Bokeh Christmas Tag

My next tag for the 12 Tags of Christmas with a Feminine Twist is inspired by this cute design by Kelly Alvarez.

She has a great photo tutorial for creating the scalloped edge background, however I hated that you couldn't really see the cool effect after she attached her focal panel, so I decided to just focus on the pink.

I started by inking white cardstock with a combination of pink inks using these ColorBox Art Daubers.

While I love how they fit on the end of my finger, I kept getting circles of ink that wouldn't blend well (operator error I have no doubt).  I tried spraying the paper with Hero Arts Gold Shimmer Spray, but that just made the effect muddier.

So I set that paper aside, and tried again … this time focusing on achieving the circular bokeh effect by just pouncing straight down with the inked sponge, doing it 4 or 5 times before re-inking to get different intensities of pink.

Next I added several spritzes of Angel Pink Fireworks Spray, which produced tinier bokeh dots and a bit of shimmer.  The final step on the background was to stamp the tiny snowflakes from Avery Elle Joy to the World.

I wanted to add a globe from the same Avery Elle set … and when I thought about what color to use to stamp it, I thought my discarded first attempt at inking would be perfect (the subtle golden shimmer of the Hero Arts Shimmer Spray is very pretty behind the stamping).  I also stamped my banner sentiment on the same paper.

As I went to attach everything to my tag, I decided pull in the beautiful aqua blue Kelly had in her tag … such a fun color combination for a feminine holiday design.

I'm also joining the Anything Goes Challenge at The Corrosive Challenge Blog.