My question too. Can I simply take an element, or use a brush, and then blend it into the background to get a soft bokeh effect? I have some examples here:
http://www.scrapbookflair.com/SuziKatz/Scrap_A_Quote_Whom_we_love_best
www.scrapbookflair.com/SuziKatz/First_Kiss (I blended the butterflies at the top into the background)
Feb 23, 2013

I too am lost - please help
Feb 23, 2013

there are actually Bokeh brushes for photoshop elements (I don't know about other software) with the brush you have to get the coloring right so that it looks like it is glowing, as if there are orbs of blurred light on the background.
Feb 24, 2013

Suzi, I checked out both of your examples above...the first one is not a Bokeh effect, but the second one is real close...if the butterflies were spaced a little further apart, covered the background and glowed a bit more they would work. There are a couple of pages in the challenge that don't really have a distinctive bokeh background and that may be throwing everyone off...I probably am going to have to ask those ladies to remove their scraps, I just really hate to...Dawn
Feb 24, 2013

also if you go to the web and look up Bokeh it will explain it much better than I can
Feb 24, 2013

This helps a lot. Thank you!
Feb 25, 2013