Celebrate like you mean it

I enjoyed the New Year's card with the bokeh background so much, I decided to make a few birthday cards with the same technique.

Each of these cards was made the same way - I dropped Distress Reinkers onto wet watercolour paper and let dry. Then I sponged on white pigment ink through a circle stencil I made on my Silhouette Cameo machine with a sheet of acetate.

I really like this sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Along the way I discovered something interesting.

Depending on the directon of the background wash, the circles end up looking like bubbles, or gauzy balloons, or...

if the background is streaked on the diagonal, they end up looking like planets in a galaxy.

The surface of the watercolour paper is soft and chalky feeling. I added a few white gel pen dots here and there to complete the designs. Each card is 4.25 X 5.5 inches. I am entering this post on the Seize the Birthday challenge blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Hello, 2015!

Today I finally felt well enough to do something, so I decided to make some happy new year cards. I have wanted to try the Bokeh technique as demonstrated on the WPlus9 Design Studio blog, and was pleased with my first effort.

The background is a watercolour technique with white circles sponged overtop. The words are from Waltzingmouse Stamps Compact Sentiments - the "well" is isolated from a Get Well sentiment with some judicious masking.

The die cut numbers are almost 2 inches high and I went over them with a Wink of Stella glitter pen but it is tough to see. The card is a 4.25 X 5.5 inch Memory Box pre-folded card base in aqua.

This is a chalkboard technique and I pulled together an assortment of stamps to create the look. I made a second one with a different background and some sequins. Felt good to feel up to playing again. Happy New Year!