Dena's Birthday Card

One of my good friends and sister stamper had a birthday party yesterday. This girl LOVES purple. I mean, really loves purple. She even has purple dining room chairs. And they're gorgeous!

So choosing the palette for Dena's card was a no-brainer. However, she also loves simplicity--no embellishments for her!

A few clicks in my mental archive brought up a technique that was viral a year or so ago that I had completely forgotten about: the bokeh technique. Bokeh is a photographic effect where little light bubbles fill the frame. Some think it's a photographic error. Others think it's artistic. Guess which side we're on . . . 

Here is Dena's finished card. Below it is the step by step tutorial.

I wish I could capture how pretty this card is in photo, but I just can't. 

Want to recreate it? It's fairly easy, but it's messy!

Step 1:

Use washi tape to secure a piece of watercolor paper to your workspace. Why washi? Because it will not rip your paper when you peel it off. 

Pick out three colors. I like ones that are opposite on the color wheel for contrast. 

Step 2:

Soak the watercolor paper with water using your Aqua Painter. Then dip your Aqua Painter in one of your ink colors and drop the ink on the paper. TIP: Don't swirl or move the ink around too much; the water on the paper will move it around for you.

Step 3:

Repeat step 2 with your other two colors. Your paper will be soaking wet. At this point, you can move your colors around so that every bit of your paper is filled with ink. TIP: Be careful not to muddy your colors by blending them too much. 

Step 4:

You can be a patient person or you can be like me and get your heat tool and dry your paper. This was Henry's favorite part (he watched me make this whole card). The colors change when it dries, and it's so fun to watch the transformation.

Step 5:

Use your circle punches to make a stencil out of a window sheet. You can't really see this in the photo, but I cut my window sheet to the size of my card front and then used 4 different sized circle punches all over the stencil.

Step 6:

Take a dauber to your Whisper White Craft ink and layer, layer, layer. Make some of your circles darker than others for variety. TIP: I found that the edges of some of my circles were too stark a contrast, so I rubbed my finger around the edge to make it softer against the watercolor background. It worked really well!

Step 7:

At this point, you can stamp directly on this paper using Staz On, or you can emboss. I wanted white text, so I embossed. The Suite Sayings stamp set is so versatile, and the birthday greeting fit the tone I was after perfectly. TIP: Instead of mounting the stickers on your stamps, mount them in your cases; that way, you can hold up the case and see if the stamp will fit or look nice where you'd like it on your paper!

Here is what it looks like once it's embossed:

Dena loved her card, and I had fun making it. I hope you'll experiment with your supplies and try something new. If you do, please post a response. I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you for stopping by. 

Until next time, stay crafty!

Alison