I wanted to show you three ways to use a large background die..

1. Using the die in a basic way: I took a rabbit stamp from Fun Stamper’s Journey called Miss Whiskers link: https://tinyurl.com/ursu2w9 and placed a 4 1/4″” x 5 1/2″ tall card base in cream in Michaels Recollections Heavyweight cardstock (link: https://tinyurl.com/wq2663j) in the MISTI with the die laying on top of it. I laid Miss Whiskers so she is placed with the die covering the bottom of her fur, and then removed the die….If you place the stamp too high, she’ll look like she’s floating above the die and you don’t want that. I used Stampin’ Up’s Archival Gray ink that they no longer make to stamp the rabbit. Then I took the die cut I’d made out of green cardstock, and used Distress Oxide Peeled Paint ink and a blending brush (link: https://tinyurl.com/vwnyoye) and inked the die cut to make it a different color…That lead me into option #2–I’ll go back to option 1 in a moment.

#2 Using the die cut as a stencil on a postcard: Put the die cut over a piece of 5 1/2″ tall x 4 1/4″ wide white heavyweight Michaels cardstock that I’d stamped a postcard stamp on one side..On the reverse side, using the Distress Oxide Peeled Paint, I colored, using the die cut as a stencil and one of the distressing brushes. Making sure that the areas around the leaves were well colored and the area inside the center (where the rabbit would be sitting) would be much lighter. After the ink was dry, I took a matching green Arteza alcohol marker (but a little bit darker green) and traced every leaf, so the leaves would be even more defined. I then took Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide ink and a second blending brush and colored the center of the image to make it lighter…(where the bunny will be.) I needed to create a mask for the bottom where the bunny would sit in the leaves…I traced the inside of the bottom leaves on a post it note (the sticky part) with a pencil, and then cut that out and laid it on the leaves in my MISTI and then laid the rabbit on top so the bottom of the bunny is hidden in the leaves. I stamped with the gray archival Stampin Up ink and then used Arteza alcohol markers to color the rabbit. I used a “Happy Easter” stamp from Amuse Studio’s “For Peep Sake” set and stamped near the left side of the bunny’s ears.

Back to Option 1–I colored the bunny with Arteza alcohol markers and glued the big leaf die cut on top of the card base with Tombow Mono Aqua glue. I glued some diamonds (you can use diamonds for nails that are easy to find online, mine were left over from diamond painting) on the flowers in the bunny’s headdress. For the sentiment, I stamped Happy Easter with black Brutus Monroe ink on green cardstock, and used their Icicle embossing powder then heat set it. I die cut it with a die from Spellbinders that came in a monthly kit..I die cut the sentiment and then used Peeled Paint Distress Oxide ink on a small blending brush to add more color to the edges of the sentiment.

I showed a magnetic dish I keep my small dies in that I got at Harbor Freight Liquidators link: https://tinyurl.com/tzqtlyz

Option 3–Making a shaker card. I cut the die out of a bunch of different green cardstocks and tried to make sure I didn’t take the leaf pieces out of the die cuts. I used the same green as I’d used on the other card to act as my base after I’d cut it with the die. I glued it to a piece of 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ acetate (from a stamp set I bought) and then took individual pieces out of the other colors of die cut leaves, and glued them in place on the acetate backed base. This takes some time and patience, but the end result is cool. I then took a craft colored card base that is 5 1/2″ tall x 4 1/4″ wide to attach my die cut acetate to. I stamped a bird from an old Inky Antics stamp set called Cupcake Birdie Honey Pot in the center of the card base then colored it with Marco Renoir colored pencils. To create the shaker part, I had to add foam tape all around he back of the leaves to ensure none of the shaker components would come out. I glued down some enamel dots around the bird and then added loose diamond accents and glued the leaf die cut to the front. I added a die cut Happy Easter on green cardstock to the front with foam tape.

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