We all love to use templates right? They are handy because they make our design process faster without leaving us any question about where to place the embellishments. However there is a negative side to using layout templates. And that is incompatible shadows! But we all want that free layout template! Now what? Well, there is a simple solution which I call as cleaning! Yay!
This is my layout without revising the shadows included in the template which I downloaded from Sara Gleason. And surprise! I forgot to change one of the papers’ shadow which look very dark comparing to my own shadow. As I can’t check each and every layer after I finished the layout if they have the correct shadow or not, I should correct the shadows (or get rid of them) at the very beginning before I start design the page. But why it is important? Well, shadows are important to get a realistic look. Naturally you can’t see the same light source producing shadows with different angles and as the material, thickness or the size of an item is stable, the darkness of the shadow will be probably the same. But as you add elements and papers to the layout you will use your own shadow style which will probably different from what the designer has used in the template. At the end you will end up in a mess! So let’s not mess up with that beautiful template and correct the shadows!
First open your layout template and duplicate it so that you won’t save your layout over the actual template accidentally. If your History Panel is open click the little rectangle under the panel to duplicate the canvas.
If the History Panel is not open, make it visible by going to Window> History.
You can close the original template. Now it is the cleaning part! As we want this process to be fast, we don’t have time to clean each layer from the shadow style one by one. So here is the trick! Select all the layers in the template by clicking the first layer, hold down Shift key and click on the last layer. When all of your layers are selected click right while hovering one of the layers on Layer Panel and click on clear layer style.
Viola! Now it is time to construct your layout as you would normally do. Place some papers, make clipping mask, add flowers… whatever you want!
While you are adding your elements and papers and adding shadow styles on the other hand, don’t add shadow to your journaling accidentally! You probably wouldn’t want something like this;
If you just did no problem! Clean the shadow by holding the “fx” on your layer and drag it to trash icon on the bottom of the Layer Panel.
And after you add all the details your page is perfect to save!