Beautiful Bokeh Brusho Backgrounds

It is my turn to share a Project of the Week with everyone at the Repeat Impression’s blog and here on mine. Isn't this photo with Bokeh lights beautiful? I have seen some cards on Pinterest using this Bokeh effect and even tried making a few cards myself. But recently I found a tutorial here, and I tried her tips with a few adjustments and am really happy with the cards I was able to make.

First of all, what is Bokeh? I looked up the definition and it is "the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image." It is pronounced bōˈkā.  

To create a Bokeh background for cards, start with a piece of watercolor paper slightly larger than you want it on your card. Tape it down with low tack tape onto a craft sheet. Apply water to the watercolor paper with a water brush or paint brush. In the tutorial linked above, the instructor applied watercolor paints to her wet background. I do not have watercolor paints, so I decided to try my Brusho Crystal Colours. Here is a picture of what happened when I applied violet, orange and crimson Brushos to the wet watercolor paper. 

Then I spritzed the colors with more water to smooth them out and this is what it looked like:

I soaked up the excess water and dried the piece with a heat gun. Next comes the Bokeh magic. I created a stencil out of a piece of acetate with various sizes of circle punches. Then I applied white pigment ink through the circle holes onto the Brusho colored piece. The key to success with this step is to make sure your white pigment ink pad is very moist with ink. The largest circles should be lighter and as the circles get smaller, they should be brighter. The circles should overlap in some areas. Let this piece dry completely or dry it with a heat gun. This is how my Bokeh Brusho piece looked after inking through the circle stencil:

Now it is time to make a card with the beautiful Bokeh Brusho background we have created. I layered the piece onto black and then onto a lavender card base. I stamped Repeat Impression’s hot air balloons onto black cardstock and cut them out. I stamped the perfect sentiment ribbon and applied it with mounting tape to raise it for dimension.

I made a second card with blue, yellow and green Brusho Crystal Colours and white pigment ink applied through my “holey” stencil. After it was dry, I attached the piece with pop dots to a blue top folding card base. I stamped Repeat Impression’s “hug and hold” sentiment on vellum and attached. I created side flags out of vellum and attached them under the top piece. I stamped the sweet baby boy on cream cardstock and paper pieced his polka-dotted pjs. He was also raised on pop dots when attached, and I added some sequins to complete the baby boy Bokeh Brusho background card. Try saying that three times fast. Or better yet, try this fun background technique and see if you love it as much as I do.