Why it Works | Transparency

Welcome to another edition of Why it Works, where we share and highlight a page from an awesome scrapper in our gallery that utilizes a really cool technique, a design trick, a photography tip, journaling ideas or any number of other things to get you scrapping outside your comfort zone. We hope to share and inspire you to try something new, revisit an old technique you may have forgotten about, or maybe just approach that blank canvas in a new way.

So, here are some of the things you can do to be involved in this thread if you want to be.

1. Ohhh and Ahhh over the awesome layout or project that has been highlighted and head over to the gallery and show the scrapper some love.
2. Learn something new from the tip or tutorial. It's all about becoming better at our craft!
3. Try the technique yourself and post it in this thread for us to see.
4. Show off other pages from the gallery that use the technique as well. Be sure to link them so we can give them the love they deserve!
5. Ask questions about the technique that you may have or tell us how you may do it differently. There are many ways to do these things and this thread is all about the learning!

*note: this is not to be a critique of the page/project in any way, it's all about learning to emulate the awesome technique highlighted. Any negative comments about the highlighted page will be deleted.*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have always loved seeing designs, posters, art work and yes … scrapbook pages too … that utilize TRANSPARENCY. And being digital scrapbookers, our software makes it SOOO easy for us to achieve this look in a myriad of ways on our pages. It is such a fun technique that often only takes a couple of clicks. Take a look at this page by @n33



I love the way she used shapes & colors (patterns too!) and overlapped them creating transparency. You can do this by changing the opacity of a layer or by changing the layers blending mode (or play with adjusting both opacity & blending modes if you wish) on layers that overlap.

In case you are new to digital scrapbooking … this is the basic concept:



Here we have 3 overlapping ovals w/different opacity, and you can see how the overlapping areas allow us to peek at what is below when we change the opacity and/or change the blending mode on an object.



In the image above, you can see exactly where you can change the blending modes in layers palette (and note the opacity setting is right next to it). The multiply blending mode is a great place to start, but experiment with other modes too!

Another idea is to use a vellum style to make a paper element transparent, revealing the layers underneath. You can also play with opacity and blending modes on your vellum (or glass/plastic/washi) elements to further enhance the transparent characteristics.

Here are a few styles from the store that can help you achieve a transparent look on your pages:




@Kimberly also used transparency on her hybrid traveler’s notebook spread by layering a photo over shapes and playing with opacity. The journaling over the photo is a fun touch too!



And @elaine created this beautiful page using transparency as major part of her page design as well. Love the effect she achieved!



So .... I set out to play by lifting @n33’s page, using Lynne-Marie’s Aug M3 products. Lynn-Marie utilizes transparency often in her designs … just take a look at her gallery and her store for inspiration on how you might try to achieve this on your own pages.



Her Explore papers from M3 have abstract mountains that are created with overlapping transparent shapes and they are gorgeous!

Here's how my lift of @n33 's page turned out.



I had so much fun with this technique that I wondered why I don’t use it more often! How about you … do you have any pages to share that utilize transparency on your projects? Do you have any tips or tricks that you use to create transparent elements? We’d love to hear your ideas and see your pages!

 

@mcurtt THAT is very cool! love the photo as the entire background with your transparent shapes - and the writing inside along the outer edges - so awesome. TFS one of your pages with us!

 

Thank you so much for the lovely feedback @michelepixels ! I completely agree ... sometimes I forget about them too. I have good intentions to try the ideas or techniques and then forget (although I did go back and do the etched/wood burn look recently, YAY!).

Would it help to add a "Just for Fun - Why it Works Challenge" thread in the Designer area of the challenges? I can update it whenever a new Why it Works thread pops up ... and then we can see the running list of all the topics ... all together in one tidy place .... and visible in the challenge forum? It might help us remember to revisit these ideas when we are wanting more inspiration?

I would love to see how you tackle transparency on a page!

 

@michelepixels ... will try to help keep the threads fresh. Also here is a thread:

Why it Works | Polly Challenges

listing all the Why it Works features so far - right in the Designer Challenge area w/in the Challenge forum. I'll bump it each time we have a new feature and add the new hotlink.

Hopefully it helps inspire us to try some of these ideas, since it will be visible in the same area as the other challenges.

 

That's gorgeous Jess ... it definitely balances the solid side of your page! Beautiful! And thanks for the tip about using acetate shadow styles on vellum or transparent elements. I have not tried that, but love the idea!

 

found another example by @EHStudios - so cool how she used a newsprint paper and made it into a vellum element - this is amazing!

 

Janice @jaharvey I love your examples. What a great way to incorporate a lot of journaling on a full size photo! That photo is definitely deserving of being full page!

Here's an example of one of the vellum styles in action!



I have the first set of Vellum Styles I mentioned in my OP (styling #133). Just to show you I used only one of the many different styles @mommyish includes. (shadows and not shadowed versions are included). I used Vellum IV -Shadow on my autumn word art. I used Lobster for my font - but you could find a similar serif font to get the "turning leaves" look.
-The first word art is Font Lobster "as is" typed in black.
-The second example I used the Tracking option in the Text Tool (it's the little VA box ... set to -25) to squeeze the spacing of all the characters together a little. And I changed the color to a white-ish tone. It just has a drop shadow.
-The last example is using the Vellum IV - shadow style (with the font color set to the white color and tracking squeezed to -25). If you wanted it a little lighter - you can pick one of the other styles. Vellum I is the lightest - IV is the darkest.

 

hang on - I'll show that technique too. I have that kit by AP with the newsprint paper. Be back in a second!

 

desi @GlazeFamily3

So what you want to do is get your newsprint papers "cut" to the correct shape. I used a circle and a heart. I clipped a copy of the newsprint paper to each shape. I then merged the heart shape w/the clipped newsprint paper - to get one layer. I then merged the circle shape w/the clipped newsprint paper - to get a second layer. The white circle frame and the metal heart elements simply sit on top and don't we need to do anything to them.



What you want to use - is the color vellum styles. They keep the characteristics of the paper intact, and just make it appear vellum-y. You can see on my screenshot ... I used a red stroke to show you all the styles that come with Stylin #133. The first ones (the ones that look white) were used on the autumn word art above. In this case we don't want our pretty newsprint to all turn one color - we want that variation and newsprint/writing to stay intact - so you use the grey icons. Each one just gives it a slightly different look. Mommyish uses a mix of effects on these styles with different glows, pattern overlays, etc - so it's more than just lower opacity.

But yes you can get a vellum look by lowering opacity - Leah just does it so much more professionally and the end result is easy and polished. HTHs!