HOW TO: Double Drop Shadow a Frame

I have a tendency to make my frame look full on the inside, but with a good, tight drop shadow on the outside. I've have been asked about this and I will show you how I do that now.

I have created the cluster frame below to use in a signature tag. All of my elements are DS but not my frame. As you can tell, the frame paper and the frame look on the same level.

In the layers box, find the frame and then duplicate the layer.

One the bottom frame, do a wide, light DS. I used 12-3-0-12-80. See how it pulled the frame away from the paper now. It looks as if you can place your fingers right down into it.

With a good sized eraser, swipe around the outside of the frame until you leave just the center as it is. Do not merge these layers.

Now, go to the upper frame and add a tight, dark DS. This time, I used 6-3-0-6-80.

As you can tell, now my outside looks good and dark but my inside looks much too dark for what I was trying to accomplish. So, take an eraser and swipe out the inside of the second frame.

Now my frame is light on the inside and dark on the outside, just how I like it!