Monday, November 10, 2014

Bokeh Effect for Freshly Made Sketches


I've been seeing the bokeh technique all over Pinterest lately and loving it and so I needed to give it a try,  The term is a photography term for an unfocused background.  You see it in a lot of Christmas photos where the subject is in front of a Christmas tree, or candles or other lights and the photographer has the subject in focus, but the lights behind are not and form little halos of light all over the background. This week's Freshly Made Sketches was  perfect for trying it out.



  • You start by sponging your paper with colours of your choice. The technique is more effective when you use have darker colours over most of your surface, with a few lighter spots in between. I personally find that the sections of the Stamping Sponges work better than Sponge Daubers for this as they apply the colour more evenly.
  • Then you take a 4" x 4" piece of Window sheet and punch out two different sized holes in it with circle punches. Here I used the 1-1/4" Circle Punch and the 3/4" Circle Punch. Make sure the two holes are in opposite parts of the acetate so that you have lots of room to sponge over them without sponging through the other hole as well.  This Window Sheet will act as a mask.
  • Use the mask to apply circles of Whisper White Craft Ink over the sponged background. Overlap some of them.  Don't apply your Craft Ink too thickly or you will have trouble getting it to dry so that you can emboss the sentiment. 
  • Add two or three more concentrated dots using a Sponge Dauber.  Leave them for a while to dry or use the low setting on your Heat Tool.
  • I mounted the panel on a Silver Foil Sheet as a matte and tied some Bermuda Bay 1/8" inch taffeta ribbon around the panel. Then I popped that panel up on Stampin' Dimensionals and added it to the Island Indigo and Whisper White card base.
  • I used my Embossing Buddy on the paper when the ink was dry and stamped the greeting from Letterpress Winter in VersaMark and embossed it with White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

The stars were cut using the Star Framelits from Island Indigo, Silver Foil sheet and Coastal Cabana, and mounted using glue dots and Stampin' Dimensionals.  I added a Rhinestone to the center and also to the knot of the bow.

It's fun trying new ideas and techniques. This one is easy but produces a great background.  Thanks for dropping by today!


Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!


Product List

4 comments :

  1. That bokeh effect makes for a beautiful background! Pretty holiday card! Thanks for joining us at FMS!

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  2. What a beautiful bokeh effect! And I love these colors for a Christmas card. Thanks for joining us at Freshly Made Sketches this week!

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  3. Such a lovely background! Thanks for explaining what you did to make it.

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