Bokeh Butterfly - Stampin' Up! Butterfly Gala

  I follow quite a few challenge blogs and lately I've gotten to play along with so many great challenges but I still end up coming across some I've never joined before.  While commenting on the lovely cards in the challenge galleries of Fab Friday I come across some new to me challenges that I put on my list to check out.  One of the newest ones is called Daring Cardmakers and their current challenge is to make some inky backgrounds.

  My cards lately have had simple dry embossed or DSP backgrounds so I thought this challenge would get me to stretch a bit.  My first attempt with an ink smash background technique became a bit of a green sloppy mess so I decided to switch gears.  I don't own any of the cool stencils SU has available so I had to improvise so I went back to a technique that I did for a class a number of years ago with some homemade stencils.  This one is called the Bokeh Technique.

 

  The backgrounds starts with sponging various colors in a random pattern on a piece of Whisper White.  I filled in all the space, overlapping the colors so they blended.  I used Highland Heather, Coastal Cabana and Seaside Spray.  Then I used my homemade circle stencil which is just a piece of acetate with various sized circle cut out.  I used my white craft ink pad and a sponge (a dauber works well also) and lightly sponged circles right over the top of the colored background.  I moved the stencil several times to fill in space and slightly overlap some of the circles.  I let it dry for a bit then cut it out with the Stitched Rectangle dies.

  After mounting the background on the Whisper White card base I went to work on the rest of the card.  Not wanting to cover up too much of my cool background I kept the rest of the elements to a minimum.  I added a Coastal Cabana strip across then topped it with a narrow piece of Whisper White grosgrain ribbon from my scraps.  Next is a Stitched Shape circle cut from vellum.  I embossed and watercolored in a butterfly from Butterfly Gala and then popped it on dimensionals on top of the vellum.

  Finally, I stamped the Hello from Varied Vases in Highland Heather and then added a variety of sequins and faceted gems sprinkled down the card front.

  I'm pleased with how this one came out and glad that I took the time to do an inky background.  Now whom to send it to???

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Butterfly Gala, Varied Vases

Ink: Highland Heather, Coastal Cabana, Seaside Spray, Versamark, White craft ink

Paper: Whisper White thick, Whisper White, vellum, Coastal Cabana

Accessories: Butterfly punch, Stitched Shape dies, Stitched Rectangle dies, sequins, faceted gems, dimensionals, white embossing powder, narrow grosgrain ribbon (retired)