Anyhow, I was surfing the net today looking for something completely unrelated to either of those subjects (in fact it was genealogy lol) but I came across the most stunning pieces of surreal butterfly art by VLADIMIR KUSH and just had to share them with you!

Butterfly Apple by Vladimir Kush

Departure of the Winged Ship by Vladimir Kush

Fauna in la Mancha by Vladimir Kush

Winged Satellite

The author of the DVD, who also created the layout, tells me that it was a scraplift of this layout by my Creative Team Member Toby:

Now, how cool is that!

digideb won A Touch of Japan, Cindy_rs won Citrus Punch and madelene won Sky Gazing: Over the Rainbow!

Congrats ladies - we hope you’ll share your gorgeous layouts with us!

And for those of you who are members, don’t forget to head over to the forum - because I posted a $2 off coupon, but you better hurry because MSA is closing the birthday thread later tonight!

Maybe with your shadows perhaps? Especially on those multi-dimensional elements like flowers and leaves and butterflies? Yes?

You’d be right, of course. These elements don’t sit flat like paper, so their shadows would be different. When you look at real paper embellishments, you see that they stand out from the paper and cast a very different shadow – often longer and darker and differently shaped.

This tutorial explains how to get a more convincing three-dimensional effect with your digital elements in Photoshop.

While the instructions are step-by-step, a working knowledge of Photoshop’s tools and layers would be advisable.

Make your layout, or, if you’re just practicing, put a couple of 3D elements like leaves and flowers onto a paper and position them as you would in a scrapbook layout. It may help to label all your layers, i.e., “flower”, “leaf 1″, “leaf 2″, etc.



Select your move tool and click on your first element (in my case, the flower). Make sure you check the “Auto Select Layer” box to make selecting your different layers a bit easier – it saves you having to scroll through a hundred layers before you find the one that you want. You will see in the Layers palette that that the layer on which the element sits is automatically selected. Duplicate this layer!



With the duplicated layer still active, go to your Image menu and select Adjustments – Brightness/Contrast. Pull the Brightness slider down all the way to -100. Pull the Contrast slider all the way to +100. Voila! You have a black blob in your layout.



In your layers palette, drag this blob below the original element. With the blob layer still active, head on over to your Edit menu and select Transform – Warp. You’ll get a crazy looking grid that comes up over your element, like so:



Now, with your mouse, click on one of the points and drag away from the edge of the element. You’ll see that the black blob beneath will warp. Play with all of the dots in the grid until you get a close approximation of the shadow you desire. Remember that anything goes here, just make sure that all your shadows are falling away from the same light source in the same direction. (You can also drag any part of the grid lines as well for even more control over your shadow.)



Apply your warp and you’ll see that you now have a very solid looking shadow beneath your element:



With the blob layer still active, go to your Filter menu and select Blur – Gaussian Blur. Play with the sliders until you get a nice softness to the edge of the shadows and then apply.

Now that you’ve got a nice soft shadow, change the blend mode on the blob layer to Multiply and pull the opacity down to what looks good to you. (Remember, you can always go back to the shadow layer and tweak it with the warp tool again to get the shape and shadowing effecting you desire.):



Now do the same thing for the rest of your 3D elements and voila! Perspective Shadow in just a handful of easy steps.

I hope you found this tutorial useful! Remember, Michelle and her ‘Fly Girls would love to see any layouts you might use this in, so leave us a link in the comments!

And if you’re smitten with these fabulous layouts, ‘Fly Girl Toby will be giving the kit away to a few lucky gals over at DigiShopTalk this weekend!

About a month ago I was approached by Eternity, from Solidsnake Designs, for an interview about my art (see my 5 most popular pieces below) and I was so busy this past month that I just completed it yesterday *blush* Anyhow, they were very nice about my tardiness and have already posted the interview - so go have a peek! And didn’t she make a pretty header with my Butterfly Maiden piece?

I am really flattered to have been chosen, especially when I take a gander at some of the other artists they’ve interviewed: Aegis-strife, Mynti, Elandria and spiritsighs just to name a few fellow deviantArtists. Technically this is my first interview - unless you count when Ren interviewed me for the club we ran together lol (Ren thinks she’s only on my CT because she is my friend and not because she is TALENTED! So, I’m just getting back at her with that comment….)

Anyhow, seeing how it has been AGES since I have actually done any “real” artwork, and Ren has been pestering me, I am thinking that I need to get back into it. I think I’ve lost my art mojo doing all these scrapbook layouts and products lol. Although, my guest spot on the Creative Team at Christina Renee Designs does inspire me to create some more collage-inspired scrapbook art. So, we’ll see

And be sure to come back this weekend when my newest kit, Softly, will be released. The ‘Fly Girls are doing some fabulous layouts that I can’t wait to show you!

A TOUCH OF JAPAN

See more layouts with this kit by the ‘Fly Girls here!

BLUE VIOLET

See more layouts with this kit by the ‘Fly Girls here!

CITRUS PUNCH

See more layouts with this kit by the ‘Fly Girls here!

The kit also is available as separates: Embellishments, Papers & Page Mat, Cardboard Doodle Alpha and Catalog Page Alpha. All are now available here at MellowButterfly and will be available in my shoppe at Purple Paper Flowers on Sunday.

Need some inspiration? Here are some layouts that the ‘Fly Girls have done with the For the Boys Kit - and be sure to check out their MellowButterfly galleries because they have been BUSY making gorgeous layouts with my other products too!