearing on these settings.

Here is that “frame” with a shadow using those settings:

Another option is to try the tiniest of a bevel or even adding an inner glow can make the stitching a little more distinct without adding an actual shadow.

Note: For most people, especially a beginner, coming up with glow settings that really make a noticeable difference can be tricky. For that reason, I would suggest that you stick with either a very simple shadow or a tiny bevel.

Here is that same “frame” using the standard PSE Simple Emboss bevel with the Lighting Angle set to 120 (same angle as the other elements), the bevel Size set to 3px and the Direction set to Up:

That looks better than the “flat” stitching. Perhaps a bit more “intense” than the light shadow but not enough to make that big of a difference. I think either one would be fine. You can be the judge.

That concludes my discussion on the 5 basic tips for shadowing stitches. Next, I’m going to get into shadows on separate layers and warping…

Shadows Warped On Separate Layer

Sometimes it can be interesting and a bit fun to add an element of movement to your stitches. The easiest way to do this is by using the Warp tool. All you have to do is select the shadow layer (must be on a separate layer – tips for that shortly). Then go to the top tool bar and select Edit->Transform->Warp:

Then just use the handles (Nodes or Anchor Points) to pull and reshape the shadow in the desired locations:

Since the warp tool wasn’t available in PSE until version 2022, a lot of you may not yet have access to that. So, I thought I’d share with you an alternate way to create a warped shadow. Believe it or not, I’m going to be using a Filter.

The first thing I have to do is create my shadow on its own layer. I know more than once I’ve referred you to a video tutorial from Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs if you didn’t already know how to place your shadow on its own layer. But today I’m going to give you a quicker way to accomplish that.

I’m going to go back to that speech bubble stitching I created in my “Text On Shape” post from July 16th:

I duplicate my stitch layer, name it “Stitch Shadow” and simplify the layer (if necessary). Then I move that new layer below the original and hide the original stitch layer. Next, I change my Foreground color chip to a medium grey (#696258) so I can change the current blue color.

Note: Above I mentioned that the Stitch Shadow layer needed to be simplified “if necessary”…in my case it wasn’t. This is because the actual “text” layer that created the original stitching had already been simplified while working on this element. I just didn’t want you to be confused if you ever run into a situation where your “original” stitch layer does not need to be simplified.

Now, there is one thing I always do before I change the color of that Stitch Shadow layer; that is to “Lock Transparent Pixels”:

I’ve talked about reasons to do this in more than one post but most recently in my post about “Spill Frames” back on February 20th. Because of how PSE creates/fills images with color it is necessary to ensure that PSE doesn’t COMPLETELY fill those stitches.

Even though the edges of the original stitching look nice and smooth, if I were to use the Paint Bucket tool without “locking” the transparency (sometimes referred to as opacity in my prior posts), the “shadow” stitches would look like this:

See how jagged those edges are right now? I definitely would prefer not to start my shadow that way. Here’s what it looks like if I lock the transparency BEFORE I use the Paint Bucket tool to fill the Stitch Shadow with that grey color:

That’s a pretty noticeable difference. Especially when zoomed in this close. Could I skip the step of locking the transparency? Possibly. But in this case, only because there is one step below that will make the jagged edges less of an issue. I just prefer to keep things as “clean” as possible from the start. And it’s a one click thing so it’s not like it takes up a lot of time or creates extra work.

I would encourage you to play around with this to see if you have a preference one way or the other. But I’d also encourage you to be more mindful of this “jagged edge” issue any time you are filling an image with a new color!

Moving on. Here is my complete Stitch Shadow layer:

Now I can unhide the original stitch layer and reposition the Stitch Shadow layer so that it looks like a shadow at an approximate 120-degree angle:

I used 120 degrees but you should use whatever Lighting Angle is correct for your layout.

Note: if you’re not good at judging the Lighting Angle I have a simple trick for you. Just create a drop shadow on your actual stitch layer using whatever Lighting Angle you need to use and set the Size to 10, Distance to 5 and the Opacity to 68. You can clear that layer style from the original stitch layer once you have your shadow positioned to match that shadow style.

I zoomed in pretty close so you can hopefully get a better idea of how that shadow layer looks below the stitch layer. And I realize this shadow looks pretty dark right now but I’ll fix that in just a bit.

Now I can warp this shadow layer to give the look of “movement” by providing the stitches with more lift in some places than others.

With the Stitch Shadow layer active I go to the top tool bar and select Filter->Distort->Wave:

PSE then opens the Wave settings dialog box:

And I change the default settings this to use the following:

• Number of Generations = 5 (stays the same)
• Type = Sine (stays the same)
• Wavelength Min. = 1
• Wavelength Max. = 999
• Amplitude Min. = 1
• Amplitude Max. = 8
• Scale Horizontal = 100% (stays the same)
• Scale Vertical = 100% (stays the same)
• Randomize + Repeat Edge Pixels (stays the same)

Here is the “warped” Stitch Shadow:

Can you see how the shadow is farther away from the stitching in some places? This is what I meant by movement or depth.

With the Stitch Shadow now warped I can reduce the Opacity on the layer to around 65%. But I also need to soften the edges of the shadow layer to keep it looking more like a “proper” shadow.

To do that I go to the top tool bar and select Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur:

PSE then opens the Gaussian Blur dialog box:

As you can see, I set the Radius to 4.0 pixels. And this is what my complete warped shadow looks like now:

This warping looks very subtle on these stitches so you may not think it’s worth the bother. But, do you remember earlier I mentioned something about warping stitches that have a fly away tail? That is exactly when you would want to use this warping technique.

You can also use this same warping technique on any paper or element in your layout to create that same “wavy” look. It will likely be much more noticeable on something larger than this particular stitching.

So today you got two bonus tips…how to place a shadow on its own layer and how to warp a layer even if you don’t have that option in your version of PSE. I hope you have fun playing with those extra tips.

More Shadowing Tips

The whole purpose to shadowing is to create REALISM, so I think the ultimate tip is studying the shadows on a real, “physical” traditional scrapbook page…like from a paper scrapbooking gallery. Scrapbook.com has an amazing gallery full of gorgeous paper layouts in which you can see how “real” shadows look. We can learn a lot by looking at the real shadows we see in paper scrapbooking.

Shadowing stitches isn’t as difficult as a lot of people think, and hopefully these tips can help make your next stitching shadow even easier.

Please remember that not all stitching should have shadows. It just depends on how the stitching is applied to your layout.

Be aware…most purchased styles for string or stitching will have a shadow built in so most often you do not need to add a shadow. But in those cases, you should almost always be able to go in and tweak the settings for the shadow if you need to adjust the Color, Size, Distance or Opacity.

When you color/blur your stitch shadow layer, be aware that some stitching elements may require a change in the intensity for both color and blur for the shadow depending on the size and position of the stitching in your layout.

Putting a shadow on its own layer is easier than you think!

With your shadow on its own layer, you can warp the shadow and also play around with blend modes to create even more realism in your shadowing.

Keep this in mind…whenever you’re in doubt about how strong a shadow should be, go with a low drop shadow.

As usual, if you have any questions or want to make a suggestion about a topic you’d like me to cover, please don’t ever hesitate to “Message Me”.

Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. Keep an eye out for next week’s post with some tips about “extreme” shadows. If you want to stay informed about new posts, just click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!