Wednesday, July 29, 2015

How to create the Bokeh effect!

Hi everyone.

I've been looking forward to doing this post for such a long since I discovered this technique. 

Have you even taken a picture and noticed some light circles around the picture? Sometimes they are described as 'orbs.' Or taken a picture of a street at night then the lights are out of focus and you get these different size circles all over your picture - that look amazing! 

Well pictures like this are generally described as having the 'bokeh' effect. This effect is also achievable to create easily and you can use it for so many different things. I even think just on its own as a picture is beautiful!


There a few different ways to create the effect so today I thought I would show you I how achieved it!

If you want to find out how you can achieve it them just keep reading!



What you will need:
- A template with different size circles - see below on how to DIY
- Inks of your colour choice
- Ink dabbers
- White ink
- Piece of card stock cut to the size of your choice - I feel its best to use white 


How to make template:

- Take a small piece of acetate and two small - different size - circle dies and through them through your big shot. I would advise running them through around four times to achieve a clean cut. You could also use punches if you have the right sizes. Be sure to space them apart on your acetate



Steps: (Be sure to have a scrap piece of paper under your card at all time throughout creating the effect)

1) Using a sponge rub in circle motions onto your piece of card with the inks of your choice. You can use any colour you would like but I love how it looks with greens, blue and purples! Do this until the entire page is covered. TIP: You don't need to have an even application of all the colours. I feel it makes the effect look even better with parts that are lighter than other. There are even spaces that look almost white!



2) Place your template over your card and begin dabbing white ink over your cut out circles. These should be randomly placed all over your card. If you want them to be more pigmented just be sure to really saturate your dabber with ink and use more pressure for application. I found using circular motions gave me the best result. Do as many or as little amount of circles as you would like. Even go off the page if you want to!

Also be aware that your white ink pad may get some slight staining due to the ink you have already applied to your card. If you are using a larger ink pad I would suggest just using one corner. 


If you find you get an imperfect circle as I did in the picture below you can always either layer your circles or go over them with the bigger circle




I also use a single hole punch to punch out an even smaller whole in my acetate to achieve more different sized circles.





I love it so much! I think its so beautiful and you have so much control over the outcome. The amount of circles, how pigmented they are.

As I mentioned before there are so many different uses for it. You can use it on a card, put a quote over it or just use it as it is.

In the future I would to dry this with much darker colours to see how that turns out. I think it will look amazing!

What are you favourite techniques that you love doing? Anything you like to see from me in the future?

I also wanted to mention a possible slight change in the Sukilu Crafts uploading schedule. Since it has began I have other done step by step tutorials on Sundays and any other post on a Wednesday. I feel I want to keep things mixed up on the blog to avoid repetition as I wouldn't want any of you to get bored. I still want to keep my Wednesday and Sunday posting days but I was thinking about not being so strict with having to have a step by step tutorial on a Sunday. I would love to hear how you feel about this. And obviously Danielle will still posting on a Friday.

Don't forget if you re-make this tag me on twitter or instagram or you can use the hashtag #sukilucrafts.

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Happy crafting!

Susan x








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