Impression Obsession - All About the Dies - Day 2

For the next 3 days, the Impression Obsession designers will be sharing lots of ideas for using IO dies!   You can visit the I.O. Blog each day of the hop for links to the previews. Make sure to comment for a chance to WIN!
 

I love thinking outside the box with dies, and this is a favorite technique of mine. Instead of using the die to cut out a shape, I used it to cut an outline into a thick panel, then used the outline as a guide for watercoloring (truth be told...  a few weeks have passed since I made this card and I have jetlag to boot... I cannot remember what medium I used to color this! It's watercolor though. Distress Markers were used in the more detailed areas...). Here's the die I used:

Open Scroll Flower

 If you'd like to try this, I recommend a thick panel such as this matboard Art Square - it's about a 1/16" thickness. To adjust for the thickness of the panel with the Big Shot, turn the base plate to Tab 1. Layer a cutting plate, the thick panel with die on top, a second cutting plate, and 1-2 chipboard shims.The die will cut into the surface of the panel but not cut all the way through - that's what you want for this technique. If you don't have matboard, you can layer watercolor paper onto some chipboard to a similar thickness.

I.O. products used: Open Scroll Flower, To Live

The base panel is embossed with a die from Darice.

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Daniela @ For the First Time
Dina @ Mama Dini's Stamperia ---- you're here
Ellen @ The Serendipitous Stamper
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Jenny @ One Krafty Kat
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

The more blogs you visit each day… the better chance you will have to win a $25 Impression Obsession Gift Certificate!!! Each day of the hop, one of our blogs will be chosen randomly and a winner will be selected from comments on that blog at 10pm CT. The winner will be announced the following day along with the participating blogs for that day. Two prizes will be awarded on the last day of the hop. One will be for Wednesday’s comments and another will be chosen from all the comments left throughout the week.

Thank you for joining us!