My Digital Studio

"A Little Behind" - Revisited

Tutorial

I have had so many requests for a tutorial on how to create clouds and the elephant from my

'A CASE of a little behind' MDS card.

So, I hope you don't mind, but I finally got around to screen saving the steps!

Here you go!

Remember, this is the card:

To Order My Digital Studio

Click here:

Firstly, open My Digital Studio.

File > New Project

Cards > Greeting Card > 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 Portrait

Create Your Own

Choose a name > ok > Blank Page > ok

You will get a pop up warning you of the Card Bleed Area...

I LIKE to see this - especially with digi punch art, so click ok.

Background Papers > Color > Bashful Blue > ok

Punches > Add Punch > Butterfly Punch > Apply

Color Fill > Whisper White > ok

Move the Opacity slider to 60

Now, drag the butterfly to where you want it and distort the shape a little.

Punches > Add a Punch > Fancy Flower Punch

> Apply

Drag on one of those little grey squares around

the new punch shape so you distort it.

It will overlap the edge of the card - don't worry about that!

Color Fill > Whisper White >

Slide the Opacity to 60

Go to the Top Menu > Edit >

Copy > Edit > Paste

And this will give you another flower

Click on the new flower and then

Color Fill  > Bashful Blue > ok >

Slide opacity to 100

Drag the flower up to a position on top of the butterfly.

Now, if your flowers are in the position I have them in - you need to bring the white flower to the top position.....

Click on the white flower > Top Menu >

Arrange > Order > Bring to front

So, your screen will look like this now...

Drag the white flower up over the blue one and position very slightly off to the right and down......this will create an 'outline' for the 'cloud'.

You can make clouds out of many of the punch shapes....you just keep repeating the steps above until you are happy with your cloudy sky!

Here are a few examples:

Using the Heart Punch......

Using the Two Step Bird Wing Punch

You get the idea!

So, now to the sun....

Punches > Add Punch > Circle Punch > Apply

Change to the size you think you would prefer.

Color Fill > Summer Sun > ok

If you want to create a 'glow' or shadow around your sun...

Click on 'Drop Shadow'

In this pop up box you can choose the color of shadow, the opacity and the blurriness of it....play around until you get what you prefer. If you click your mouse ON the circle in the pop up page, you can move the shadow around!!

Lets move on to the Hills.....

So, you can use any punch....but I used the butterfly.

Punches > Butterfly Punch > apply

Color fill . choose any color you want for the hills / background

At this point I did add a drop shadow.....

Then you click your mouse on one of those little grey squares and enlarge the butterfly.

As you can see - there are a couple of little areas on the bottom left and right that aren't green....so I selected another punch to fill in the gaps.

Punches > Square Punch >apply

Then I clicked and dragged those to each corner to cover up the blue - you don't want any drop shadow on the square punches.

You can see on this picture that there are lots of dotted lines to the right of my 'card'

That shows the overlapping punches.....but it's fine - you don't need to worry about it.

What you do need to check is that the grey area all around the card is filled with color, because when you print, it may just have gaps......when I am doing cards this way in MDS, I always fill that grey area....I just view it as part of the card....I just don't put anything 'important' in there - like sentiments or pictures.

On to the Elephant.

To make the ears I use the butterfly punch - again!

Punches > Add Punch > Butterfly Punch > apply

I then rotated it

You obviously need two, so I copied the one I had then rotated it.

Edit > Copy > Edit > Paste, rotate

Now for the Elephant Head..

Punches > Add Punch > Circle

I then choose the Color Fill > Grey

Then, I wanted a little dimension - so I added a little shadow

And, I clicked on the ears and made them the same color.

But, as you can see the butterfly image shows above the head.

If this were regular punch art with actual card stock -

you could just cut it...

but, with the MDS, you have to be a little sneaky.

You have to 'hide' those bits.

You choose another punch and make it the same color as the background.

Here I have chosen the same green and an oval punch.

Then you rotate it and align it over the area you want to hide.

You can use the little grey squares to distort your punch shape to

fit how you want it.

Like this:

Now, you ned to send that shape back in order a little - so that it is in front of the butterfly, but behind the circle...

On the top menu > Arrange > Order > Send Backwards

Keep doing that until the oval is where you want it.

If you go too far, then > bring forward

Then repeat for another punch to cover the other side....

And this is what you will have....

Okay.

On to the Elephants trunk......

Insert an oval punch and enlarge and distort it as in this picture.

Change the colour of that oval to the same grey as your elephant.

Then you want to move the oval backwards so it is behind the head.

Top menu > Arrange > order > send backward

I haven't done it in this picture (sorry!), but you need to add a drop shadow

to the oval around the outside - this will make the trunk look more 3d.

Now, add another oval, colour it the same as your background.

Again, add a drop shadow and send it backwards.

You want it to be behind the head, but in front of the other oval for the trunk.

It'll look like this.

Now you want to add the end of the trunk...

Select a circle.

Colour it the same as your background.

Position it as in the picture below....

Send backwards until it it is behind the ear.

(my pictures are missing the shadow)

Now...depending on the sizes of the shapes you have chosen

you may find that the left ear is 'missing' bits! LOL!

So, you need to add in a bit to cover that!

So, as in the picture below....I added in a small oval and postioned

it on the edge of the ear.

Color it the same grey as the elephant and select the drop shadow.

Move the shadow over the edge of the oval so that it appears over

the top edge of the ear.

The trunk will then look similar to this.

(remember I forgot to do the shadow when I was doing the screen saves)

On to the body!

Insert a circle and colour it the same elephant grey.

Add little bit of drop shadow around the body.

Now, for the legs.....add in two heart punches

and colour them grey.

Add a little drop shadow and position them on each side of the body.

Send the hearts backwards so they are behind the body.

The tail - is a cat from the Stamp set 'Cute Cats'

Stamps > Add Stamps > Cute Cats >

Cat sits > Apply

Now, click 'Mirror'

This will flip that cat over.

Move the cat down to where you want the tail to be.

Colour the cat grey and add some drop shadow.

(The cat is upside down in the shadow box

because we have clicked 'mirror')

Now you need to cover up the cats body!

Add an oval punch and colour it grey, position over the cat

as in this picture.

You may need to add another oval to make sure you cover the whole cat up.

So, here is the finished Elephant!

I added some ground to the front of the picture...it helps cover up the

points of the hearts, but also adds a little more depth!

I used the curly label punch - but you could use anything.

I coloured it green and gave it some drop shadow,

then stretched it and positioned at the bottom of the page.

I added some stamps, flower punches, brads and some text.

Finished!!

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