What do you do to take your layouts from okay to wow?

kelley

kelley

New member
I was working on a layout earlier that was just kind of meh to me, and I was doing lots of things to it to try to make it pop and stand out. That got me thinking....what do you do to take your layouts to the next level when it just isn't working for you? Do you have any tips to share with others?

I have quite a list of things I go through to do to my layouts if I want to step it up, but none of these are things that I thought of when I first started scrapping. I figured maybe we could all help eachother out with our "secret" tips!!
 
Like I said, I have quite a list of things I do to my layouts when I feel like it just needs something more. Here's a little list:

1. Add some more realistic shadowing: If my page is looking kind of meh, I will create a new layer for a few of my elements' or papers' shadows and then use the smudge tool to move it around to make the corners of the paper look curled or a string to look like some parts are flat and some are popping off the page.

2. Add a soft light layer: If my layout just looks kind of dull ( I tend to like the look of contrasty colors), I will flatten my page, then ctrl+J to duplicate it. I'll change the new layer to soft light, then reduce the opacity way down just so it gives the page a little oomph. Other times I'll add a gradient map to the new layer in the same way.

3. Transform the page: Sometimes I finish and I feel like my composition is just not quite right. In this case, I select all layers except the background layer, then ctrl+t to transform. I'll rotate, scale up or down, or just move everything around the page at once. I just play with the angles and size (of everything at once) until I like it.

Those are probably the 3 things I do most often to my pages. I'm super curious what you all do to your pages!
 
I spend ages looking at my layouts wishing I could have popped them up a notch. You do amazing work, Kelley. We could all learn from looking through your gallery. Mostly, I do the following - and quite a few of the layouts below would fit in multiple categories...

Layer the backgrounds, mostly and sometimes tilt for interest:


Big pictures:


Masks, blends, photo effects:
 
Aw thank you!! I really, really love all your blends! That is a great way to make a layout extra awesome!

FormbyGirl said:
I spend ages looking at my layouts wishing I could have popped them up a notch. You do amazing work, Kelley. We could all learn from looking through your gallery. Mostly, I do the following - and quite a few of the layouts below would fit in multiple categories...

Layer the backgrounds, mostly and sometimes tilt for interest:


Big pictures:


Masks, blends, photo effects:
Click to expand...
 
Awesome advice so far! I wish I had some to offer, but I came here looking for it, LOL! What do you ladies set your shadows at? I just can't get mine looking the same as everyone else's.
 
AJsRandom said:
Awesome advice so far! I wish I had some to offer, but I came here looking for it, LOL! What do you ladies set your shadows at? I just can't get mine looking the same as everyone else's.
Click to expand...

Ane, shadowing was probably the thing I struggled most with when I started scrapping! I don't shadow the same on every page, and different layers get different shadows. I don't have one specific set of numbers, but I'll go look at PS and see what my numbers generally look like and come back and show ya. :)
 
Okay, so in general, I start by shadowing everything with a setting of linear burn (black) - opacity 45, distance 13, size 10. This is for a light layout which is what I usually use. If I was using a dark paper, I'd turn down the opacity quite a bit. After I shadow everything that way, I go in and fine tune different things. Flowers get bumped way up - something like opacity 60, distance 50, size 30. Same for curly ribbons. From there I just look it all over and see what looks weird and adjust from there.
 
AJsRandom said:
Awesome advice so far! I wish I had some to offer, but I came here looking for it, LOL! What do you ladies set your shadows at? I just can't get mine looking the same as everyone else's.
Click to expand...

There are some awesome tutorials in the help section of our forums:
https://forums.gingerscraps.net/showthread.php?36914-Shadowing-Basics
https://forums.gingerscraps.net/showthread.php?37042-Only-the-Shadow-Knows-Take-Two
https://forums.gingerscraps.net/showthread.php?7534-The-World-is-Not-Flat
https://www.psdbox.com/tutorials/manipulation-secrets-3-shading-and-lighting/

They pretty much supplement what Kelley had to say, but some have specific directions for PSE, if anyone is interested.
 
I've found that I just keep moving and deleting things until I like the way it looks. I do agree that shadows are important to me. I've also found that using my action to save it as it does something to make it look "crisper" or to me it does... :)

Otherwise I'm not really sure. I love your list and think it's a great place to start!
 
The other thing I use a lot of....styles...shadow styles, gold styles..wood styles..glitter styles...etc...
 
gwany1999 said:
The other thing I use a lot of....styles...shadow styles, gold styles..wood styles..glitter styles...etc...
Click to expand...

This is something I need to try more of! I've done a few styles in the past for glitter, but other than that I really haven't used them!
 
kelley said:
This is something I need to try more of! I've done a few styles in the past for glitter, but other than that I really haven't used them!
Click to expand...

I've not made any, I just buy all of them. I have quite a long list of ones that I use.
 
I have a Rust one and a paper one that I use quite a bit. I don't remember where I got them, from, sadly.
 
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