Gold & Bokeh Christmas - Stampin' Up! Peaceful Evergreens

   At my classes I always try to teach my stampers some thing new or at lease remind them of a fun technique that they may have forgotten about so at my last class we did the bokeh (pronounced bow-kay) technique to make a fun background for a pretty gold Christmas tree.  

  We did this technique in a class a long time ago and most of my customers either didn't remember or started stamping with me after so it was fun to show them what a few circle stencils could do!

  This card starts with a Pretty Peacock base then we did the bokeh technique on a piece of Lost Lagoon for a monochromatic look.  

  To make your bokeh stencils all you need are a few sizes of circle dies or punches.  If you're using dies you can make your stencils out of acetate or cardstock.  Acetate lasts longer and can just be washed off but cardstock is fine too.  If you're using punches then stick with cardstock as most punches won't go through acetate.  Use a piece of cardstock or acetate that is at least as big as the card front and then punch/die cut the different size circles in a random pattern.  I used 3 different circle stencils with random patterns for class but you can use the same one and just rotate the stencil around for each layer.  Use some pieces of masking paper to help hold your stencils in place.

 Using one of the stencils and a blending brush we made Pretty Peacock circles first.  Then using the next stencil we did Lost Lagoon circles and finally for the 3rd layer we used white craft ink for the circles.  The circles should overlap some so you get that feeling of depth.  Any colors work and you can mix and match to see what looks you can get.

  Once we had our gorgeous background we added a length of Pretty Peacock and gold metallic ribbon.  The tree is stamped in Versamark on Pretty Peacock cardstock and then embossed in gold.  It's die cut and then popped on dimensionals over the ribbon.

  A bit of the new Brushed Gold Foil (Online Exclusives) is punched with a circle punch and the stamped and die cut sentiment round out the trio of elements.

  And of course you can't go wrong with a bit more gold so a few Drusy embellishments finish this design.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Peaceful Evergreens, Peaceful Season

Ink: Lost Lagoon, Pretty Peacock, white craft, Versamark

Paper: Lost Lagoon, Pretty peacock, Basic White, Brushed Gold Foil (Online Exclusives)

Accessories: circle punches/dies, Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon, dimensionals, gold embossing powder, blending brushes, window sheets (acetate), Stitched Shapes dies, Drusy embellishments